Green Star Polyps are hiding

Five days ago the green star polyps quit coming out. Base is still a vibrant purple, no sign of rot, sloughing, or death, added to the tank: 10/1/06, & has doubled in size, ideas?

Background:

• Maintenance is done weekly, 5 gal of RO/DI make up water (buffered & kalked to ~ 9.8, dosed with 1.5 oz C-Balance), dose Marine-Max & Tech I. Buffer is Kent Marine Coral Builder.
• Tank has been up 7 months

Chemistry Tonight's with comments:
NH4, NO3, NO2 ~ 0 ppm by dip strip (has been for the last 4 months)
pH 7.8 - 8.4 by dip strip (8.09 by pH probe, <0.3 pH daily swing)
Alk > 300 ppm by dip strip
Calcium 345 mg/l (Jan, started weekly dosing 1 qt RO/DI w/ 1 Tbs Kalk)
Iodine ~ 0.16 mg/l
Temp 79.8F @ 7:00 PM (<3F temp swing daily)
TDS ~90 (for the past 2 months: generally 90 - 110)

 

i had a rock fall a bit blocking a powerheads current a few months ago and noticed it because my green polyps quit coming out moved the rock back up and they came back out
hope this is your prob

 

Hope these help!

http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/green-star-polyps-vs-algae-39523.html?highlight=green star polyps

http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral/green-star-polyps-39442.html?highlight=green star polyps

http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral/g...-brown-36021.html?highlight=green star polyps

http://www.3reef.com/forums/coral/m...t-dead-38327.html?highlight=green star polyps

 

Like mentioned above did the flow in your tank change or did the lights change? Did you move them recently?

Marc.

 

After I improved my flow and gave them a few days to stop being cranky my GSP are coming back out...

 

Thank you all especially amcarrig and the linked articles. I have completed reading all of them, a long with the comments here, beyond chemistry the things to look at are lights and flow.

I know my lighting is marginal, with the lights close to the water, so I keep an eye on the salt build up and clean them often. I need to find a way to add 2 more bulbs. I'll likely build a new hood...

I checked all the pumps, the return pump from the sump has been flowing less since the UV filter was installed in December. Hard to tell, but the overflow in the sump looks about the same. Both of the 650 gph PHs seem to be the same. The intake vents are clear, the impellers were cleaned in December.

When I got home from work this evening, the green star polyps were out as full as I've ever seen them. Amcarrig, one of the links you provided noted that the GSPs will some time behave like the leathers. Since everything else looks good, I'll consider this to be a 'normal' GSP behavior, as long the base stays looking good....

Thank you all.

Joe

 

GSPs are looking good

Here as a photo of the GSPs....

Joe