Star Polyp Invasion!

walkietalkie25 · #1 03/13/2006, 05:44 PM

Can anyone tell me how to stop star polyps from covering everything in/on your reef?? I have tried everything to stop their growth. I cannot get them off of rock, except where they overhang. Is there a way to kill them without hurting other things?

Blown 346 · #2 03/13/2006, 05:47 PM

The only real way to get rid of them or stop them from over growing on things is to use kalkpaste. They wont grow paste the kalkpaste.

Alaskan Reefer · #3 03/13/2006, 06:29 PM

Kalk paste, or take the rock to the LFS and trade it for some without polyps all over it. They'll do it, and may even give you store credit.

walkietalkie25 · #4 03/13/2006, 07:35 PM

I have already taken 3 huge pieces of my rock that were beautifully covered with coraline and many other wonderful things, (before the star polyp invasion) and traded for ugly white rock with almost nothing on it. The pieces I have left have corals attached that I'm not willing to get rid of, so I won't take those in to the LFS. I have never heard of Kalk paste, can you tell me what that is, how it works, and if it is safe to use for all other creatures in the reef? Thanks!

iCam · #5 03/13/2006, 07:38 PM

You can try slipping a razor blade under them and then peeling the mat off.

Of course, any remnants will probably start new growth, but it's a way to keep them in check.

walkietalkie25 · #6 03/14/2006, 01:07 AM

I've tried that and anything else I can think of to peel them off, nothing works. I can get tiny bits off that way, but that's it. There is too much. That's why I hope someone can tell me about the Kalk paste (??)

bckane · #7 03/14/2006, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by walkietalkie25
Can anyone tell me how to stop star polyps from covering everything in/on your reef?? I have tried everything to stop their growth. I cannot get them off of rock, except where they overhang. Is there a way to kill them without hurting other things?

Send me some....I'll take some off your hand.....I'll pay shipping or whatever....
TIA
Brian

spline9 · #8 03/14/2006, 01:32 AM

Kalkwasser. Mixed with water into a paste-like consistancy.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_search...itemsonpage=15

cerreta · #9 03/14/2006, 02:14 AM

If you can remove the rocks with the GSP that you want to control, place the rock in a small bucket of saltwater and Target dose with Lugols solution. This will do the trick. The colony will begin recessing in about a week. You can also dose your tank with about 5 drops lugols every other day for about two weeks. It mostly effects the GSP but may also affect closly related species if you have any in your tank. Target dosing would work better.

BTW, I discovered this GSP retardation by accidentally dosing Lugols as an iodine supplement in the main tank. Th ecolony died back about 75%, before I realized that Lugonls should not be used as an iodine treatment. I read this in one of Sprung's books.

xtm · #10 03/14/2006, 04:21 AM

Can I have your problem? I must've spent around $200 buying many frags of GSPs - I've tried just about everything to make them spread and they just won't do it, it's frustrating. Everything else grows in my tank except GSPs!

llewoh05 · #11 03/14/2006, 10:32 AM

you take paypal.. ill gladly be your garbage can for gsp.

walkietalkie25 · #12 03/14/2006, 11:32 AM

For all of you that want my GSP's, I've tried to say that I can NOT get them off my rock. And that what I have left, is on big rocks that have other corals firmly attached. So, I cannot remove that rock from the tank, even to Lugols dip it, because it has the other corals and anemones attached. (Sounds like that would have been a good idea if there had been nothing else to worry about!) I would be happy to sell them if I could remove them, but I can't. (Otherwise they would have already been taken to the LFS along with the ones I did get off, which was about 5% of what I've got!!) So, all I can do is try and find a way to stop their growth. Can I ask someone to please explain how you apply the kalk paste, and won't that affect any other corals, etc?? Also won't it make the calcium content too high in the water also? I have a calcium reactor so my calcium levels are where they should be now. The area I would be covering with the paste would be feet long, so that would be a LOT of paste. Please someone tell me how this is done and if it is SAFE. Thanks so much!

cerreta · #13 03/14/2006, 11:58 AM

Can you post a pic of the tank / problem area? I can look at your other coral species to see if you may have problems if dosing with lugols.

You may be able to treat the tank with lugols. It is safe for nearly all species, including fish. Most species make ready use of the iodine available in lugols, but GSP can not tolerate this form of iodine. I think xenia is sensitive to it also. Have any? The beauty of lugols is that it works slowly, so you don't have to worry about a system crash.

Lugols seems safer than pasting kalk which at some point needs to be degraded and will end up in the water column anyways.

walkietalkie25 · #14 03/15/2006, 11:13 AM

I'm sorry, but I do not know how to post pictures. I can tell you that the rock with the most on it right now has 2 big toadstool leather corals attached, plus a big ricordia mushroom, plus a bunch of other mushrooms, another kind of polyps similiar to the GSP, and a giant clam! The other piece of rock has a huge colt coral on it that my breeding false perculas live in and there are clownfish eggs all the time on that rock!! I also have a nice candy cane coral that the GPS are growing all over the branches of and killing it's polyps! You see my concern on removing the rock to put in buckets of Lugols? (The candy cane is loose so I could dose it by itself. how much lugols per water volume?) By the way, I do dose Lugols regularly in my tank for iodine supplement, I've never heard that you shouldn't, and it certainly has not slowed down the GPS, but of course it wouldn't be high doses I'm administering. Any new ideas would be appreciated!! Thanks!!

fish_taste_good · #15 03/15/2006, 11:20 AM

Kalk paste is the way to go but you must be careful depending on how close those other corals are to the GSP.

Kalk paste is simply Kalk or Pickling Lime mixed with a little bit of water to make it "paste like"

I usually make it runny enough so that I can use a dropper to target it. I have GSP all over my filter and they started over taking my filter... top left corner....

Glove · #16 03/15/2006, 11:23 AM

Can you peel em off? You probably wont get all of the stuff, but you could focus on the problem areas.
The stuff usually peels off if its a good colony.
You can also cut right into the rock, just under the base of the GSP- I cut layers off all the time using a utility knife, sometimes a butter knfe.
sorta like getting zoanthids and they have one or two unwanted items with them. I will chip into the rock right under the polyps untill I remove just a thin layer of rock under the corals.
just an idea vs death to the GSP.

walkietalkie25 · #17 03/15/2006, 11:24 AM

They are touching almost everything that I mentioned was on the rock that they are on! So, would this be safe???

walkietalkie25 · #18 03/15/2006, 11:26 AM

I have tried numerous times to peel with various types of tools and using my fingernails. I can only peel small sections off that begin where they overhang. So, I am only able to remove about 5% or less this way.

kevin gu3 · #19 03/15/2006, 12:07 PM

The only long-term solutions that I know of:
1) Eliminate the gorgonians (harder than you think)
2) Isolate them on a rock surrounded by shaded overhangs. Shade corrals them, but watch for bridging attempts to nearby lit areas.

socalreefer73 · #20 03/15/2006, 12:19 PM

I found a tool, much like a flat head screw driver with a sharp end, angled, and had on the other end a pick like a dentist likes to torture people with but thicker. I used that to dig into the rock a little bit to get under my pulsing xenia to free a crazy blue-green-orange ricordia. I had to use a bit of pressure, but that's how I found it to come off the easiest, to really gouge the rock with a tool of some sort to get under the stuff (a brand-new, clean screwdriver, per se). Then use something else like a stiff brush to get off the remnants.

So, if you don't want to use a chemical means (which I would shy away from)...

Get a tool and get to diggin'....

kevin gu3 · #21 03/15/2006, 12:23 PM

I did that too with some brown gorgonians, scraped every last visible vestige off the rock but it came back.

Alaskan Reefer · #22 03/15/2006, 03:10 PM

Looks like napalm may be the only option.