GSP, and other coral questions

Sour137

Cleaner Shrimp
#1
So I recently got a bunch of new corals from a tank breakdown in Denver, and I'm considering their final placements as they acclimate. Right now I have a GSP taking over some rock work near the bottom of the tank. I have a nice frogspawn I would like to place near it before the spot gets completely overrun by a field of GSP. Now I'm completely fine with the GSP taking over this particular rock as I love the color and movement, but I was wondering if the vigorous growth rate of the GSP would gradually overtake any corals nearby, or will coral skirmishes keep it at bay? Should I place a more aggressive coral next to it, such as an acan, which I suspect would win a territory war like the British? I also have another GSP variety which has a different color and slower growth rate. Has any one experienced a GSP merger?. What happens when two varieties meet? Should I completely avoid a coral war due to ammonia spikes or other concerns? I have plans on how to keep the growth limited to that one rock, and in the future I would anticipate a lot of GSP freebies to anyone interested, especially with how that thing has grown over the last few months.

Right now I have two frogspawns, one blue/green, and one more muted, 2 hammers, white green, and muted, a photosynthetic gorgonian, an acan or two, not sure what exactly the second one is, a pair of montis, a walking dendro, a paly, and another coral I'm not too sure of. I'll probably post some ID threads once I'm confident I'll be able to keep some of those new corals. I supposedly got a tri-color valida, but I haven't been able to positively ID it yet. Everything there will need permanent placements after I'm confident they won't die after gluing them in. Since I have a vivid hammer and vivid frogspawn, I plan on placing them at opposite ends of the tank to keep one side from looking too bland while the other half looks incredible. So I'll combo the blue/green frogspawn, and the muted hammer together on one half of the tank, with the white green hammer, and muted frogspawn on the opposite end.

Also should I avoid placing the acans in high traffic areas? In my opinion corals come first, but not at the expense of fish happiness. I'd love to see a large colony of acans at some point on one of my lower rocks, so what growth rates do people get with them?

I've gotten vigorous growth out of the vivid GSP, as mentioned above, and also a finger leather coral. What else should I expect vigorous growth from at this stage? My tank is about 9 months old, and six months since adding livestock. Params are mostly ideal. I had a spike in nitrates recently that has facilitated a number of water changes. Mg and Ca have been slowly declining more and more between water changes so that is telling me that something is consuming them in their growth, but I have not had to resort to supplemental dosing of those minerals. All other tested compounds read as follows; PH : 8.2; alkalinity : 3.2meq/L / 8.96 dKH; ammonia : 0; nitrite 0
 

halmus

Registered Users
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ex-officio
#2
A lot of questions here. I have always tried to isolate the GSP on its own dedicated rock due to its impressive growth rate. I can't answer what would win in a war between it and all corals but my best guess is that acans would loose. I could be totally wrong.

My acans were always slow growers but that might have been due to the tank parameters being more geared towards SPS.

I hope others can help fill in the blanks with your other questions.
 

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
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ex-officio
#3
I like to isolate my GSP on a rock island. It will become like an invasive weed. When I recently cut mine back I noticed it had spread to a nearby rock which I apparently didn't clean as well as I thought and now there is a quarter sized piece on said rock. I had a MASC member over checking out my system and he said to pull that stuff out before it went everywhere, so the GSP definitely has a reputation that precedes itself. Like Halmus, my acans never seem to grow, if they do it's at a stupid slow rate. My thoughts with acans are to buy a good size colony of them once you have established that you can keep the ones you have alive.

I think you are on the right track with spreading everything out, and balancing your vivid pieces with the more muted ones. Once you find good spots for everything let them grow in and you'll see really quickly if something is losing a stinging contest. Then move and adjust accordingly. As for rapid growth rates, everything really depends on water parameters, lighting, flow, and luck. The paly or zoas might spread quickly once established, but again some people grow them like weed other complain that the frags never expand past the frag plug. Something to keep in mind with the montipora is once it grows out it will shade anything under it.
 

MuralReef

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#4
Be careful with GSP it will grow everywhere. I had it next to pink and gold palys which also have a ridiculous growth rate and the GSP covered the palys. It grew right up their stalks and eventually covered the entire polyps.
 

SynDen

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#5
GSP will always win in the end. Hammers and frogspawn have no defenses around their stalks and gsp would quickly overwhelm them. Acans will hold for a time but eventually they will be surrounded and outnumbered. They will slowly fall once that happens. If you can keep gsp as isolated as you can or get rid of it before it gets all over everything
Two gsp together will either result in one over running the other, or they will kind of grow around each and kind of blend. More likely one will overtake the other but blending could happen if they decide they can live with each other.

Acans in high traffic areas can work depending on the traffic. Acans are slow growers and prefer medium to low flow. They also grow best when they are in spot that they remain largely undisturbed. In spots where they may get touched, walked over, buried or disturbed on a regular basis will result in them growing even slower in my experience. Either way acans are slow growers and suffer sets backs really easy because of it.

At 9 months on the tank I wouldn't expect much to have vigorous growth except gsp and may coraline or GHA. I think once you pass the 1 year mark you will begin to see marked improvement in growth rates of all the corals.
 

Sour137

Cleaner Shrimp
#6
Lots of great advice here. That's kind of a shame about acans as the colony I have is about the size of a nickel with 8 heads on frag disk about the size of a half dollar. While reading this, I came up with another question. What is a good way to free the acan from it's frag disk without damaging it much so I can get that glued in and not be upset by the disk it's on?

Thanks for all the info on the GSP. It's clear I have some gardening to do with the water change today. Should I be concerned about trimming it with a lower water level? More specifically, does it release any toxins that could affect my fish when I trim it down? I know they can be a PITA to clear off rocks, so what are some good ways to get them out of the nooks and crannies? I think I have read on here a toothbrush does well, but that seems kind of soft. I have a few firmer brushes I could use, or would a common toothbrush be more than enough?

Thanks again!
 

SynDen

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#7
Best way to remove any coral from a frag plug is just to slide a razor blade under the coral until it pops off. As long as they arent encrusted to the disc they should pop off fairly easily that way

To prune GSP, I generally just reach in and pull, cut, or tear it out.
 

Sour137

Cleaner Shrimp
#9
TheRealChrisBrown;n677402 said:
Something to keep in mind with the montipora is once it grows out it will shade anything under it.
I was told that the two monti varieties I have are an encrusting type, and a digitata. I know the plating monti can cover a wide area, but these, from what I have seen, do not appear to be ones which will cover an area with shade much. Am I right with this analysis?
 

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
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#10
Sour137;n677412 said:
Should I do that underwater or can I pull it out for a few minutes?
I pull the rock out if possible, it will be fine out of the water for 10 minutes you can use a credit card or something to pick at the edges of the mat of GSP. From there you can gently pull it off, if you're lucky you can get in in larger pieces.
 

Sour137

Cleaner Shrimp
#11
Alright, so I got the gsp scraped off as much as I can. I gave both spots a good brushing with an old toothbrush, but there still appears to be some flesh in the crevices. There are not any polyps on the rock, so without photosynthesis supplying energy, should I expect those spots to grow out?
 

Balz3352

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
Sour137;677438 said:
Alright, so I got the gsp scraped off as much as I can. I gave both spots a good brushing with an old toothbrush, but there still appears to be some flesh in the crevices. There are not any polyps on the rock, so without photosynthesis supplying energy, should I expect those spots to grow out?
Gsp is a weed..... It will grow. Be persistent
 
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