green Star polyp help please

[saltfishlover]

i know this is gonna sound a lot like a newb question. i found a nice 6" rock loaded with star polyps at my LFS for $40 bucks. they usually give bad advice on things so before i buy i wanted good advice.

what is minimum lighting for theses? what do they eat? target feed? how often? hardy?

thanks

[Meisen]

"stars" do well in most lighting schemes. I have had them grow under pcs, halides, vhos and regular flourescents!!! They probably absorb nutrient from the water and may also consume detritus but they do not need direct feeding to thrive. IMHO they are one of the hardiest corals out there. I have three species going right now and they are constantly needing to be fragged/trimmed.

[saltfishlover]

cool.. they LFS said lighting would not be a problem, but to feed them cyclopeze every other day. also said to put near other coral as they would not sting or be bothered.. so i am just looking for a professional oppinion before i buy them. how do i "trim". do they grow fast and should i put on LR or on substrate?

Oh. he got them under his water return too . do they need fast current?

[jdieck]

I do not feed them at all. They need medium to high current and medium to low light. They can take very bright light but may turn a little pale and loose some of the neon tint.
They grow like there is no tomorrow so for better control I will sugest you set the rock surounded by sand so it is easier to frag the overgrowth.

[OctoRock]

Agreed with all of the above. So redilculously hardy, dont worry about feeding them. Also, if you dont watch out they can take over your tank. jdieck gave a good reccomendation: put them on the sand and they wont take over. They will start to "crawl" onto the sand, but obviously not attach, from there you can just take scissors (sp?) and cut them. HTH

[saltfishlover]

cool thanks.

[MiddletonMark]

What kind of lights do you have saltfishlover, on what kind of tank?

How long has the tank been running?

Just want to cover the basics ... though GSP's are a great hardy coral. Just be careful to keep away from anything you'd want to not have them on :)

[saltfishlover]

its a 50gal with 2 65W 50/50 PC bulbs. tank up for more than a year and have been doing shrooms for last month with ecellent results so far

[MDboyz]

I have one green star polyps rock before, and it died when I had an algea bloom. However, after a year, it starts to come back from that rock. I didn't feed it anything tho. It's just get the food from whatever I feed my fishes, mysid shrimp + cylopeezee.

[jdieck]

Yes, I forgot to mention that if you have a bloom you need to keep them free of algae (mainly cyano or Dinos) by blowing water over them when the polyps are closed using a turkey baster to remove the algae.

[saltfishlover]

would that be needed if they are in a high flow area? right now i have them under my waterfall filter and they getting lots of water movement? they are sitting on a rock now that has some alge growing on it.. should i worry?

[jdieck]

Usually the only algae they get is either cyano or diatoms. you will know hen they need a bash as they will close the polyps and you will see the film covering. Do not worry too much, if that happens, a couple for blows and the film is gone, polyps out again and that all there is to it.

[saltfishlover]

is this the same type of thing that is known to grow on leathers and smother them too?

[jdieck]

Sometimes but Leathers and Sarcopythons also replace their own sking once in a while and can close up for a week just to come up larger and more expanded after that.