having some problems

[jonreed]

I have a very large colony of green star polyp that covers an entire rock-around 18" by 9", and they have all closed up. The entire colony is closed. Everything else in my tank is doing fine. This is too weird, I have zoos, hammers, xenia, leathers, a clam, anemones, fish-and everything is great. They have been closed up for about 2 days now, and I don't know what to do-can't figure it out. Ohh, and they have been in my tank for about 14 months-so they're not new. Anyways, if anybody has any advice or suggestions-could you please let me know.

thanks,

Jon

[mathias]

you add any additives? like kalk wasser?

[jaded]

My suggestion is to wait before doing anything... it's natural for corals to go through "down" periods. If you havent changed anything in the tank (temp, PH, etc...) then I'd suggest patience

I've recently had half a colony of yellow polyps come out thier "down" period after 3 weeks. They actually had cyano grow over them before they poked out.

Keep your eye on the fleshy layer (dont know the name) to make sure its not tearing apart or desintegrating. As long as its healthy I dont think you have anything to worry about!

[GaryP]

If one of your leathers is being stressed it can produce toxins that may effect other corals. The solution is to run carbon that will remove these toxins from the water.

[jaded]

I have questions on how people add carbon. If its not hyjacking the thread would you explain how much you add and how

[GaryP]

I have a carbon reactor that is hooked to a powerhead that goes in my sump. I change out the carbon every 1-2 weeks. I also sometimes add phosguard to the reactor.

[alexwolf]

I have a calcium reactor that is hooked to a powerhead that goes in my sump


Boy, thats an expesive way to rum carbon Gary :o

[GaryP]

Why is that? The reactor only hold a few cups of carbon. A five lb. bag lasts me several months. In the past I went to Fintique and bought their bulk carbon. I'm currently using triple carbon. Its a bit more expensive.

[alexwolf]

You sid calcium reactor.......

[jaded]

so a cup of a.c. in a sock in a flowing area of my sump is good enough?

[GaryP]

Jade,

Good enought for what? It depends on what you are trying to achieve. What problem are you trying to solve by using carbon?

[matt]

By "carbon reactor" I guess Gary means he has a canister filter of sorts; not really much of a "reaction" taking place. A canister which allows you to force water through the carbon under a little pressure is probably the best way to run carbon.

In this case, my first thought is to agree with Gary in that there might be some chemical warfare going on with the soft corals, depending on the species. If the hammer is close enough, it might be sending out sweeper tenticles to sting the star polyps; I had a classic battle going on between stars and a euphyllia and was too stupid to separate them; eventually both were pretty damaged.

However, it's unlikely that carbon will solve the chemical warfare, if that's what's going on. If you have a large sarcophyton, you might consider removing it, although it's also possible that you just have some hermits or worms irritating the polyps at night. Good luck!

[jaded]

At the moment I'm not using carbon at all... but after moving the tank I ran a couple of "bags" in the sump to help to clear out any toxins released by all the unhappy corals.

At the time I just poured an entire jar of carbon into two stockings and placed them in the trickle filter (after rinsing) that was on the tank at that time. Now I think I wasted a lot of carbon and I was just wanting to know for the future.

[eric]

I can't offer much in the way of cause really, but having star polyps for over a decade, I've seen them periodically pull in for days at a time.

If you find a way to keep them at bay or even kill them without killing the whole rock, I want to know. These are for me like Xenia is for others. A constant battle to keep from taking over everything. Once had them in a tank with no light for months all they did was lose color. Anemones keep them at bay fairly well.

[StephenA]

They don't like Iodine. Have you added any of that to the tank. But like Eric said, mine close up for days too.

[jonreed]

still no sight of them, but i haven't added anything out of the ordinary-just b-ionic for calcium, etc. i always run carbon filters in my tank because its only a 46 gallon and my skimmer is jus a backpack and no sump. anyways, it sounds like the best thing to do is just wait. thanks for the help. i'll post more questions if i have any.

jon