help please

louisa

Reefing newb
Hello I'm new to this site but need a little help
I have had a FOWLR tank, 33 gallons, for a few months now and have been keeping up with it faithfully. my chocolate chip star fish is making me nervous.... she went to the bottom of the tank and started to curl up and flipped over moved around the bottom of the tank then went back up to her normal spot at the top of the tank.... what does this mean?!?!?!?! I check all my levels and everything is where it should be!! HELP PLEASE and thank you
 
Hi and welcome to LR!

I don't know much about choco's but posting your actual parameters will help rule out some things. How long have you had the star?
I've had her for over 2 months and she's never done this before she keeps going to the bottom and going back up
PH is 8.2 ammonia is 0ppm nitrite is 0ppm and nitrate is 0ppm from what I have been told and looked up those are all good right? Oh and salinity is 1.022 temp is 78 is she just being really active?
 
Yea she just had piece of frozen shrimp they sell at the pet store her tummy is still out now actually other than that she eats good and thank you both for replying to my cry for help ♡♡
 
And my salinity level is usually at about 1.024-1.025 but I just cycled some water out and I mix my own salt water 2 days ago, could that be why she did that? Right now she calmed down and is in her normal spot on the tank
 
This is what she was doing
 

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No. That's a good amount of water but you need to make sure the salinity and temperature match what is in the tank already.
 
That curling tells me one thing, your alkalinity is low. Echinoderms are VERY sensitive to this, urchins will shed spines if your alkalinity and calcium is too low. Sorry I didn't see this before. They aren't as sensitive to salinity changes as they are to those environmental parameters. Sorry i didn't see this sooner or I'd have chimed in, learned about the alkalinity thing the hard way with a Blue starfish. :(
 
I fixed my salinity levels, they were a little low she seems to be doing much better I just gave her some clams she seems very content now :) thank goodness!!
I do have one question I have the one patch on my sand and it's a reddish color is that normal I've never had that in the tank before Ivery been told yellow and brown are algae growing so that's a good sign but red? Help!! Lol
 
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