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How do you kill GSP?


lanman

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Okay - so I left my decorative little GSP rock in one place for too long...

IMG_1096.jpg

 

Now it's trying to grow where I don't want it to grow. Any suggestions other than to keep scraping??

 

For example - will it do any good to cut off the polyps as they appear? (no food, dead coral?)

 

Or am I on my own here in finding a way to eradicate it??

 

Thanks,

bob

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my best guess would be to shield it's light and flow. or unplug it and plug it back in... that works for most of my problems.

 

Unplugging it was the first thing I tried, of course. I AM, after all, a certified electronics technician.

 

bob

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Unplugging it was the first thing I tried, of course. I AM, after all, a certified electronics technician.

 

Ah, then the next thing you tried was bench testing it. You know, hold it 6" above the bench and drop it, right? :biggrin:

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GSP is not toxic to my knowledge. Just go ahead and scrub the heck out of it. As long as you remove the top layer of tissue and pull the section that you wanted to actually grow, you'll kill it. It is resilient, but not that resilient. Or, you can simply inject it with something that will throw off its pH balance like kalk or even one of the B-ionics.

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GSP is not toxic to my knowledge. Just go ahead and scrub the heck out of it. As long as you remove the top layer of tissue and pull the section that you wanted to actually grow, you'll kill it. It is resilient, but not that resilient. Or, you can simply inject it with something that will throw off its pH balance like kalk or even one of the B-ionics.

It's not that resilient, eh? :)

 

Past experience has left me unable to get ALL of it, no matter how hard I pick and scrub at it. A week later, it shows up again. I'll keep picking and scraping; and see if I can't eventually get it done. It's growing about 2" from my CHIPS; guess which I would prefer stay alive....

 

bob

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I am covering a portion of a rock that I cannot remove with epoxy. I made a flat piece and molded it to the rock. It will have to done in stages. The epoxy is not embedded into rock and can be removed. The stuff has already got onto my green cap, trumpet, staghorn, and other sps. Will be breaking off the corals and putting back onto the new rock.

 

Other rocks will be removed and probably be replaced.

 

Anyone putting this stuff in should keep it on an isolated rock. It will grow over sand and crushed coral. But that is easily trimmed.

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Guest Bethesda_Jim

If you shoot at it and it runs, it's GSP.

 

If you shoot at it and it doesn't run, it's a well trained GSP.

 

:blast: :bounce:

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If you shoot at it and it runs, it's GSP.

 

If you shoot at it and it doesn't run, it's a well trained GSP.

 

:blast: :bounce:

 

Hahahaha . . too funny.

 

Kalk works, but it's a temporary fix. The only long term solution IME:

 

Anyone putting this stuff in should keep it on an isolated rock.

 

I have 2 islands in my tank to contain things I don't want to spread or move around and sting my SPS. One was for anemones and xenia (although the latter just died off for some reason). The other is for my GSP. On the GSP island I am trying out different aggressive corals (other things I don't want near my sps) to see if anything can hold its own against the stuff.

 

One other thing, over the last few months the GSP has been receding at the center of the rock - directly under the MH. It has never seemed really happy under very intense light. I don't know if anyone else has had that experience though.

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Here's what I do:

Peel it.

High light stunts it's growth.

Isolate it from creeping.

 

And finally...

Enjoy it...it's not going away.

 

Yeah... but when I move everything into the 240, I'll give it an EXTRA scrubbing on the way. Might knock it back for a few months, at least.

 

Thanks all for the words of discouragement! :biggrin:

 

bob

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Yeah... but when I move everything into the 240, I'll give it an EXTRA scrubbing on the way. Might knock it back for a few months, at least.

 

Thanks all for the words of discouragement! :biggrin:

 

bob

 

When you move it into the 240 you should have plenty of room to isolate it. Maybe even make an island dedicated to all of the things you might want in your tank but are afraid to add because they might take over. let them all fight it out.

 

You can see my colony on the right side of the tank in this pic, behind the anemone island. The GSP actually covers both sides of that rock but the polyps were retracted on the left side when this picture was taken. It used to completely cover the center also but has receded quite a bit as you can see. At the same time it has continued to spread along the sides and up the glass.

DSC_0253-1.jpg

Edited by Rascal
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When you move it into the 240 you should have plenty of room to isolate it. Maybe even make an island dedicated to all of the things you might want in your tank but are afraid to add because they might take over. let them all fight it out.

 

You can see my colony on the right side of the tank in this pic, behind the anemone island. The GSP actually covers both sides of that rock but the polyps were retracted on the left side when this picture was taken. It used to completely cover the center also but has receded quite a bit as you can see. At the same time it has continued to spread along the sides and up the glass.

DSC_0253-1.jpg

 

Oh - the two GSP colonies that will go in the 240 (bright green with pink center, and NEON green with white centers) will indeed be on their own little island. That I'm not concerned about. It's that bit that's now growing on a rock full of corals that I'm concerned about.

 

Tank looks GREAT!

 

bob

Edited by lanman
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how about just covering them with a thin layer of reef putty? When you are sure they are dead, you should be able to peel the the putty right off, unless the rock is super porous.

 

T

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hey rascal, that picture of your tank just made me sick... funkin sweet!

 

 

Thanks. That was only 1 1/2 months ago but unfortunately it doesn't quite look like that anymore -- thanks to AEFW. It is on the rebound now though and hopefully will be much improved when everything colors back up and grows in again. Live and learn . . .

 

Bob:

 

When I reaquascaped I ended up with a couple of small pieces of GSP on a rock that was no longer part of the island. It is hard to scrub every last bit of it when the rock is out of the tank and the polyps are retracted - so I missed some and didn't realize until a day or two later when I saw some polyps. So I turned all the pumps off and injected it with a healthy dose of Kalk paste. Then I completely covered it with as thick a layer of Kalk paste as I could get on there. I left it like that for about 10 minutes before turning the pumps back on. Then I repeated two days later. Seems to have done the trick with no ill effects to anything else.

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Yep, kalk paste works really well. Turn off all the pumps, apply generously with a syringe, let it sit 10-15 minutes and turn the pumps back on. I kept it in its place in a nano by kalking it every few months.

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I was able to remove a large section of it once by using a steel pick to scrape under it from an outer edge and peel it it off ine one big sheet. Maybe if yours grows thick enough you can try it.

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If you don't want it and want to kill it I would be happy to take it off your hands.I have a empty 20 gallon tank with a pair of maroons and a condy? nem.

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If you don't want it and want to kill it I would be happy to take it off your hands.I have a empty 20 gallon tank with a pair of maroons and a condy? nem.

dmward - if you want some GSP; just say how much and which kind :) I have a TON of it. Blue-green with no centers, green with white centers, NEON green with white centers. (I also have blue-green with pink centers, but I've never fragged it - it's all on one rock. But if you wanted some, I'm sure I could get some loose, or nip off a corner somewhere.) The blue-green with no centers is available by the square inch... or foot; it's growing up the glass in both the main tank and the frag tank. I gave away a 'frag disk' at the last meeting. Frag disk about 1" in diameter - GSP on it about 5" in diameter.

 

But that little bit on the rock isn't enough to frag off; it's just a few nuisance polyps. (Don't use the phrase nuisance polyps around SteveOutlaw - he gets a little nervous). I'm in the market for a dental pick! If my hygienist can get plaque off with it - I should be able to get GSP off with it!

 

bob

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