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Hitchhikers in Live Rock

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paintballe48

I'm planning on redoing my tank in the near future and I would like to reuse my live rock for the new tank. (about 200 lbs) The only problem with it is there are quite a few hitchhikers in the LR. I have had a little trouble with antispasia on a few rocks but I kill them whenever I see them but I don't want any of that in the new tank. Also theres some bristleworms, spaghetti worms, Serpulid polychaete's... uhm theres some flatworms I see not really a problem but they are there. Also theres some astrea starfish.
The tank is well established, around 2 years. I was thinking of drying the rock out and restarting the curing process? but even that I am not really sure about because I have never had to do it before. Any help or tips and tricks you guys can give me is greatly appreciated thanks! =)
 
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duijver

Why do you want to cook the rocks? Other than first critter there those hitchhikers are beneficial to the entire system. If you really wanted to just get rid of them you can buy some bergais (spelling wrong) and for the flatworms you can use a chemical to nuke them. I used one of them in my two tanks a while ago and nothing died or showed signs of harm.

If you are really set on cooking the rocks then I would suggest doing a search on thereeftank or RC. When I first started out I had researched how to cook LRs on both sites and there are a few different methods. Some are chemical methods while others are as simple as removing the rock, putting them in closed containers with water and then heating them up to high temps. You would then run a skimmer wet to remove the organics (dead hitchhikers). You could also just do WCs ever (x) days. Then eventually seed the rock after I think 6 weeks of doing this.

It seemed to long for me since it was winter (like now) when I was getting into the hobby.
 
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paintballe48

duijver said:
Why do you want to cook the rocks? Other than first critter there those hitchhikers are beneficial to the entire system. If you really wanted to just get rid of them you can buy some bergais (spelling wrong) and for the flatworms you can use a chemical to nuke them. I used one of them in my two tanks a while ago and nothing died or showed signs of harm.

If you are really set on cooking the rocks then I would suggest doing a search on thereeftank or RC. When I first started out I had researched how to cook LRs on both sites and there are a few different methods. Some are chemical methods while others are as simple as removing the rock, putting them in closed containers with water and then heating them up to high temps. You would then run a skimmer wet to remove the organics (dead hitchhikers). You could also just do WCs ever (x) days. Then eventually seed the rock after I think 6 weeks of doing this.

It seemed to long for me since it was winter (like now) when I was getting into the hobby.
Click to expand...

The only thing with bergais (peppermant shrimp) is I have heard horror stories about them. Ive heard about them picking at lps and other anemones. I have a ton of frogspawn and hammer coral in my tank a large green carpet nem and a magnificent anemone. The flatworms i read about killing them and im not to worried there, but the antispasia really worries me. As for the spaghetti worms they tend to leave tubes in my sand that make the sand bed look dirty which I really dont like so much.
 
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duijver

I've never had a problem with peppermint shrimp ( I have 2 ) and I have two BTA's and some hammer, but each one is different and I did not pick them up for this problem.. although I did have a few before the peppermints and now they are gone.

The berghias are actually in the nudibranch family with a specific diet - http://berghia.net/. I think AO carries them or can order them. If not them one of our vendors with a B&M store has had them in the past.
 
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paintballe48

ohhhh ok I saw those once before and forgot all about them. I guess ill give them a shot and see how they work. Also one more question on this I have a brown looking algae that gets on my sand glass rocks everything I can blow it off super easy is it some type of diatom? I have a diatom filter and I run it like every week for two hours.
 
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1201139

paintballe48 said:
ohhhh ok I saw those once before and forgot all about them. I guess ill give them a shot and see how they work. Also one more question on this I have a brown looking algae that gets on my sand glass rocks everything I can blow it off super easy is it some type of diatom? I have a diatom filter and I run it like every week for two hours.
Click to expand...
i have the same thing. if you really ook at it is it alomost like a reddish brown?i havent been able to id it
 
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paintballe48

1201139 said:
paintballe48 said:
ohhhh ok I saw those once before and forgot all about them. I guess ill give them a shot and see how they work. Also one more question on this I have a brown looking algae that gets on my sand glass rocks everything I can blow it off super easy is it some type of diatom? I have a diatom filter and I run it like every week for two hours.
Click to expand...
i have the same thing. if you really ook at it is it alomost like a reddish brown?i havent been able to id it
Click to expand...

Unfortunitally not yet. I think its some type of diatom because thats the closest thing it looks and sounds like.
 
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paintballe48

well not to that extent but yes it does. I just introduced a sand sifting starfish and 15 huge naccisarus snails so we will see what that does =)
 
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1201139

the type of snails u got apparently are very good for that "algae". but i dont actually know i just read it somewhere ;D
 
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