Green starburst polyp dying?

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i`ve also had a problem with my green star polyps just lately where areas of them don`t come out for a day are so 4 days max but i`ve noticed that the areas that don`t come out are areas that have also had growth/spreading.
Then during the closed periods of time the pinkish mat that has grown/spread has turned the normal purple colur so weather that is the problem your having are just a slight change in water quality

i`ve also just re newed my 7month running compacts & all polyps are out so maybe thats another problem just an idea but i`ve heard read that green star polyps can be MARDY at times due to hermit crabs & snails going over them etc
 
I am still a little new to this but LFS told me that under 20PPM was acceptable for Nitrates, is this not the case? I do plan on adding other corals so If Nitrates need to come down, could anyone assist me with figuring out why they are high? I change water once a week(4 gallons) I feed every 2 days, perhaps my filter is the problem? I have a all glass wet dry system, I use the bio balls that came with it, and I use the filter cartridges for a Pengiun 300 HOT filter. The ones with the carbon pieces in it. Should I change more water per week? Change filter type, less feeding? Also, am I just plain overstocked?
 
20 PPM is on the high-end of the safe zone--although nitrates have not been demonstrated to generally damage corals it just makes sense to keep them as low as possible. I personally don't like using carbon in a SW set up but that is my preference; but I do recognize carbon is a great scrubber of sorts if it is changed regularly. I highly recommend getting a good quality protien skimmer--I just dropped $165 on a new one. One way to drop them is a greater water change (say twice the amount you're swapping now).

I do have some questions though: How deep is the sand bed? How much water movement do you have? How much LR do you have? How many inches of fish do you have ... is it more than 1" per 10 gallons?
 
sand bed is roughly 3 inches deep, I have about 65-70 lbs of rock, two power heads keep the water moving, 1 of them is directed right on the coral, the other is a wave maker. I do have a coralife skimmer and it is always working, I clean it out about every 3 days. I would say for fish I might be over the 1 inch per gallon rule, I have 10 fish and some of them exceed 2 inches in length. I think I will feed a little less. Perhaps use the vacuum on the sand, because up to now, I have never used it, and change 8 gallons per week instead of 4. I did pick up some Seachem "reef plus" and some kent "phytoplex" and began dosing yesterday. Hopefully results will be good on the coral end of things. other than the coral not looking that good the tank is looking quite well, presence of algae is minimal and the snails normally pick it up before I can get the mag float on it. Thanks to everyone for the info and tips.
 
Very interesting thread. I actually have had the same exact experience. They looked great for about a week and then one day closed up and almost looked dead. My parameters are roughly the same except my Nitrates are closer to 10. I did see my Blood Red shrimp walking around on the polyps but as far as I know, it would not eat them !? I do happen to have some bristle worms that came with the live rock... don't know if they would bother them. It's very discouraging especially after reading that you can't hardly kill them !!!

BTW Arnold, the wet/dry bio ball filter system is a Nitrate Factory. I would definitely agree with vacuuming the sand and increasing your water changes. Be careful not to overfeed (that includes the Phytoplex)
 
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Have kept/ star polyps and other corals in tank with much higher than 20 PPM. Not saying one should but want to point out 20 ppm is not that critical for polyps.

Would not vacuum sand in Reef, unless black patches developing when looking from underneath the bottom glass.

Provided no black patches, your sand may have established facultatives anaerobes which will reduce nitrate into N2 Gas (Free denitrator).
You should look into Burrowing Starrfish (few) which will constantly but slowly dirturbed the sand bed.

Detritus on/in the sand/substrate is necessary breeding ground for micrfauna which is/can be bottom of food chain. With such growth/proliferation in your tank, this is what I believe which plays important role in maintaining successful and self sustaining mini reef in captivity..
Why vacuum and remove something which took time to establish and very beneficial to reef set up, IMHO.

I would only vacuum to use this removed water in other tanks to growth more microbes which can be used as food for certain fry including seahorse baby.

Can even add couple of Diamond Goby to disturb the sand bed if needed.
 
I had some that withered and died and couldn't figure it out for the longest time because toehr corals were also wasting away. It was in my classroom tank and I didn't realize the janitor was spraying the tank with windex everyday and cleaning the front as well as toxifying my water. If you were away, could someone have wiped the front of the glass down with a chemical?
 
Must've missed the date, but if Ace25 thinks this thread is worth bumping twice, so do I. BUMP!
 
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