GSP dieing

[outdrsyguy1]

Something ate my GSP like it was a free buffet at the golden coral

Not sure the culprit, but I noticed it closed up a week or so ago, and just hasn't really come back. Now looks 80% dead and I pulled off 8 asterina stars in the last 2 hours. I suspect them. sps and lps are doing okay. Zoas are kinda melting here and there, haven't found out why yet. Not zoapox... this time....don't see any nudi's lurking. I do see these tiny looking copapod things running on the zoa's that are slowly shriveling up to nothing. Not sure if they are the cause or just the after effect.

grrr!

 

[jdavid]

dip your zoas.

 

[picoreefguy]

and dip your gsp. just because its closed up does not mean its dead. that stuff is pretty resilient.

 

[patrick]

Sounds like something is at play. GSP.......if that stuff is dying off you got a real issue........some people would like to have that...LOL. I see people asking alot how to get rid of GSP. But seriously, your zoanthids are effected too. I suspect you are seeing amphipods eating the dying zoanthids......they will eat dead corals.

Hope you get them all dipped and stop the issue.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

I dipped the zoa's showing signs of demise but nothing came of them except those little amphipod/copepod looking critters. I'll dip the gsp tonight and see if anything comes out. I really think I have some sort of bacterial infection or something. They just slowly melt 1 by 1 in a row from wher th first zoa started. They actually regrow new zoa's at the other end of the colony but not quite as fast as the sick end is dieing. I did have zoa nudi's early on and also zoapox so i've had my share of pain with them.

Is it possible I have too little nutrients in the water? I feed pretty light and vacuum the sand every 10 days and run gfo. nitrates have been 0 since day 1. I don't have hardly any algae and my sps are still okay (though not very colorful as always) so I don't think I have high phosphates.

I just feel like something messed up in general is going on with my tank.

 

[winkkle]

I've always heard gsp is a good indicator for alkalinity but not sure.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Yeah, not alkalinity though. I test about 3 times a week for alkalinity and in the last month it's been 7.4 to 7.6 dkh pretty consistend. couple months ago it got down to 6.6 dkh but haven't had it go down since I started dosing 2 part. I have problems with sps polyp extension but my parameters stay pretty consistent. There's just something wonky with my tank and I'm trying to figure it out

 

[outdrsyguy1]

okay, so I dipped it and it was on a fist sized rock (gsp is only covering maybe 1/4 at most). I found 8 asterina stars, about 30 little pyramid snails, and a bunch of amphipods, few copapods.

I'm at a total loss why this stuff is on the outs. It's near a leather toadstool but the toadstool is maybe 2" wide, pretty small frag. And it's been there a while.