Get some gsp they said..they'll never die :p

[DoomervilleG]

Hello everyone, I believe this is my first coral casualty in my young reefing hobby. This frag has been in the tank for about 5 months, didn't thrive id say and within the last month or so closed up and I haven't seen a single polyp. Now its not looking so healthy, I believe it's on its way out. I've tried moving it around, changing flow, changed lighting without angering the other corals. No pests in the tank, only hitchhikers I've found are 3 micro brittle stars.

 

[lapin]

Sometimes that just happens.
Some people can grow chaeto and some cant

 

[DoomervilleG]

Oh yes, I'm aware I'll end up losing some here and there. I just wish I could figure out why, to help minimize it hah. Reefing has been a fun, albeit ad hoc lesson so far.

 

[reeflife3]

Where are you located, I can give as much as you want

 

[LuizW13]

I had issues with GSP (and all corals, really) at the beginning. Are you located in DFW by any chance?

 

[DoomervilleG]

Where are you located, I can give as much as you want

I'm located in Nebraska, I'm jealous and also terrified of your gsp monster, hah.

I had issues with GSP (and all corals, really) at the beginning. Are you located in DFW by any chance?

I am not, lowly old Nebraska, hah

 

[MichaelReefer]

Some coral are very picky. When I had my Reefer 250, GSP hated it. They wouldn't grow and never extended polyps. Once I got my 525XL, it grows like mad and polyps are huge. Never really found out why.

 

[LuizW13]

I am not, lowly old Nebraska, hah

Ah man, I wanted to give you some GSP.

 

[DoomervilleG]

Ah man, I wanted to give you some GSP.

I appreciate the thought! Unfortunately, I have to get my coral from other states. Closest marine store is about 3 hours, and it is really a crap shoot on how healthy it is. New owners, and its getting better, but not quite there yet. Nebraska hasn't caught up to the hobby yet

As for it growing. Yeah, this frag was actually open for quite a while before it just completely shut down. Nothing in the tank changed except I added a duncan. There is a super tiny polyp I found this morning on one side of it, so hoping if I can figure out why its angry, I might be able to save it yet.

 

[shandoee]

Sometimes that’s just how the ball rolls. I bought some gsp from biota. It was either that for $20 or the extra $29 shipping charge. So it was a win-win, so I thought. It’s growing too fast now and onto my frag plug and I kind of regret putting it there lol

 

[DoomervilleG]

That was how I ended up with my frag too, it was an extra to avoid the shipping, hah. It came with my Zoas, my purple frilly gorg, and a ricordea. All happy I might add. 'cept darn gsp.

 

[LuizW13]

That was how I ended up with my frag too, it was an extra to avoid the shipping, hah. It came with my Zoas, my purple frilly gorg, and a ricordea. All happy I might add. 'cept darn gsp.

In my experience, GSP does well with proper, decent lighting and good, strong flow.

 

[terraincognita]

What other corals do you have? Could be the frag or but could also be a canary in a coal mine.

I grew this out from a frag I forgot about under the sand for a week and a half.

curious why yours isn’t doing well. I’d imagine there’s always a reason.

 

[DoomervilleG]

I have two zoanthid frags, not sure what kind of zoanthids..they were just grab bags, a duncan - most recent addition and it's growing like crazy, purple frilly gorgonian, and a ricordea.

Tank has been stable for about 2 months now while I battled down phos and nitrate to acceptable (10ppm trate, <.25ppm) api doesn't test ulr phosphate, waiting for the new phos test to show up, and Calc dropped to 380 since I've added the duncan, but has since been stable at 380.
I figured canary at first too, but numbers look good, and the rest of the coral are happy.

 

[Gtinnel]

If it dies it may be your first, but if you stick with the hobby long enough it won't be your last or most expensive.

 

[DoomervilleG]

If it dies it may be your first, but if you stick with the hobby long enough it won't be your last or most expensive.

Yep, well aware. One frag won't turn me off the hobby, love the goofy clowns too much

 

[terraincognita]

Yeah I imagine somethings ticking them off.
If the tank is under 30G I say do a 40-50% WC.

they’ll probably open back up.

 

[DoomervilleG]

Yeah, I do weekly 5g, I did an extra one about 2 weeks after they closed up. Right now I'm sort of just riding it out, as all of the numbers are stabilized for the most part where everything seems happiest. I did change my whites/blues schedule a bit to see if that would help. I don't imagine its a flow thing, but still learning. I'm running two 660gph e-current heads, I have a skimmer running 3 days a week (I've found if I run it anymore than that, it overskims and I'm afraid of it tanking out my nutrients) and the return was upgraded with a sicce 1.5 (300+gph, I believe).

Right now I have zero algae in the tank and what I suspect is green coraline on the rockwork. aside from some gha growing on an astrea snail that we have dubbed "Harry." Slightly worried about that, as the tank is so new, I figured there would be an awful lot more of the uglies happening than there has been.

 

[terraincognita]

I've had them open in almost no flow so don't think it's flow either.

I've had them in CRAZY HIGH PAR and HIGH FLOW and 50PAR and no Flow so they're literally like the easiest in the sense that they will survive most positioning. But they definitely still respond to water quality for sure.

Weird, could also be an isolated infection or problem with that frag.

Could be a blessing or a curse. GSP can grow crazy when unchecked for sure.

If your params are in line and other corals are doing good you're doing the right thing by not stressing it and chasing anything btw.

I had a lepto that arrived almost DOA, and while every other coral in that shipment was okay, and recovered and are now growing. It still just kept getting worse.. IT has like 3 polyps left. Not sure if it'll make it, but i'll always hold out til the end is the end.

 

[DoomervilleG]

That is where I'm at. Fully expect to lose things, it's the same game as my freshwater tanks, just a few more steps.