Killing Live Rocks to get rids of Hydroids advice plz

[mrvincent]

Hi, need help ! Here's my situation.

Hi have an unknown pest: Hydroids or stranges parasites looking like aiptasias.

I have a 20g, with 20 pounds of live sand and 20 pounds of live rock.

My idea is to kill ALL my LR with javel or something else (boil?).

Here's the question:
Is the live sand alone enough to keep my live stock alive ? (nitrogen cycle)

Here's my bioload:
- 2 clownfishs
- lot of zoanthids
- 2 headed torch coral and 5 headed duncan coral.

I have a 50-90g HOB protein skimmer and a lot of water aeration.


Can u give me advice on that ? I don't plan killing thoses parasites with kalk/chems or superglue or anything else, I want a PERFECT CLEAN tank !

Here's what the parasites look like:

Thanks for any help !

 

[mrvincent]

Anyways... I just started the process... Don't want thoses hydroids to spread on my frags rocks.

Before:

After:

150$ live rocks wasted

 

[Mebbid]

Is the live sand alone enough to keep my live stock alive ? (nitrogen cycle)

Very very unlikely. I would invest in a sizable ball of chaeto immediately as well as some prime.

Also, never ever boil live rock. There was a man that did and it almost gassed him, his family, and his dog to death.

 

[mrvincent]

Very very unlikely. I would invest in a sizable ball of chaeto immediately as well as some prime.

Also, never ever boil live rock. There was a man that did and it almost gassed him, his family, and his dog to death.

Yeah I heard that story about the guy that put boiling water on a zoa rock. The LR are in a bucket with 50/50 fw/bleach.

My clownfishs are mad, they attack my hands, I will monitor ammonia via API tests. Can't put cheatos, I don't have sump/refugium....

U think I'll get a spike even with the sand ?
Never seen an ammonia spike in a reef, what will be the firsts symptoms ? Fishs gasping at surface or more coral not opening ?
Also, my protein skimmer is overpowered for this tank and I do carbon dosing... Should I stop carbon dosing ?

 

[Mebbid]

The coral having problems will be your first sign. The fish are a little more resilient than the coral.

I cant give advice about the carbon dosing though, because ive never really looked into it. The skimmer will help though.

The chaeto can go srraight into the display. Thats what I do when I qt a fish to prevent an ammonia spike.

 

[mrvincent]

The coral having problems will be your first sign. The fish are a little more resilient than the coral.

I cant give advice about the carbon dosing though, because ive never really looked into it. The skimmer will help though.

The chaeto can go srraight into the display. Thats what I do when I qt a fish to prevent an ammonia spike.

The carbon dosing increase the amount and coloration (darker) of the gunk going in the protein skimmer... But I don't know if it require LR to work... I'll try to wet skim as much as possible.

Unfortunately, the only reef store here is moving, and it's closed for some more weeks... The only guy I know that have cheatos is in travel for 5 more months... I'll monitor NH3/NO2 in 4 days, and watch for any symptoms on corals/fishs...

I'll be [how to say politely d amned?] if I get a spike... I have nothing to keep the cycle working... Except some cycling product like Seachem Stability... Nutrafin Cycle... I can dose prime, but I don't think that's made for a long term usage...

Maybe massive waterchanges ? But this will be salt expensive (RedSea salts and RODI water)... Time demanding too... And bad for corals... But I was infested by pests... Aiptasia-X didn't worked to kill thoses (hydroids?)...

That's a sad day for me... Lost all my brittle stars (they were in rocks), lost a lot of zoans (rocks were infested)... 150$ rocks killed...
I really hope the sand do the job... Can I push my R420R LED Lights to 100%-100% instead 70%-70% ? And more time during day... Can this help ? They're currently dimmed to prevent algaes. Maybe a moonlight setting can help ?

 

[Mebbid]

Do you live in the us? I have some caulerpa and chaeto I could probably ship to you.

Do you have a hob filter or an air pump?

 

[SeanMonster]

Aptasia X will kill those. Apply it just like you would to Aptasia. I have a few that I zapped with it a few months ago.


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[mr_X]

Eesh....awful risky for some hydroids. I would have killed them manually. I would keep some prime or amquel on hand as well.

 

[mrvincent]

Do you live in the us? I have some caulerpa and chaeto I could probably ship to you.

Do you have a hob filter or an air pump?

I live in Quebec, Canada. I have a Fluval C4 as HOB filter (for filter pad only), I have a powerfull 50-90g HOB skimmer on the 20g, two powerheads 240 GPH.

I'll ask on local forums if there's somebody near my home having this algae (plant?) for me. I fear introducing more pests... Outside temperature here is near 0C° at night, so hard to ship things....

Can I dip cheatos with iodine (Seachem Reef Dip) ?

 

[mrvincent]

I just bought a 3 pounds dead rock very porous to start the cycle immidiately. The guy at the reef store told me carbon dosing is for helping bacterias. So carbon + BB in bottle + no skimmer for a day should help. They don't sell their cheatos, they have not finished the moving process.

Thanks guys for your advices !

 

[Mebbid]

I just bought a 3 pounds dead rock very porous to start the cycle immidiately. The guy at the reef store told me carbon dosing is for helping bacterias. So carbon + BB in bottle + no skimmer for a day should help. They don't sell their cheatos, they have not finished the moving process.

Thanks guys for your advices !

If im not mistaken, carbon dosing works through heterotrophic bacteria not our beneficial nitrifying bacteria. The heterotrophic bacteria then needs to be skimmed out to remove the nutrients it takes up or else it will just die and redeposit them.

Also, adding dead rock will likely cause an ammonia spike all on its own.

 

[54seaweed]

as long as you have no live stock
i would think the sand bed would hold enough bb to support all the coral
as long as your not feeding corals
i would add a hob filter fill it with live rock rubble just to be safe
i kept a feeder tank bare except for a small filter with live rock rubble and a small golf ball size of cheato in tank and that was a 20g long with 100s of live feeder shrimp and never seen a spike with 5g weekly water changes and the feeder tank had a ammonia source
but if its just coral i think you'd be safe
its just like a frag tank

 

[mrvincent]

but if its just coral i think you'd be safe
its just like a frag tank

With 2 clownfishs.

I maximum fed my corals and fishs 1 day before removing rocks, now I minimum feed my clowns. I'll add BioMax (porous ceramic) to my Fluval C4. My corals can be fine for 3-4 weeks without feeding...

Also, adding dead rock will likely cause an ammonia spike all on its own.

Oops, didn't know... I'll take a NH3 test tonight... :s


I'm just thinking about that... When my bleached rocks will be clean, there'll be a lot of nitrates phosphates in it probably ? There was a lot of brittle stars, amphipods and bristles worms in it... The bleach bucket is now brown and all gunky...

 

[Mebbid]

With 2 clownfishs.

I maximum fed my corals and fishs 1 day before removing rocks, now I minimum feed my clowns. I'll add BioMax (porous ceramic) to my Fluval C4. My corals can be fine for 3-4 weeks without feeding...

Oops, didn't know... I'll take a NH3 test tonight... :s


I'm just thinking about that... When my bleached rocks will be clean, there'll be a lot of nitrates phosphates in it probably ? There was a lot of brittle stars, amphipods and bristles worms in it... The bleach bucket is now brown and all gunky...

I am not 100% sure how that works. The decomposition process is how ammonia is made from proteins. But without bacteria in the water to act as decomposers I don't know how much ammonia will be left in the rock. I would imagine it's safe to put in bleach free water and start curing it by now.

 

[mrvincent]

I am not 100% sure how that works. The decomposition process is how ammonia is made from proteins. But without bacteria in the water to act as decomposers I don't know how much ammonia will be left in the rock. I would imagine it's safe to put in bleach free water and start curing it by now.

So I can rinse my rocks and put a lot of prime and all the thing, then put a powerhead (I have an extra 600 GPH) in the bucket and wait for thoses rocks to cure ?

Could I try to clean them with 4 gallons vinegar first ?

 

[Mebbid]

So I can rinse my rocks and put a lot of prime and all the thing, then put a powerhead (I have an extra 600 GPH) in the bucket and wait for thoses rocks to cure ?

Could I try to clean them with 4 gallons vinegar first ?

Yeah, the prime and bucket soak should be good enough. I wouldn't bother with the vinegar though.

 

[mrvincent]

Whoah, thoses rocks smell bleach like hell !
They secrete a nasty brown gunk !

 

[Mebbid]

Whoah, thoses rocks smell bleach like hell !
They secrete a nasty brown gunk !

heheh yeah, it's gross. I bleached a bunch of my rock not too long ago.

 

[mrvincent]

I fear nitrate raise when I'll put them back in the tank...