Can’t grow GSP

[vsciacca]

I’ve tried growing gsp in my tank for close to a year now and it has died every time. I even got a free colony from a friend that at least 6”x4” and that one died too. Not sure why I can’t get them to grow. I recently added a branching gsp frag. Initially it would open up and looked decent but never great. Over a few weeks less and less heads would open up. Now it’s been a week since I’ve seen any sort of life from it. All other corals (mushrooms, acans, lepta, torch, sps, and others) are doing really well and have grown significantly since I added them to the tank.

I did have an outbreak of red slime algae after some issues with overfeeding when I had a friend taking care of the tank. I noticed the gsp was getting covered with this algae almost daily. I was regularly trying to syphon the algae off or brush it off. Algae is under control now and slowly disappearing but no change in the gsp.

The tank is 1.5 years old; 16 gallon display tank with a 10 gallon sump (refugium, skimmer, biomedia, filter sock); stock includes 4 fish, several hermits and snails, shrimp, emerald crab, corals, and a bta; salinity is 1.025; alk is 8.3; calcium is 430; mag is 1140; nitrates and phosphates have fluctuated in the last two weeks from very high to now a reasonable level of nitrates around 5-10; I don’t have a Hanna for phosphate but my salifert test is reading a level around 0.03-0.1. Temperature stays at 75-76. I have had the gsp in several different areas in the tank. Currently it is about 20” from my light. Also not sure if this matters, but I’ve had a very hard time getting coralline algae to grow. There are only a few small areas where coralline is growing

Sorry for the long post. I just wanted to get as many details out there as possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Vince

 

[TX_REEF]

GSP are hardy in the sense that they don't die easily, but they are also sensitive to rapid parameter swings and will close up, sometimes for over a week, when they are unhappy. Rapid and significant swings in nitrate and phosphate are likely the culprit in your case. I notice the frags you have pictured have some algae growing on them. GSP also love lots of flow, which keeps detritus from settling and algae from growing on them. I have LOTS of flow in my frag tank, and the GSP there love it. GSP does not grow as well in my display, which has gentler flow.

So key takeaways, stable parameters and high flow for GSP success, in my experience.

 

[vsciacca]

GSP are hardy in the sense that they don't die easily, but they are also sensitive to rapid parameter swings and will close up, sometimes for over a week, when they are unhappy. Rapid and significant swings in nitrate and phosphate are likely the culprit in your case. I notice the frags you have pictured have some algae growing on them. GSP also love lots of flow, which keeps detritus from settling and algae from growing on them. I have LOTS of flow in my frag tank, and the GSP there love it. GSP does not grow as well in my display, which has gentler flow.

So key takeaways, stable parameters and high flow for GSP success, in my experience.

I definitely think the algae growth has impacted the gsp. This wasn’t an issue in the past but like I said I had an algae growth explosion. I haven’t however placed any of the gsp I’ve had in front of the power head. I’ve put it in relatively high flow areas but probably not in the path of direct flow. That’s probably the only place I haven’t tried growing it so I’ll try moving it there. Would love to see it finally do well. Thanks for the input. Any suggestions on trying to get my coralline algae to take hold would also be appreciated!

 

[TX_REEF]

I definitely think the algae growth has impacted the gsp. This wasn’t an issue in the past but like I said I had an algae growth explosion. I haven’t however placed any of the gsp I’ve had in front of the power head. I’ve put it in relatively high flow areas but probably not in the path of direct flow. That’s probably the only place I haven’t tried growing it so I’ll try moving it there. Would love to see it finally do well. Thanks for the input. Any suggestions on trying to get my coralline algae to take hold would also be appreciated!

stability should be the main goal. Stability will also support your coralline algae growth.

 

[vsciacca]

GSP are hardy in the sense that they don't die easily, but they are also sensitive to rapid parameter swings and will close up, sometimes for over a week, when they are unhappy. Rapid and significant swings in nitrate and phosphate are likely the culprit in your case. I notice the frags you have pictured have some algae growing on them. GSP also love lots of flow, which keeps detritus from settling and algae from growing on them. I have LOTS of flow in my frag tank, and the GSP there love it. GSP does not grow as well in my display, which has gentler flow.

So key takeaways, stable parameters and high flow for GSP success, in my experience.

Moved it basically right in front of my wave maker and after a few days, the algae is starting to disappear and I finally have some polyp extension. Very small still but more life than I’ve seen in a couple weeks. Thank you for the advice

 

[exnisstech]

I couldn't grow gsp for years when I started . I have no idea why but 9 years later I can grow it but I still can't grow xenia.

 

[vsciacca]

I couldn't grow gsp for years when I started . I have no idea why but 9 years later I can grow it but I still can't grow xenia.

It’s so frustrating when everything else seems to be thriving. Even my sps. I will admit though life has been busy and I wasn’t giving my tank the proper amount of attention so there was no consistency or stability. Got tired of looking at algae and got really serious about maintaining stability and things are starting to get much better. Just need to get the algae eradicated for good and I’ll be a happy reefer

 

[exnisstech]

It is frustrating. I've gotten used to it unfortunately. If only one coral doesn't do well and everything else is good I just add it to the list of things I can't keep and move on. I'll try a piece twice just to make sure it wasn't a bad frag or something. If it's something I really want I'll try it in a year or so and see how it goes. It's amazing how different everyone's tanks can be. I have several tanks running and I find some coral thrive in one and wither in another even tho parameters and lighting are similar.

 

[vsciacca]

It is frustrating. I've gotten used to it unfortunately. If only one coral doesn't do well and everything else is good I just add it to the list of things I can't keep and move on. I'll try a piece twice just to make sure it wasn't a bad frag or something. If it's something I really want I'll try it in a year or so and see how it goes. It's amazing how different everyone's tanks can be. I have several tanks running and I find some coral thrive in one and wither in another even tho parameters and lighting are similar.

That’s part of the fun of this hobby I guess. I’m very glad I made the switch from fresh to salt. It’s been challenging but rewarding for sure. I’m curious do you run a uv sterilizer? I’ve seen mixed reviews on the necessity, but I really want to get a pristine tank with essentially no algae. It may just take time and consistency but I’m wondering if that is a piece of equipment that might help keep it at bay moving forward

 

[exnisstech]

I came from fresh water as well. I always wanted a saltwater tank but I tried it years ago when the local library was my only source of info and it didn't go well. It's been 9 years in salt now and I'm still learning. I have two UV sterilizers on the shelf. I have a lot of stuff on the shelf lol. I didn't really notice any difference when I ran them but I may not have had the flow rate correct. I was trying them for algae and it ended up just being one of the phases and corrected itself over time. They're supposed to work well for dinos but I hope not to need them for that.
Sometimes simple is good IME. This is my acro tank then and now 2 years in. I have a reefmat, no skimmer or other filtration. I have all for reef on a doser but other than that it's pretty simple, lights two power heads, ATO and an inkbird for heat. If your into gadgets and tech there is a lot of cool stuff but I like simple.

This tank I started March 2024 all dry rock in the display but I packed the sump full of live rock I had and I've avoided any terrible uglies so far. Live rock is a huge jump start IMO but many are afraid of hitch hikers, me not so much. Livestock came from another tank In broke down.

 

[vsciacca]

I came from fresh water as well. I always wanted a saltwater tank but I tried it years ago when the local library was my only source of info and it didn't go well. It's been 9 years in salt now and I'm still learning. I have two UV sterilizers on the shelf. I have a lot of stuff on the shelf lol. I didn't really notice any difference when I ran them but I may not have had the flow rate correct. I was trying them for algae and it ended up just being one of the phases and corrected itself over time. They're supposed to work well for dinos but I hope not to need them for that.
Sometimes simple is good IME. This is my acro tank then and now 2 years in. I have a reefmat, no skimmer or other filtration. I have all for reef on a doser but other than that it's pretty simple, lights two power heads, ATO and an inkbird for heat. If your into gadgets and tech there is a lot of cool stuff but I like simple.

This tank I started March 2024 all dry rock in the display but I packed the sump full of live rock I had and I've avoided any terrible uglies so far. Live rock is a huge jump start IMO but many are afraid of hitch hikers, me not so much. Livestock came from another tank In broke down.

Good for you for learning that way. I’m spoiled to have the internet as a resource. Beautiful tanks though. I would agree live rock is the way to go and it’s how I started my tank. Next tank I start I will certainly be doing a glass bottom no sand. One of my biggest issues I think I have is waste collecting in dead spots but I can’t have too much flow near the bottom without it kicking up sand everywhere.

I think I’ll skip out on the uv light for now. Thanks for your perspective on it. I had Dinos early on before I knew what they were and bottomed out my nutrients to get rid of it—learned a valuable lesson that way haha. Haven’t had them since. I prefer simple as well. Went without a skimmer for some time but couldn’t get the algae under control even with my refugium running long light cycles so I added a mini skimmer and it seems to be making a difference in the last two weeks. I also have started shutting the lights off on the days I do water changes. Reason being is I brush the algae off the rocks and try to get it all out with the syphon, but I know I don’t get it all. I’m hoping the 24 hours without light gives the filters time to collect the stray algae I miss and allows the refugium to scrape the excess nutrients released from the dying algae. Curious if you have any thoughts on that method. So far seems to have been effective.

I do think I’m headed in the right direction now after over a year of trying to get it really stable. It’s tough with my tank size though. The total system is 26 gallons and 10 of that is my sump—makes for easy significant swings in nutrients so I don’t have a lot of room for error. Unfortunately my apartment currently only allows up to 25 gallons (I guess I’m 1 gallon over) so I went with this long shallow tank to give myself as much space as possible to place corals. Does make it very tricky to manage the flow in the tank and placement of corals but it’s the best I can do for now. Planning to get at least a 75 gallon setup when I’m in my own place down the road.

Again, I appreciate your advice and perspective after years in this hobby

 

[Llyod276]

in my experience, with the last tank, the GSP was king. Took over my tank, glass and overflow box. Back when I was noob reefer, and went the lfs saying "gimme **** that'll grow my budget is 250$" this is 2020ish. Tank was ******, but it grew, tank crash because I nuked my algea with algea fix, it survived, stopped waterchanges and rodi, it THRIVED!!! in the end I did 0 to the tank except feed the fish. No reactors, didn't change filter socks. And it exploded.

So contrary to popular opinion, try neglect. Just literally feed the fish and thats it. Maybe scrape the glass, but that's it. Their only competition was the kenya trees...