Rookie mistake

[Oxymoron]

I placed GSP in my display tank on a piece of live rock. It has since spread from the frag plug and began to cover my live rock.
I have since removed the frag plug and placed it in the sand bed but now I need to know how to take out the GSP from the main rock.
After researching a bit more it seems that GSP can slowly take over a tank if not dealt with and should probably be kept in the sand bed away from the main display rock.
Does anyone have any tips or tricks to kill off GSP. Im thinking of pulling the affected piece and using a propane torch to burn it off. Any input would be helpful.
Thanks

[sharuq1]

You could just make the part of the affected LR a little island of its own so that it cannot reach the rest of your rock. (which is what I do, gsp is pretty when contained) You could trade the rock for another unaffacted rock. You could sell the rock. You could try peeling it off carefully. That might have mixed results unless you also kill the leftover bits with a chemical or fw.

Or if you really must kill it you could put kalk paste all over it or super glue, or soak it in fresh water for a bit. That last will kill much of the rock, and a torch would definitely kill most of the rock. If you go with the destructo method, don't put it back in your display until it goes back through the ammonia/trite/trate cycle somewhere else (bucket or tank with sw, heater and a PH)

[Myka]

+1 what he ^ said.

Personally, I'd just make an island of it, which is how I have mine in my tank, but mine got all over the rocks before I made the island. The whole left half of the tank. I have a short polyped specie though, not the typical GSP, so it's not as obtrusive, although I have noticed it does bother my Blastos and Acans if it touches them.

[Oxymoron]

Thanks for the suggestions.
Would Joe's Juice work? Has anyone had any succes with this? Does the purple "skeleton" of the GSP remain after eliminating with kalk paste?
Thanks again.

[sharuq1]

Skeleton? GSP is a soft coral. If it has a true hard skeleton you may have pipe organ. If you kill it with JJ it will likely melt away. I also had accidental success killing it with a 10 minute FW "dip" :redface: :lol:, the polyps pretty much exploded, the purple part eventually turned black and melted away. Who says mistakes aren't useful, eh? ;)

Personally I think you should peel it off and give it away then kill then remnants if you don't want it. Up to you, I just hate to kill things unless is aptasia or something.....

[Haloreef]

Could you remove the rock from your display and with a hammer and chissel, remove the affected area? You could then trade it to some one who would like it. (Not me, I hate the stuff.)
Pealing it off is labour intensive and not very effective. Any small pieces left stand a very good chance of returning. Pieces that may get away from you may start other colonies.
Like I said I hate the stuff. Yes it's "pretty" but it ain't SPS!
Good luck.

[JDigital]

My Powder Brown Tang nips at mine all the time... Hopefully he keeps the coral stressed enough to slow its spread... I have it isolated on its own rock, so if I does become a problem I can just yank the rock and be done with it. I definitely won't have GSP in my big tank when the day comes to add corals to it.

[my2rotties]

Aside of some people thinking they are ugly and they over take rocks, do they sting other corals? Do they cause any long term issues? I actually like them and have a colony of pink ones and some green... so long as they don't harm anything I would like to keep them.

[mark]

Aside of some people thinking they are ugly and they over take rocks, do they sting other corals? Do they cause any long term issues? I actually like them and have a colony of pink ones and some green... so long as they don't harm anything I would like to keep them.

I had some GSP that was against SPS with no problems other than slowly growing over, got another bunch that kills everything it touches.

Wish I never added the stuff to the tank.

[my2rotties]

What colour is the nasty stuff? Can you tell it apart form the normal looking stuff?

And I thought it was "pretty"...:sad:

I had some GSP that was against SPS with no problems other than slowly growing over, got another bunch that kills everything it touches.

Wish I never added the stuff to the tank.

[mark]

The really nice looking metallic green is aggressive, the pale stuff no problems (at least with me).

[Snaz]

My GSP is bumping up against some Zoas now and the Zoas are not happy about it.

[my2rotties]

Well that really sucks!!! I guess I have some thinking to do about it now...it looks like grass for crying out loud, never thought it would be nasty:wink: Thanks for the info.

[Oxymoron]

I've applied some Joe's Juice and will update in the morning as to my progress.

[msobon]

GSP is like a weed, great started coral as you can pretty much put it through nuclear war in your tank and it will still live.
Getting rid of it is the hard part, you can try different injections etc, best way is never to get GSP in the first place:p:p

Since Option A was already exhausted as you probably have GSP in your tank and want to remove it, you can do it the old manual way with a few options:

- Remove all loose rock with GSP and boil/dip the GSP grown part, then let it cool and it basically peals off like skin on a chiken (Very brutal process and yes this will most likely kill anything else on the rocks)

- Use a sharp Scalpel/Cutting pliers and anything else you can find to scrape the nice purple film of GSP (usually it's impossible to get the whole thing and you'll notice is growing back from the smallest piece you missed of just could not get)

[trouble]

can some one help a rookie out and tell me what gsp stands for so i can look it up. sounds like i don't want any in my tank.!!!

[Oxymoron]

can some one help a rookie out and tell me what gsp stands for so i can look it up. sounds like i don't want any in my tank.!!!

Green Star Polyps

http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/greenstars.htm

So far I havn't seen any kind of polyp extension since using the joe's juice.
The purple film is still in tact and doesn't seem to of been affected.

I will update later if there is any polyp extension. Might have to try the freshwater dip idea.

[Oxymoron]

Aside of some people thinking they are ugly and they over take rocks, do they sting other corals? Do they cause any long term issues? I actually like them and have a colony of pink ones and some green... so long as they don't harm anything I would like to keep them.

It appears that gsp doesn't have any kind of stinging ability. The main problem with it is it's ability to grow like a weed and spread like crazy.

The article above talks about the posibility of gsp attaching itself to the rear glass of the aquarium. If it could be kept under control it would be quite the background.

[msobon]

It appears that gsp doesn't have any kind of stinging ability. The main problem with it is it's ability to grow like a weed and spread like crazy.

The article above talks about the posibility of gsp attaching itself to the rear glass of the aquarium. If it could be kept under control it would be quite the background.

Even with it being isolated, Sandbed/Glass GSP has a tendency to pro-create meaning it will grow little pieces(layers gsp growin on GSP) that fall off and get carried with the water current, without constant monitoring etc you're bound to have an GSP infestation.

[Oxymoron]

^ This worries me a bit.

Since adding the Joe's Juice to a small area, the GSP hasn't extended any polyps.
The purple skin doesn't seem to of been affected or harmed at all. I added a second layer of JJ and am hoping to see some kind of progress in the next couple of days. I will update with any progress.

[J.Lloy]

When i first started reefing I added Reef Iodide for my softies and the GSP slowly died off. I don't know what else it might effect though.

[Oxymoron]

The Joe's Juice seems to be working very well. Parts of the area that I applied it too have already returned to original rock and so far there has been no polyp extension on the treated areas.
I am hopeful that this will fix my mistake and am glad I didn't have to actually remove anything from the tank. If you made the same mistake, using JJ or perhaps a kalk paste should help solve your problem.