My Star Polyp is dying....Please help me

[SmknReefer]

Hello,

I was given a star polyp that has been in my tank for roughly 6 months......Up until about a month ago it was growing like a weed, continued to encompass the rock it was on, growing up the back side of the glass....Completely flourishing......

All of a sudden the top side polyps started to turn white and shrivel up, They never were fully expanding like they once did.....Now the purple mat the polyps live in is deteriorating and the base live rock is showing through...And it has wilted off the glass.....The sides appear to be OK though, changed color to a yellowish, brownish instead of the fluorescent green...

I currently have a very light bioload, about 40 lbs of LR, 2 damsels, some crabs and shrimp and green open brain coral.......My ph is 8.5-6, nitrates ~0, salinity is 1.25, temp is ~78 degrees....Anyone have experience with this?...I am generally new to reef keeping and cannot figure out what is wrong...........

 

[SmknReefer]

I forgot to mention I have a 55 gallon tank with about 15 gallons in the sump....I do regular water changes and supplement with C Balance A/B until I get my Kalk reactor set up...Thanks for any help

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's a puzzle by your description it doesn't sound like anything is stinging it.

How long have you been dosing the supplements? Grabbing at straws, have you changed something like your saltmix, or makeup water (R/O to tapwater or something like that) lately?

 

[Anonymous]

pH of 8.5-8.6 isnt that bad, but I would try and get that down a bit to 8.2....also, check your alkalinity and your calcium. With a pH that high, the other related parameters may be off a lot.
Also, from what I learned, they dont seem to like phosphates. I had a problem with stars, and LFS told me to check my phates, and he was right...they were high.
Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope you find out what it is, because I need to find a way to kill mine off

 

[Anonymous]

Did you add any new pieces around the same time you noticed the decline? I lost a nice Cladiella from a nudi that hitched in on another piece of rock.

 

[bradl.]

Funny how a whole colony can just go south when everythung in the tank flourishes. Starpolyps can close for weeks and than come back stronger than ever. Even tho your doing "regular" water changes id do some more. Dont give up on em just yet.

 

[MartinE]

I noticed a patch of mine like you describe, I had to cut it out up to the good tissue the keep it from going further. I think it was from one of three things 1. a recent metal halide upgrade 2. additions of phospate remover (read that stars do not like a certain chemical in them?) 3. iodine supplement (again read stars reportedly do not like them) hope that helps I am still not sure what caused mine to do it?

 

[Anonymous]

I had a similar problem a while back. I had an elevated PH(8.5-8.6) for a few weeks to a month and my leathers and star polyps all reacted badly. After getting the PH down to a 8.2-8.3 they all came back. I would look into dropping the PH a bit. You say your PH is a 8.5. Do you check the PH at different times of the day? If you are not testing at your PH's peak for the day, your PH could actually a 8.6 or higher. Usually it is at it's peak just prior to your main lighting goes off.

Good luck