tank clean-out

[davebzak]

hello,

I am going to be cleaning out my tank tomorrow because of an anemone coral that has taken over. I will mostly be removing a lot of rock and cleaning the sandbed. my main question is once i remove the rock from the aquarium the water level will go down drastically, do i fill it back up with clean ro-di water or saltwater?

OFF the topic a little, but i was also wondering if i could possibly simply soak my live rock in regular ro/do water for a couple days to kill off the coral that has taken over, then place it back in to the tank. would this work? or is it best to just throw the rock out?

 

[Bifferwine]

Your rocks are covered in a pest anemone? Like majano or aiptasia?

If you take the rocks out, you need to fill it up again with saltwater. If you add freshwater, the salinity of your tank will go down.

You could soak your rock in RODI water, but I can guarantee that some of the anemones would survive (I know from experience)! You are better of letting the rock dry out, or boiling the rock on the stove. You do know that doing this will kill everything else on the rock too -- not just the anemones, right? Your rock will no longer be live rock, but it will be dead rock. Throwing out the rock would be a waste, because once the anemones are killed off, you can put it back in your tank and re-seed it with good bacteria.

Have you tried other methods of getting rid of the anemones? There are ways to kill them without killing all the live rock in your tank. If you remove all the live rock in your tank and kill it, you will probably start a cycle, which could put everything in your tank in danger. The rock is what provides most of the bacteria in your system.

 

[yote]

+1 Biff
And welcome to the site.

 

[davebzak]

i could never identify what kind of anemone it actually is. All i know is it looks somewhat like ricordea but more buble like. it is blue in color and has a green mouth in the middle. I have attached an image so maybe someone here knows what it is and has a better way to remove it.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...from what I see in the picture, that doesn't look like a pest anemone to me, it looks like a few frilly/hairy mushrooms. You could try to take the rocks to your lfs and swap them out for the same amount of live rock from them.

 

[davebzak]

after seeing the amount of aiptasia the local fish stores around my area have i would rather just keep my rock. Is there a way to control this coral though just so it doesnt take over all my other corals?

 

[Smitty]

What area of chicago are you located? I know a few lfs with decent rock.

 

[Bifferwine]

Those are hairy mushrooms. You can take a razor blade and pry them up from their feet. Try not to leave any flesh on the rock. I have a bunch of those myself that my clowns host. I pruned back a bunch of them a few weeks ago, as I had over 200 of them in my tank. This is a messy way, but it also works: you can try grabbing the mushroom so it closes up. Then gently peel them off the rock with your hands. It's messy because they will squirt their guts.

But those are no reason to get rid of or kill your rocks. Like Smitty said, fish stores will pay good money for mushroom rocks like that. They are a desirable coral.

There are lots of LFS in and near Chicago -- we have several members here from there. Find a different store that doesn't have pests on their rock, and trade it in there.

 

[PRC]

If you want to get rid of them I'd consider buying them from you....Sent you a PM.