GSP help!

[Charlie.636]

So I have my first coral. Green star polyp. Is there anything I can do to help this grow? I have great lighting, good water flow. Is there anything I should be dosing? I have reef roids should I use that? Should I be using a ph buffer or anything like that? Sorry for so many questions. Most info on this coral is very basic.

 

[bribo12]

Gsp is one of the fastest growing corals! No need to dose or raise pH as long as it is 7.8 or higher. What's your lighting? How long have you had it?

 

[Brad M]

If nitrates get over 20ppm you will start to see it grow slow. Keep your nitrates as low as possible and you should be fine

 

[Charlie.636]

I have a bridgelux dimmable 120w led. Im running the light at about 1/4 power. Is that enough?

 

[Brad M]

Can you get a closer pic of the corals its kinda hard to see with the tiny upload images.

 

[jjamontan]

Your gsp will grow fast and in some cases way to fast. You may want to isolate them to a rock so they can't climb over everything or get on to rocks that you don't want them to

 

[Charlie.636]

I'll get a better picture tomorrow. They dont seem like they are going to grow like wildfire like everyone says. My tank is a 30 gallon has been set up 3-4 months.

 

[Brad M]

How long have you had the frag?

 

[Charlie.636]

Only two weeks

 

[Brad M]

What are your nitrates at?

 

[Charlie.636]

Do they perfer blue lights over white? I dont want them to loose their green.

 

[Phranque]

It can take a little while for it to acclimate to your system before it starts to grow, and I would slowly dial your lights up from 1/4.

Once it acclimates & starts spreading, the growth rate of GSP is pretty quick, but you need to keep perspective in mind..... Everybody's tank is different, but if I were to put a number to it, I'd guess that GSP may expand roughly 20% to 25% monthly. If you've got a little frag that's an inch across, 20% of that is going to be disappointing if you're expecting explosive growth. But, once it reaches 5" or 6" across, 20% of that is going to be significantly more growth in the same period of time.

And, be careful what you wish for....... once GSP does really start to take off, if left unchecked, it can (and will) overrun & suffocate other corals. My best advice is to have it on it's own piece of rock..... once it gets close to leaving that rock, trim it back.

 

[Charlie.636]

Thanks for the info!!