GSP dying

[Hornet]

Hi all,

This is my first saltwater tank, and I am still very much a beginner.. But I have a few corals in my tank, and most seem to be doing great, they open up and grow and multiply (zoa, duncan, caulastrea and tubastrea) but I also have GSP. Which started out great, it opened up, it was doing good, but now most of it has disappeared. I also had a hammer, but that has fallen victim to my Paguristes Candenati (the hammer was doing great in QT and also in the tank for a few days, but then the hermit really tried it's very best to be able to eat it, even though I feed my tank quite a bit and moving the hammer to a soap holder with walls, which the hermit decided it would climb to be able to eat it). I have NO clue why the GSP is dying as everyone says 'it's so easy, it can survive just about everything'. I have no fish, just some hitchhiker worms, what would seem a limpet snail, the hermit and a pistol (his goby partner sadly jumped even with a glass cover). I try to keep all my corals as clean as possible. Why why why is the GSP dying?

Parameters are as follows:

Temp: 25,6 °C
Salinity: 1025
Nitrate: 1 ppm
Phosphate: 0,03
KH: 8 (but it drops so I dose)
CA: 460
mg: 1420
Ph: 8.2

 

[lazycouch]

Hi all,

This is my first saltwater tank, and I am still very much a beginner.. But I have a few corals in my tank, and most seem to be doing great, they open up and grow and multiply (zoa, duncan, caulastrea and tubastrea) but I also have GSP. Which started out great, it opened up, it was doing good, but now most of it has disappeared. I also had a hammer, but that has fallen victim to my Paguristes Candenati (the hammer was doing great in QT and also in the tank for a few days, but then the hermit really tried it's very best to be able to eat it, even though I feed my tank quite a bit and moving the hammer to a soap holder with walls, which the hermit decided it would climb to be able to eat it). I have NO clue why the GSP is dying as everyone says 'it's so easy, it can survive just about everything'. I have no fish, just some hitchhiker worms, what would seem a limpet snail, the hermit and a pistol (his goby partner sadly jumped even with a glass cover). I try to keep all my corals as clean as possible. Why why why is the GSP dying?

Parameters are as follows:

Temp: 25,6 °C
Salinity: 1025
Nitrate: 1 ppm
Phosphate: 0,03
KH: 8 (but it drops so I dose)
CA: 460
mg: 1420
Ph: 8.2

any pics? maybe some sweepers could’ve messed it up!

 

[PTXReef]

Hi all,

This is my first saltwater tank, and I am still very much a beginner.. But I have a few corals in my tank, and most seem to be doing great, they open up and grow and multiply (zoa, duncan, caulastrea and tubastrea) but I also have GSP. Which started out great, it opened up, it was doing good, but now most of it has disappeared. I also had a hammer, but that has fallen victim to my Paguristes Candenati (the hammer was doing great in QT and also in the tank for a few days, but then the hermit really tried it's very best to be able to eat it, even though I feed my tank quite a bit and moving the hammer to a soap holder with walls, which the hermit decided it would climb to be able to eat it). I have NO clue why the GSP is dying as everyone says 'it's so easy, it can survive just about everything'. I have no fish, just some hitchhiker worms, what would seem a limpet snail, the hermit and a pistol (his goby partner sadly jumped even with a glass cover). I try to keep all my corals as clean as possible. Why why why is the GSP dying?

Parameters are as follows:

Temp: 25,6 °C
Salinity: 1025
Nitrate: 1 ppm
Phosphate: 0,03
KH: 8 (but it drops so I dose)
CA: 460
mg: 1420
Ph: 8.2

I had the same issue after moving my GSP from a smaller tank to my DT. I'm not 100% sure why it was closed up for almost a month but it opened up again once I added more nutrients to the tank. I was feeding my tangs Nori soaked in selcon and adding some phytoplankton (seachem reef phyto and kent marine microvert) into the tank. It looks normal and happy now.

 

[jeffchapok]

I'd say your water is too clean, ie. the nitrates and phosphates are too low. Soft corals like "dirty" water. My PO4/NO3 consitently runs .5/50 and my GSP is thriving. I also dose phyto twice per day, every day.

 

[Hornet]

any pics? maybe some sweepers could’ve messed it up!

Not ATM, it's the only coral on the right side of my tank and it's also above all others, but I do have a pretty small tank.

 

[Hornet]

I had the same issue after moving my GSP from a smaller tank to my DT. I'm not 100% sure why it was closed up for almost a month but it opened up again once I added more nutrients to the tank. I was feeding my tangs Nori soaked in selcon and adding some phytoplankton (seachem reef phyto and kent marine microvert) into the tank. It looks normal and happy now.

I'd say your water is too clean, ie. the nitrates and phosphates are too low. Soft corals like "dirty" water. My PO4/NO3 consitently runs .5/50 and my GSP is thriving. I also dose phyto twice per day, every day.

So.. Feed more? Or filter less? ^^' I put in some Red Sea reef energy with some copepods (frozen) and mysis earlier in the day and pellets for the easily fed corals in the evening. I would have thought that to be enough.

The tank is going through a bit of a... brown stage.. Which I am trying to fix as well.. Cause I thought that would maybe be part of the problem as well. But since the other corals are doing good I am a bit unsure about changing things.

 

[jeffchapok]

If you're running a GFO reactor, I'd turn it off first. Cut down your skimmer time too if you're using one. Then feed a little more. I give my GSP a puff of Reef Roids twice a week, but I don't really know if they ingest any of that or not. But over time, the additional uneaten food matter will be broken down into nitrates, and that's what you need more of IMHO.

 

[Hornet]

If you're running a GFO reactor, I'd turn it off first. Cut down your skimmer time too if you're using one. Then feed a little more. I give my GSP a puff of Reef Roids twice a week, but I don't really know if they ingest any of that or not. But over time, the additional uneaten food matter will be broken down into nitrates, and that's what you need more of IMHO.

Not running a reactor but I am running a small skimmer, will do that! Thank you! What do you think would be a good parameter for nitrates? There are so many conflicting opinions.

 

[jeffchapok]

At least 10. Mine runs around 50, but I do battle some algae too. I'd like to stay around 20 if I had my preference. Keep phosphates somewhere between 1-2% of nitrates.

 

[Randomwhiteguy89]

I agree with Jeff I’d say try to shoot for around 10 adding a fish should help, it will produce ammonia which will break down and help raise your levels and you will automatically need to feed more to keep the fish alive Which will also help honestly it’s rare to see a thriving tank with no fish even frag tanks at fish stores have a six line or a yellow tang in them and I know the main reason they use both of those fish is to help battle bugs and algae but there helping stabilize the water chemistry as well... also how is the flow in your tank the gsp in my tank seams to grow much faster with medium to high flow

 

[Hornet]

At least 10. Mine runs around 50, but I do battle some algae too. I'd like to stay around 20 if I had my preference. Keep phosphates somewhere between 1-2% of nitrates.

Thanks!

I agree with Jeff I’d say try to shoot for around 10 adding a fish should help, it will produce ammonia which will break down and help raise your levels and you will automatically need to feed more to keep the fish alive Which will also help honestly it’s rare to see a thriving tank with no fish even frag tanks at fish stores have a six line or a yellow tang in them and I know the main reason they use both of those fish is to help battle bugs and algae but there helping stabilize the water chemistry as well... also how is the flow in your tank the gsp in my tank seams to grow much faster with medium to high flow

My flow is pretty high I would say.. I feel my tank is too small for fish (it's 30cm deep, 30cm high and 50 wide) . I know people keep them smaller and eventually move them to bigger tanks and such, but it's not an option for me. I also don't like to keep fish too small, and I am also not a fan of the way fish get caught in the wild. (I know, I know, I make everything very hard for myself like this )


Thanks for the help all!

 

[jeffchapok]

You could always throw a turbo snail and a couple of blue legged hermit crabs in there in place of fish. Turbos generate plenty of waste and will keep the glass clean to boot.

 

[Hornet]

You could always throw a turbo snail and a couple of blue legged hermit crabs in there in place of fish. Turbos generate plenty of waste and will keep the glass clean to boot.

Thanks for the tip! I will think about that. I have a red hermit, but she/he is a bit.. aggressive, I used to have two. I will think about upping the amount of creatures .

 

[Scottmac]

Hi, I also have the issue where they will sometimes close and disappear for a few days, then come back. In truth I think it's mainly because I am constantly rearranging things in my new tank, and they don't like to be disturbed.

But as others have said your nitrates are too low. IMO it is a mistake to think that nitrates are necessarily bad and you must keep them as close to zero as possible. I think 10-20ppm is healthy (anything higher then its an issue.) For example, if you wanted to add some colourful macroalgaes into your tank as a Nitrogen control, you actually need to keep a level of nitrates present otherwise they will die.

An alternative method of quickly adding nutrients to your tank are Mollies. You can acclimate them to saltwater (there are plenty of threads on how to do this on the forum if you use the search function) and their waste will do the job for the corals to grow and start thriving. My tank is my first marine and I recently added 8 and lost 2 to the acclimation process. They will go around your tank picking at algaes as they are herbivorous. In your size of tank you could easily keep 3-4 happily, although expect to lose about 25% when they acclimate to salt.

Another point to consider is feeding. My Zoa GSP and Xenia corals are doing OK, but not spreading over the rockwork like I want them to. So even though its not strictly necessary, try spot feeding the corals. I have ordered some reef roids to get my Zoas to spread and increase colouration, the other alternative is marine snow. I don't yet know what is best, perhaps others here who have been in the hobby longer can recommend.

Hope that helps

 

[Hornet]

Hi, I also have the issue where they will sometimes close and disappear for a few days, then come back. In truth I think it's mainly because I am constantly rearranging things in my new tank, and they don't like to be disturbed.

But as others have said your nitrates are too low. IMO it is a mistake to think that nitrates are necessarily bad and you must keep them as close to zero as possible. I think 10-20ppm is healthy (anything higher then its an issue.) For example, if you wanted to add some colourful macroalgaes into your tank as a Nitrogen control, you actually need to keep a level of nitrates present otherwise they will die.

An alternative method of quickly adding nutrients to your tank are Mollies. You can acclimate them to saltwater (there are plenty of threads on how to do this on the forum if you use the search function) and their waste will do the job for the corals to grow and start thriving. My tank is my first marine and I recently added 8 and lost 2 to the acclimation process. They will go around your tank picking at algaes as they are herbivorous. In your size of tank you could easily keep 3-4 happily, although expect to lose about 25% when they acclimate to salt.

Another point to consider is feeding. My Zoa GSP and Xenia corals are doing OK, but not spreading over the rockwork like I want them to. So even though its not strictly necessary, try spot feeding the corals. I have ordered some reef roids to get my Zoas to spread and increase colouration, the other alternative is marine snow. I don't yet know what is best, perhaps others here who have been in the hobby longer can recommend.

Hope that helps

When I placed the GSP in my tank it was fine, after a while I moved it a bit cause of change in flow due to change in setup. It was still fine, after a while of being fine (about a month) it started withering away. It does still open up, but I guess I lost about 95%, even though it kept opening up for the most part...

Thanks for the help and tips. I know nitrates aren't bad, we have multiple planted freshwater tanks, and I know plants need them, but thanks for the reminder ^.^. I started off with high nitrates, and then it started lowering. I started high because I was feeding my Tubastrea a ton . But now I have more corals, little critters etc, so I guess there is less wasted food now.

I've read about the mollies before. Thanks for the idea, I am a bit unsure about how I feel about it. I guess it's mostly weird cause I really see them as a brackish or freshwater fish.

I have been spotfeeding from the beginning (cause of the tubastrea) and my other corals are growing just fine. I hope this one will come around with feeding more, what is left of it still opens up, so fingers crossed .

 

[Scottmac]

Thanks for the help and tips. I know nitrates aren't bad, we have multiple planted freshwater tanks, and I know plants need them, but thanks for the reminder ^.^. I started off with high nitrates, and then it started lowering. I started high because I was feeding my Tubastrea a ton . But now I have more corals, little critters etc, so I guess there is less wasted food now.

I've read about the mollies before. Thanks for the idea, I am a bit unsure about how I feel about it. I guess it's mostly weird cause I really see them as a brackish or freshwater fish.

Yeah me too, I have kept freshwater for decades, only just tried marine this year. The surprising thing about Mollies is they do better in saltwater. If you think about the usual cause of disease in freshwater, it's more often than not finrot or another kind of fungus, but fungus can't survive in saltwater. Now that my Mollies have been acclimated, I have noticed that they are more active that the ones I have kept in the past in my freshwater tanks, they tend to shoal more and are constantly browsing on the algae.

 

[Kris 2020]

Gsp likes more nutrients in the water. Up your nitrates a bit.

 

[j.falk]

Is the purple mat turning white? If it's not white, it's not dying.

 

[Hornet]

Is the purple mat turning white? If it's not white, it's not dying.

No it's not.. It's more like it's flaking away in little pieces..

 

[j.falk]

No it's not.. It's more like it's flaking away in little pieces..

That's odd. I've never seen gsp flake away. When's the last time you did a water change?