Is my branching GSP dying?

[stellaslane]

Hello everyone!

I have been having an issue with my branching variety of GSP. I purchased at a LFS over 6 months ago when the coral was only one inch long and have seen great growth with the coral as it has grown now to be 5 inches long with several other arms now. Recently in the last month a couple of arms have seemed to be disintegrating while the other arms still seem healthy. Water chemistry has been great and consistent but can not tell why I could be having this problem, any help is greatly appreciated!

Water levels:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0.1
Nitrates: 0
Calcium: 420
KH: 170ppm
Salinity: 1.025

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello everyone!

I have been having an issue with my branching variety of GSP. I purchased at a LFS over 6 months ago when the coral was only one inch long and have seen great growth with the coral as it has grown now to be 5 inches long with several other arms now. Recently in the last month a couple of arms have seemed to be disintegrating while the other arms still seem healthy. Water chemistry has been great and consistent but can not tell why I could be having this problem, any help is greatly appreciated!

Water levels:
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0.1
Nitrates: 0
Calcium: 420
KH: 170ppm
Salinity: 1.025

Offer moderate light and medium flow. My suspicion is a lack of water flow.

 

[Aspect]

Those Zoas in the back look like they're melting as well. Do you really have 0 nitrates? They need some nitrates to grow.

 

[stellaslane]

Those Zoas in the back look like they're melting as well. Do you really have 0 nitrates? They need some nitrates to grow.

Might just be the picture but the Zoas are doing great, grown 3 more heads in the last month. I believe that the nitrates are just getting used up quickly, it reads from 0 to 0.5 usually

 

[Aspect]

Might just be the picture but the Zoas are doing great, grown 3 more heads in the last month. I believe that the nitrates are just getting used up quickly, it reads from 0 to 0.5 usually

Could still be due to no Nitrates. Do you dose?

 

[stellaslane]

I currently do not. I should start trying that, do you have any recommendations?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I currently do not. I should start trying that, do you have any recommendations?

How often do you change water and how much do you change?

 

[stellaslane]

Water change 2.5 gallons every 3 weeks for a 13 gallon

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Another thing I found with my GSP that even though I'm battling keeping anything in N and P from reading zero they are the only coral that are actually still growing, and growing fast. They used to grow really slow but accidentally just plopped them onto the sand bed and they've been blasted with water flow. I have my MP 10 in Reef Crest mode so when the pump blasts the water the GSP get hit hard but then the crest lowers for a a tiny bit and the coral can relax till the next pulse from the pump.. I've noticed they are laying new mat down towards the flow like crazy! So in my own observation they love the flow at the bottom of the tank. I keep flow high enough to keep the sand from blowing around but also enough to blow anything off the sands surface. Hope that helps!

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Water change 2.5 gallons every 3 weeks for a 13 gallon

No skimmer at all?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I feel your phosphate and Nitrates are too low. I have been battling that with my 40g... SPS sucking it all up. I started using Tropic Marin Plus NP. For you it will be just a 1/2 pump a day. You may not see it show up in testing, but you should see it in your corals. I have since moved on to adding NeoPhos and NeoNitrate by Brightwell. I will see this weekend if I get a reading.

 

[stellaslane]

I feel your phosphate and Nitrates are too low. I have been battling that with my 40g... SPS sucking it all up. I started using Tropic Marin Plus NP. For you it will be just a 1/2 pump a day. You may not see it show up in testing, but you should see it in your corals. I have since moved on to adding NeoPhos and NeoNitrate by Brightwell. I will see this weekend if I get a reading.

Thankyou I’ll try this out!

 

[stellaslane]

No skimmer at all?

I took mine out a while ago, took up too much room in the back. I have a refugium in the back with chaeto and it’s been growing great

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Water change 2.5 gallons every 3 weeks for a 13 gallon

I had good luck on the fluval 13.5 and had opposite nutrients. Nitrates seemed to hover between 13-15 and phosphate was riding the razors Edge at .02 and at times lower. But a 10% well basically a 1 gallon a week WC and lots of flow had them grow great. The only time I had what looked like the mat was in a sense disintegrating or other words looks like it would start flaking in pieces off of the mat.. turned out to be from its hydrogen peroxide bath at 100% bath to kill algae and all of the bristle worms that were hiding between the chutes.

Give them some good flow but not have a wave maker constantly blasting them and you should see them turn around in 3 to 5 days.

Are you adding any nutrients like AFR or ab+?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Thankyou I’ll try this out!

The Plus NP should do you just fine. I am just overwhelmed with some fast growers... Want some Birdsnest? LOL....

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I took mine out a while ago, took up too much room in the back. I have a refugium in the back with chaeto and it’s been growing great

The Plus NP should do you just fine. I am just overwhelmed with some fast growers... Want some Birdsnest? LOL....

His phosphate is where it should be at. If he's reading properly at .1 then phosphate is perfect. Nitrates might be a little low but he'll end up with more issues down the road using plus NP. That plus NP is goittoncause issues in the small tank. The OP needs to just do weekly 1 gallon water changes and change flow and that'll bring them back like a wild weed growing. He would be better off dosing a small amount of AFR if he doesn't like doing weekly water changes.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

His phosphate is where it should be at. If he's reading properly at .1 then phosphate is perfect. Nitrates might be a little low but he'll end up with more issues down the road using plus NP. That plus NP is goittoncause issues in the small tank. The OP needs to just do weekly 1 gallon water changes and change flow and that'll bring them back like a wild weed growing. He would be better off dosing a small amount of AFR if he doesn't like doing weekly water changes.

My bad... I thought she said .01 not .1 If she has .1 Po4 then something is using up those nitrates. I still wouldn’t think Plus NP would be bad. Maybe on the gentler side there is always Reef Actif.
AFR is just Calc/Alk and trace. No nutrients. And I think she is good there with her water changes.
She pulled her skimmer and added a refugium, Maybe her Redox is low since she pulled the skimmer and her GSP is reacting to that?

 

[Salty_Northerner]

@TangerineSpeedo Hey no worries, I was just posting as I'm dealing with little to nadda nitrates or phosphate in the water. The plus NP is weak in my own opinion as it's not strong enough to get some numbers up there. And yes thank you about AFR, I was looking for the word TRACE elements and couldn't come up with that word when posting lol..and that's what the tank may need since only changing water out infrequently may help with the corals in general. I love TM products but for me, and at this time, in my aquarium finding itself isn't working.

In all honesty flow and better weekly WC will correct the issues.

I hope that made sense.

 

[stellaslane]

Thanks for all the help guys! I don’t currently dose anything other than reef carbonate once a week and that’s helped my alk stay consistent. Issue couldn’t have been caused by loss of skimmer since the GSP was put in the tank after it was gone. I did have to change my salt a couple months ago as Red Sea coral pro changed formulas slightly, maybe this has something to do with the issue? I’m going to try out lowering my wavemaker and upping the flow and change the water more frequently! Might pick up some ab+ as it looks promising!

 

[Salty_Northerner]

Thanks for all the help guys! I don’t currently dose anything other than reef carbonate once a week and that’s helped my alk stay consistent. Issue couldn’t have been caused by loss of skimmer since the GSP was put in the tank after it was gone. I did have to change my salt a couple months ago as Red Sea coral pro changed formulas slightly, maybe this has something to do with the issue? I’m going to try out lowering my wavemaker and upping the flow and change the water more frequently! Might pick up some ab+ as it looks promising!

That sounds like a great plan. What salt mix did you switch to?