Trash all my corals?

9supratt4 · Oct 2, 2012

So now that I am finally moving on my rebuild, I have come to another dilemma...

My tank before the crash was a cesspool of bryopsis and aptasia. The corals that have survived the crash and in the 55 with the aptasia fields (you've got to see it...it's amazing how many aptasia there are in this tank now) are still alive. Some of the sps is actually doing very well considering.

My dilemma is...do I literally trash all my coral to avoid aptasia and bryopsis in the new tank? I would really hate to just throw them out since they are still alive and I don't have the money to replace them all. I have tricolor valida, orange setosa, candy cane coral, chalice (from darren), hydnophora, ricordia, frogspawn, blastomussa....i think that's it.

What should I do??

jgraz · Oct 2, 2012

The coral itself should be clean of aptasia and byopsis. Just remove the coral from what ever rock it's on. This will work for and SPS. Most LPS should be fine this way as well. The only LPS that may have a problem would be the branching types like hammer and frogspawn for instance. The branches may have problems attached.

jgraz · Oct 2, 2012

Also dipping should take care of aptasia. At least I would think so. Not sure about the bryopsis though

boontonbob · Oct 2, 2012

Hey Steve - I am sure you probably tried this, but did you ever buy three or four peppermint shrimp and throw them in? I had between 75-100 visible in my reef and was starting to go route of trying to eradicate them one at time by kalk dosing and the lye method. I stopped in frustration and decided to give the shrimp a try and wouldn't you know they were gone in a matter of a couple weeks. Of course I have since had an onslaught of mojave anenomes threatening my rock. Nothing's easy!

Classklown90 · Oct 3, 2012

jgraz said:
The coral itself should be clean of aptasia and byopsis. Just remove the coral from what ever rock it's on. This will work for and SPS. Most LPS should be fine this way as well. The only LPS that may have a problem would be the branching types like hammer and frogspawn for instance. The branches may have problems attached.

+1 id say this is your best bet

AJ1080 · Oct 3, 2012

jgraz said:
The coral itself should be clean of aptasia and byopsis. Just remove the coral from what ever rock it's on. This will work for and SPS. Most LPS should be fine this way as well. The only LPS that may have a problem would be the branching types like hammer and frogspawn for instance. The branches may have problems attached.

+1

Remove the corals from the rock and then just nuke all of the rock. If you have a QT tank put all of the corals in he QT tank and then just watch them for the aiptasia. If anything pops up kill it. This should be a lot easer since youll just be worried about the aiptasia in a small area and not a whole tank.

Gonzapa · Oct 3, 2012

Steve I am sure that whatever you had can be replaced with donations from the members. as bad as your tank was unless you are fraging whatever is clearly clean and starting from scratch on a frag tank I would not put any of it back!. you are welcome to have some frags from my frag tank for free is you want to drop by

dan_k · Oct 3, 2012

Gonzapa said:
Steve I am sure that whatever you had can be replaced with donations from the members. as bad as your tank was unless you are fraging whatever is clearly clean and starting from scratch on a frag tank I would not put any of it back!. you are welcome to have some frags from my frag tank for free is you want to drop by

+1 if you are ever in maple shade please let me know I have some really nice blue milli and green slimmer and couple different birds nest frags I can give you I wouldn't take any chances all that time cooking rock and cleaning the tank I would start with a clean slate

Hawkeye · Oct 3, 2012

I have a softball sized hunk of candy cane. It started as 3 heads from greg. Needless to say if you want to start over, more than happy to chip in. No frogspawn but plenty of hammer coral (similar). My setosa is very small.

I had bryopsis about 2 years ago and pretty sure I eradicated it all thru 3 gallons of tech M. (not all at once of course). I haven't seen it come back but may as well disclose that.

If it were me, I'd try and set up a nano tank with the prized corals (e.g. slow growing ones like setosa) I want and keep them in there as a QT and observe. If they pass muster after 4 weeks - put them in.

9supratt4 · Oct 3, 2012

This is a REALLY crappy decision!! I have grown the damn corals out from frags. The tank crashed and I was once again left with frags. I have been helping them survive all this time, but I know I am going to have to get rid of them or risk the same issues I had before. This sucks!

ThatGuy · Oct 3, 2012

Well if you do decide to trash them I'd be more than happy to bring you a trashbag to throw them in.

albie611 · Oct 3, 2012

if you decide your going to trash them ...please let me know.... i would like to try and nurse them back to health in my QT set up, and would gladly return them when they are healthy

ThatGuy · Oct 3, 2012

If you don't want to go the route of the shrimp there is also a nubi that eats aptasia. I'm pretty sure its a Berghia Nudibranchs. They'll clean house.

9supratt4 · Oct 3, 2012

albie611 said:
if you decide your going to trash them ...please let me know.... i would like to try and nurse them back to health in my QT set up, and would gladly return them when they are healthy

I may take you up on this. I can't run two tanks here, so I don't have a QT able to keep corals alive.

ThatGuy said:
If you don't want to go the route of the shrimp there is also a nubi that eats aptasia. I'm pretty sure its a Berghia Nudibranchs. They'll clean house.

I've looked into the Berghia, but they are crazy expensive for something that just dies when the aptasia are gone. Plus the bryopsis worries me. There is none in the 55 right now, but I'm worried about tanking the chance.

ThatGuy · Oct 3, 2012

9supratt4 said:
I've looked into the Berghia, but they are crazy expensive for something that just dies when the aptasia are gone. Plus the bryopsis worries me. There is none in the 55 right now, but I'm worried about tanking the chance.

If you use them ontop of taking the corals off the rocks they are currently on you would be good. I don't know where you're looking but there's a place online that breeds them and they are super cheap. I'll PM you the link.

Nickjr000 · Oct 4, 2012

Set up a frag tank, break off biggest pieces of corals with out any rock on em, and put them in. Watch them for a while. If nothing pops up u should b ok.

NikkiT · Oct 4, 2012

For what is worth, I would frag the sps, and put the frags in your new tank.
regarding the LPS, I would take a look at the skeletons: do they have algae on them? Do they have apstatia on them? If they have apstatia on them, I would take the coal out, apstatia x. If there is briopsis, that can be a different matter. If the skeletons have briopsis on them, I would consider if you are willing to increase your mag enough to bring it under controll. If not, maybe it is better to give them away or cut off what you can save that is pest free.
I personally hate throwing away coral, but i have thrown away frags I have gotten with flat worms on them, so I understand your predicament.