Lighting & GSP's

Jnicho · 12-17-2007, 04:37 PM

Hello all,

I am pretty new to TRT (see my post in "Softies" or "Tank Specs" for more info on me and my tank, I won't duplicate it here).

I need some help/advice on two items. First, my GSP's don't look so hot. They are about 10 days old (to me). I had a couple of small brass fittings on the tank that I now know was a no-no (if you don’t already know brass is an alloy with a high copper content). The fittings have been removed and everything else in the tank is doing really well (no more snails dying and all other corals looking good). I have also done a bunch of water changes and I'm running carbon/bio-marine poly pad/Pura pad. No copper registers in the water and the bio pad is not turning blue (it turns blue when removing copper based meds), so I think I caught it soon enough to not cause any long-term problems. Anyway the GSP's where one of the first things to go in the tank after cleaners etc. and took the majority of the hit for my mistake. The day after the brass came out a few polyps began to open. It's been about a week now and I don't see many more opening (see attached pic). Most of the mat is still purple except for one small area on the edge where it has turned brown. My question is, should I prune areas where it obviously dies off to protect against pollution? I know they can be slow to react so I don't plan on trimming anything that is still nice and purple even if I see no polyp activity there. I think overall the colony will survive, but I may have some die-off.

My second question deals with lighting. I currently have about 180 watts of pc 6500k lights; with some additional blue coming from 200 blue LED's. I am about to change some of it out. I will be upgrading to 340watts of the 6500k and adding about 100 watts of blue pc lighting. First of all, do you think the 100watts of blue will be enough to add some blue over the 6500k’s? Second, should I change it out gradually so things can adapt? I was thinking of doing it in quarters, one ¼ each week for a month. Lastly, most of my corals except the 'shrooms look pretty brown. Will more than doubling the light help to color them up over time?

Thanks for any help/advice you can lend.

tabwyo · 12-17-2007, 04:44 PM

Well, your GSP's look fine. You need a low grade nuclear weapon to kill them.

hng · 12-17-2007, 04:48 PM

Doesn't look that bad to me. It's pretty common for gsp's to close up for a few days or even longer. Just give it some more time, and maybe more flow to clear the detritus off the colony. As far as the lights are concerned, I've never been a big fan of pc lights because of their long term costs (bulb replacements every 6-8 months) but what you propose should work fine as well. However, if you were going to go through the trouble and expense of upgrading your lights, I would suggest you consider T5HO lighting as a more powerful and more cost efficient source.

Wiskey · 12-17-2007, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hng

Doesn't look that bad to me. It's pretty common for gsp's to close up for a few days or even longer. Just give it some more time, and maybe more flow to clear the detritus off the colony. As far as the lights are concerned, I've never been a big fan of pc lights because of their long term costs (bulb replacements every 6-8 months) but what you propose should work fine as well. However, if you were going to go through the trouble and expense of upgrading your lights, I would suggest you consider T5HO lighting as a more powerful and more cost efficient source.

Aggreed

I would add as much blue light as white light if you really want to blue over the tank,.. How big of a tank are we talking here?

I also agree whole heartadly with the T5 statement,.. A good T5 setup (one that has individual parabolic reflectors) like the Tek fixtures put out far more light per watt then PC's do, plus the bulbs don't need to be replaced nearly as often

Whiskey

DarthOcellaris · 12-17-2007, 06:43 PM

I agree with all the above...An important thing to consider with gsp is flow and detrital removal... I keep mine right under a 150W halide and they usually multiply by 1000 every week. ( that's an exaggeration of course )

Jnicho · 12-17-2007, 10:19 PM

Hey, thanks for the replies so far...very helpful...the display is a 55g to answer that question (more stats in the my "tank specs" post).

I've been using a turkey baster to "blow" the GSP off at night when it's closed to help keep it clean, otherwise the flow is not really strong, but enough to keep the polyps moving quite a bit all the time so sufficient I think.

I will look into the T-5's. With regards to any type of lighting upgrade that doubles output, should it done gradually if possible?

Thanks again!

hng · 12-17-2007, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jnicho

With regards to any type of lighting upgrade that doubles output, should it done gradually if possible?

Yes

Jnicho · 12-18-2007, 04:58 PM

Hey another quick question regarding my GSP's. There is some "gunk" that doesn't blow off with the baster. I have heard of people using a tooth brush to clean them. If I get a really soft one (or some other soft brush) would this be safe? Obviously I would do it after dark with the polyps closed.

Wiskey · 12-18-2007, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jnicho

Hey another quick question regarding my GSP's. There is some "gunk" that doesn't blow off with the baster. I have heard of people using a tooth brush to clean them. If I get a really soft one (or some other soft brush) would this be safe? Obviously I would do it after dark with the polyps closed.

No, it is not safe to run over the GSP with a toothbrush,.. in fact when they started growing over corals that's how I killed them back.

Whiskey

Lighting & GSP's

Thanks!

Tooth Brush???