How to get rid of mushrooms

AXBROWN

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I have a 180 gallon reef that’s about 5 years old. I have some blue/purple mushrooms that I’ve had since 2013 in an 8 gallon nano tank (my first), and I’ve always loved them. Well after putting them into the 180, they’re population has EXPLODED. They are everywhere, and when I say I may have 5000 or more I am not exaggerating. They are all over the rocks, back wall, and just piled up in the corners by the over flows not attached to anything. Well now I am buying my first house, and moving the tank. I want to go mostly SPS and some LPS, but I need to get rid of these mushrooms first. They choke out and killed most of my other SPS colonies.

So I am wondering... is it possible to remove them all from the rocks, without killing all of the microfauna on the rocks? I would love to just move my existing live rock into the new area, so it doesn’t take as long to get the tank ready for acros, but I’m not sure of the best way to remove the MASSIVE numbers of mushrooms at once without just bleaching the rocks and starting from scratch. Any ideas?
 

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F Aiptasia works to kill them but can bleach the rock underneath.

I've recently tried vinegar a couple of times and had them detach from the rock to be siphoned out before they land somewhere else.
 
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AXBROWN

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F Aiptasia works to kill them but can bleach the rock underneath.

I've recently tried vinegar a couple of times and had them detach from the rock to be siphoned out before they land somewhere else.
How do you use the vinegar? I wouldn’t mind using Something like the F Aiptasia you mentioned but there’s just SOO MANY of them I’d have to do that with
 

davidcalgary29

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Mine popped off their rocks when I (mistakenly) raised salinity to 47ppt. You could also try turning up the lights; they might to decide to move if you did that, and you can remove the rocks before they find a new home.
 
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AXBROWN

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This is a good idea, but I run T5s that are non-dimmable. Maybe I could put the rock into a brute can with 47 ppt saltwater?
 

davidcalgary29

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This is a good idea, but I run T5s that are non-dimmable. Maybe I could put the rock into a brute can with 47 ppt saltwater?
It's worth a shot. It took mine a day or two to unmount. Unfortunately, I didn't figure out the problem for weeks...
 

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How do you use the vinegar? I wouldn’t mind using Something like the F Aiptasia you mentioned but there’s just SOO MANY of them I’d have to do that with
I use a small syringe and full strength vinegar. I applied it to some small ones(1/4 inch) and noticed they detached quickly. I then hit a few more right at the base of the stalk and they came off. I tried it a second time the other day on one that was creeping up a hammer base and it didn't detach as freely, but was really annoyed and closed up. I scraped it of with the tip of the syringe.

I have quite a few in my 29 gallon and they pop up everywhere in any crevice they can fit in. One was even in the hole at the top of a dead hammer stalk.
 
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AXBROWN

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Maybe I should just start from scratch I don’t want a single mushroom to make it to the new setup. Perhaps I can save a few rocks, but I may just bleach and cure the rest.
 

landlubber

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I have a 180 gallon reef that’s about 5 years old. I have some blue/purple mushrooms that I’ve had since 2013 in an 8 gallon nano tank (my first), and I’ve always loved them. Well after putting them into the 180, they’re population has EXPLODED. They are everywhere, and when I say I may have 5000 or more I am not exaggerating. They are all over the rocks, back wall, and just piled up in the corners by the over flows not attached to anything. Well now I am buying my first house, and moving the tank. I want to go mostly SPS and some LPS, but I need to get rid of these mushrooms first. They choke out and killed most of my other SPS colonies.

So I am wondering... is it possible to remove them all from the rocks, without killing all of the microfauna on the rocks? I would love to just move my existing live rock into the new area, so it doesn’t take as long to get the tank ready for acros, but I’m not sure of the best way to remove the MASSIVE numbers of mushrooms at once without just bleaching the rocks and starting from scratch. Any ideas?
i'd love to see a photo.
that result is why i'm steering clear of mushrooms this time around. if it isn't a bounce i'm not adding it.
 
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AXBROWN

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I will take some today and post it so you can see! Im going to manually remove as many as possible and see if I can keep the rocks I have. I don’t want to wait 12 months after using dry rock to restart this tank to get acros
 

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I will take some today and post it so you can see! Im going to manually remove as many as possible and see if I can keep the rocks I have. I don’t want to wait 12 months after using dry rock to restart this tank to get acros
Pick certain rocks to keep and nuke the rest. Do you have a LFS willing to take a mushroom covered rock for trade/credit? I see what looks like tank teardown mushroom/softy rocks all the time at my LFS.
 

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I will take some today and post it so you can see! Im going to manually remove as many as possible and see if I can keep the rocks I have. I don’t want to wait 12 months after using dry rock to restart this tank to get acros
agreed. the pain of waiting on biological maturity and dealing with every algae known to man is probably more infuriating than just clean sweeping the rock of shrooms.
consider calling your local lfs and maybe earning yourself some store credit in exchange for some of those bad boys too!
 
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AXBROWN

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I live 2 hours away from the closed LFS, so that wouldn’t be to easy. Probably better off nuking them if that’s the best long term option. If it is, I probably need to take out the rocks that I want to keep now and kill off the mushrooms on those. Like my rock covered in rose bubble tips :)
 
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AXBROWN

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Pardon the algae on the sand bed, having a little bit of an outbreak I’m getting back under control
 

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landlubber

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Pardon the algae on the sand bed, having a little bit of an outbreak I’m getting back under control
incredible how efficiently they spread!
i bought used equipment for a fw tank a few years ago and the lady that sold it had 15-20 reef tanks in her place and every tank was covered like that.
thanks very much for sharing :)
 

mdb_talon

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It may not be convenient, but would be a shame to kill all of those. If it were me I would try every avenue first (ie trade hobbyists for LFS for clean live rock in exchange for your mushroom rocks).... or if you gonna nuke them anyway could just trade for dry rock.
 

TheDragonsReef

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At that point removal would be alot of work and you'd probably never be able to get all of them. Id just sell the covered rocks to local reefers or turn into the lfs for credit and get new rock. You can always seed new rock with bacteria.
 

landlubber

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It may not be convenient, but would be a shame to kill all of those. If it were me I would try every avenue first (ie trade hobbyists for LFS for clean live rock in exchange for your mushroom rocks).... or if you gonna nuke them anyway could just trade for dry rock.
yes they could but it was already mentioned that the entire reason the rock is going to be cleared and saved was to avoid having to go through maturing dry rock again.
also, the reason I asked for photos to be posted was to show how crazy mushrooms can get if left to spread and from an educational standpoint, someone out there will see this and hopefully not allow the same takeover. not a total loss at all if we take a lesson from it.
 

mdb_talon

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yes they could but it was already mentioned that the entire reason the rock is going to be cleared and saved was to avoid having to go through maturing dry rock again.
also, the reason I asked for photos to be posted was to show how crazy mushrooms can get if left to spread and from an educational standpoint, someone out there will see this and hopefully not allow the same takeover. not a total loss at all if we take a lesson from it.
Sorry i was not aware the only valid opinions were yours i will know better next time.
 
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