Damaged GSP Stolons/tubes

[Fishy888]

I just cleaned the mat and stolons of my GSP that was doing well but had hair algae of some kind on it. There was also a brown algae growing on the mat. It was starting to show signs of stress. I used a soft bristle toothbrush and cleaned the mat thoroughly. I was clearly too aggressive because 5 stolons were damaged at least, 4 of which are laying on the sand. The polyps are exposed but appear to still be alive at the moment. It has been an hour or so and other than the aforementioned stolons the mat looks better and no disintegrating except on the very edges where the mat was growing. The coral is now back where it was and I am hoping to not have that issue again. I will be doing water changes to address the algae issues and feeding a bit less of the frozen food for a while. I believe the GSP will bounce back especially since the xenia and cabbage leather corals are also growing quite nicely but I am still a bit worried. The GSP was the only one with that much algae on it.

Flow is an issue but I already ordered a new pump which will be here Tuesday. My old one broke about a month ago. This tank is 75 gallons with two emperor 400s for flow right now. The new pump will do 3200 GPH. That will fix the dead zone issues I would imagine. The system has no sump yet.

 

[Hermie]

honestly dude GSP is like insanely resiliant but it definitely can take time before it's back to it's glory and peak condition.

Can you take a pic and upload? My advice atm is just be patient.

 

[MaxTremors]

I just cleaned the mat and stolons of my GSP that was doing well but had hair algae of some kind on it. There was also a brown algae growing on the mat. It was starting to show signs of stress. I used a soft bristle toothbrush and cleaned the mat thoroughly. I was clearly too aggressive because 5 stolons were damaged at least, 4 of which are laying on the sand. The polyps are exposed but appear to still be alive at the moment. It has been an hour or so and other than the aforementioned stolons the mat looks better and no disintegrating except on the very edges where the mat was growing. The coral is now back where it was and I am hoping to not have that issue again. I will be doing water changes to address the algae issues and feeding a bit less of the frozen food for a while. I believe the GSP will bounce back especially since the xenia and cabbage leather corals are also growing quite nicely but I am still a bit worried. The GSP was the only one with that much algae on it.

Flow is an issue but I already ordered a new pump which will be here Tuesday. My old one broke about a month ago. This tank is 75 gallons with two emperor 400s for flow right now. The new pump will do 3200 GPH. That will fix the dead zone issues I would imagine. The system has no sump yet.

Are you talking about a return pump or a powerhead/wavemaker? If its a wavemaker, 3200gph is on the lower end of what I would recommend flow-wise for a mixed reef that size, the issue is that having it all come from one pump/direction means that there won’t be any random or turbulent flow, it will all be laminar and direct. You’d be much better off with two 1500gph pumps (or three 1000gph), preferably pumps that are controllable or can be randomized or pulse. If budgets an issue, the pump you got is better than nothing, but it may be a good idea down the road to replace it with some smaller ones.

If it’s the return pump, the same thing applies in terms of it being the only source of flow, but also you only want 3-10x tank volume through the sump per hour (so 225-750gph), too much turnover and the filtration/skimmer won’t be as effective. You also run the risk of the return pumping water back into the tank faster than it can get through the overflow, so you can overfill the tank and cause a flood.

As far as algae on GSP, it happens occasionally, usually the mat will slough it off on its own. But, gently scrubbing it off shouldn’t hurt it, it may take a week or two to open back up, but it should recover just fine.

 

[Fishy888]

Here are a couple of pics. I am pretty sure everything will be OK but I do get a bit anxious lol. Thank you.

 

[Fishy888]

Are you talking about a return pump or a powerhead/wavemaker? If its a wavemaker, 3200gph is on the lower end of what I would recommend flow-wise for a mixed reef that size, the issue is that having it all come from one pump/direction means that there won’t be any random or turbulent flow, it will all be laminar and direct. You’d be much better off with two 1500gph pumps (or three 1000gph), preferably pumps that are controllable or can be randomized or pulse. If budgets an issue, the pump you got is better than nothing, but it may be a good idea down the road to replace it with some smaller ones.

If it’s the return pump, the same thing applies in terms of it being the only source of flow, but also you only want 3-10x tank volume through the sump per hour (so 225-750gph), too much turnover and the filtration/skimmer won’t be as effective. You also run the risk of the returnpumping water back into the tank faster than it can get through the overflow, so you can overfill the tank and cause a flood.

As far as algae on GSP, it happens occasionally, usually the mat will slough it off on its own. But, gently scrubbing it off shouldn’t hurt it, it may take a week or two to open back up, but it should recover just fine.

It is a wavemaker and I bought 2 but I only have 3 soft corals in here currently so I was only planning on using the one for now since I would have 50x flow between the two emperor 400s and the 3200 gph wavemaker.

I would already have a sump on here but we just found out that our apartment complex is getting remodeled and we may have to move as early as March depending on where they start so I won't be adding any stony coral until the move-out and move-back is completed. If we end up last (they will only do 6 apartments at a time and there are over 100) I will add the sump before the move but add only soft coral until everything is settled.

 

[Fishy888]

Oh and it is 2 x 3200 GPH wavemakers that are coming Tuesday.

 

[MaxTremors]

Oh and it is 2 x 3200 GPH wavemakers that are coming Tuesday.

If they’re adjustable, I would recommend using both but turning them down a little (run them at 1/2-2/3), that way you can direct them so that their flows intersect and create some random turbulence.

 

[Hermie]

Here are a couple of pics. I am pretty sure everything will be OK but I do get a bit anxious lol. Thank you.

Looks fine IME. Just give it time, a couple weeks to be honest. Unless it starts shrinking then it's recovering internally.

 

[Fishy888]

My GSP stayed closed yesterday but today they are slowly opening. There were 3 polyps open this morning and as of the time of this pic ~15 polyps were open. Currently there are 25. Thank you for your help.

 

[Fishy888]

If they’re adjustable, I would recommend using both but turning them down a little (run them at 1/2-2/3), that way you can direct them so that their flows intersect and create some random turbulence.

I followed your advice and everything loves the new flow. I thought it would be too much but now I have the turbulent flow and the GSP are opening more. Not too bad. Thank you.

 

[Fishy888]

Here is a picture from a few minutes ago. Much better. There is an area on the lower right hand side I thought was dead for sure when the coral was damaged. Now it has 3 polyps even though the mat is still slightly gray. It was even more gray the day after the incident but it has more purple in it now. One of the 3 polyps I believe is a new one.