Green Star Polyp not dying ?? help plz

[ale.a712]

Hello,

I am fairly new to this hobby, about 4 months ago I started my first saltwater aquarium. My aquarium size is a 10 Gallon, I know it is pretty small to keep, therefore might be slightly harder to maintain and keep away from failing, but I was up for the challenge and even asked my local reef store for some tips and help. I go in there regularly for help or tips when needed. Before we start I would like to inform that I am pretty young myself, I work for the money that go into my tank, I am very new to this, I'm trying to learn. I'm okay with the mindset that I'm allowed to make mistakes as long as I learn from them, hence me being here.

Also, before we start, I have a pair of clownfish, an emerald crab, a hermit crab, 2 sea urchins, and a cleaner shrimp, along with a few different types of corals in my tank, mainly, a good selection of mushrooms, Alveopora, Goniopora, Duncan, Zoanthids and a Green Star Polyp. I also have a Tidal 35 filer, along with the small Fluval skimmer for nano tanks. I do keep used filter media that was given to me when I started the tank as well.

About a week ago, my father tried to feed the fish in my tank while I was attending my classes, he knows the feeding schedules of the fish, but chose to feed them mid day. Furthermore, when he fed them, he dumped a bunch of food in the tank, so much food in fact that I had to go in with that vacuum thing because it was just piles of leftover food that even my bottom cleaners were not interested in consuming anymore. To fix this, since it was conveniently also my water change day, I did a slightly bigger water change than usual being a 30% ish water change, along with the vacuuming of the sand because the food was scattered everywhere tbh.

I noticed that my green star polyp closed slowly. At first, it didnt fully close, some days it was open, others it wasn't. Now, for a few days actually, it hasn't opened at all. maybe it opened like 1 polyp but not even all the way. Yesterday was my water change day, and as always I checked levels before and after the change. Before the change My PH was at about 8.2, Ammonia was 0ppm, Nitrite was 0ppm and my nitrate was slightly high, 30-40ppm. I need to buy kits for Alkalinity, calcium and magnesium, normally I would get it checked with the store but I've been so busy and they close so early I count stop by.

Here is my issue, I noticed it started peeling? it looks real weird, there isn't any algae on it or anything, that mostly gets eaten by the others, but it has been closed, it seems to be 'peeling' off and at words the top there seems to be a gap? Can someone helps? All my other corals seem to be fine, the mushroom seem to open appropriately, only one or two aren't as open as usual, but my Duncans, alveopora etc they all open and dont cause any issues to the tank. I'll attach photos.

 

[therootcause]

Hello.

The food being added to the tank and removed the same day was not the problem. It was not in the tank long enough to decompose and create a nutrient increase.

It is unlikely that the water change is causing the problem, but I will ask a few questions.
Are you mixing the sale yourself and using RODI water?
How long do you wait after mixing the saltwater before adding it to the tank?
Are you bringing the water to tank temperature?
How are you measuring salinity of your aquarium and new salt - are you measuring salinity at tank temp or cold mix temp?

Can you provide a larger photo of the system? Consider making a build thread that details your tank timeline and equipment. That will help to diagnose problems or document successes in the future.

How are you adding flow to the tank?

What lighting are you using?

How are you maintaining salinity in the tank (topping off)?

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

It could just be shedding, which is when it sheds its outer mucus layer, most soft coral do this when there's a disturbance in the environment. Always found it funny how soft corals are extremely hardy, yet the most dramatic coral I've ever owned was my crowntop leather. I keep LPS

 

[KrisReef]

Hello.

The food being added to the tank and removed the same day was not the problem. It was not in the tank long enough to decompose and create a nutrient increase.

It is unlikely that the water change is causing the problem, but I will ask a few questions.
Are you mixing the sale yourself and using RODI water?
How long do you wait after mixing the saltwater before adding it to the tank?
Are you bringing the water to tank temperature?
How are you measuring salinity of your aquarium and new salt - are you measuring salinity at tank temp or cold mix temp?

Can you provide a larger photo of the system? Consider making a build thread that details your tank timeline and equipment. That will help to diagnose problems or document successes in the future.

How are you adding flow to the tank?

What lighting are you using?

How are you maintaining salinity in the tank (topping off)?

Yup, these are all good questions to help answer what is going on in this tank.

OP: Green star polyp is supposed to be impossible to kill. Post a picture of your tank, and answer as many of the questions @therootcause asked, and provide any additional information you can to help folks here answer your questions.

About being young. We all had to endure learning and growing and your initial post suggests to me that you are living wisely as you go about trying to keep this tank and learn how to accomplish your goals. What goals do you have for this tank? You have come to a great place to find out more to achieve your reefing dreams.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[ale.a712]

Hello.

The food being added to the tank and removed the same day was not the problem. It was not in the tank long enough to decompose and create a nutrient increase.

It is unlikely that the water change is causing the problem, but I will ask a few questions.
Are you mixing the sale yourself and using RODI water?
How long do you wait after mixing the saltwater before adding it to the tank?
Are you bringing the water to tank temperature?
How are you measuring salinity of your aquarium and new salt - are you measuring salinity at tank temp or cold mix temp?

Can you provide a larger photo of the system? Consider making a build thread that details your tank timeline and equipment. That will help to diagnose problems or document successes in the future.

How are you adding flow to the tank?

What lighting are you using?

How are you maintaining salinity in the tank (topping off)?

Hello, thank you for the feedback, I’ll answer the question on your post as best as I can . I am not home at the moment so for photos Ill see what I can find in my phone, I did recently add the new filter and the skimmer so if I have a month old photo it’ll have the older ones which was 2 Aqueon 10 filters. Whom I’m happy I replaced tbh.

- I buy my saltwater due to the fact that my water changes don’t require a massive amount of water to change. However, I only started doing this recently, beforehand, I would take water from those 5 gallon jugs they sell at regular grocery stores , measure the salt (I used the water box reef salt), mix it and wait about 24 hours. To measure the salt lever I used a refractometer.

-when measuring my own I would wait about 24 minimum and my water would be used only for a week before making a new one.

-as for water temp before adding water no I didn’t, it is important to warm it up? Does it play a difference? The water was never cold, more like room temp it stayed in my room which is heated.

- to add flow I have a Sicce Voyage Nano, it’s placed next to the heater, facing up ish.

-for lighting I use a Fluval AquaSky LED 12 Watt which I’ll attach a photo of the light plan they get daily. If it could be improved feel free to let me know.

I don’t understand the last one completely, but if you mean the evaporation of water, leaving behind salt and therefore making the water saltier, in my aquarium I added a line on the outside with sharpie of where my water should be when I do water changes. If with evaporation the water goes under that line, I add room temp freshawater from water bottles and then check the salinity, I keep mine between 30-35

Thank you for the feedback and thank you for helping.