Hitchhikers in my chaeto

[saltwatercube]

The chaeto I bought from my LFS for the refugium I was planning on putting in my middle chamber was a mess. I have a 24 gallon AIO nano cube that is a month old and has two clownfish. I saw somewhere to quarantine chaeto for 14 days, so I set up my QT tank with water from my main tank that had nitrates. I made sure to only touch the chaeto with gloves, but it had quite a few hitchhikers of asterina starfish and snails. I have seen so much conflict on whether the asterinas are good or bad, but ultimately I think they won't be in my tank, but I have no clue what the snails are.

I planned on doing the recommended coral dip then freshwater dip to get rid of the possible aiptasia after a few days, but I'm seeing so much conflict on if any of this is even necessary at all.

Any advice for the chaeto or any of the hitchhikers?

 

[KrisReef]

I don't give Chaeto away because I don't want to pass on aiptasia, stars, or any other potential hitchhikers that folks might find in their tank from a gift.

If you want to visually pick through and clean it of obvious problems it still could have infectous critters and bacteria that could impact your tank. But i don't like telling folks that so I give it to my LFS and they handle any blow back that a customer might have.

IF you don't have stars, pick them out. Aiptasia can usually be found and removed as well. Look for other algaes that you may not want, and you will likely be good to go.

Snails? If they are pointed I toss them but I keep the others, usually. Keep limpets also if you want them.