Identify Please, unknowns on my Live Rock

[Ashish Patel]

The rock you got is going to save you maybe 20+ new tank problems! Best of luck

 

[GibsonGuitars]

So, stopped by the LFS and discovered the origin of the one of a kind rock (they have no others like it anywhere in there live rock bin) appears that one of the new employees was cleaning out the sump on the massive frag tank and found this rock inside of it. They knock off the coral growing on it and put it back... but this time He knocked off the coral (for reasons unknown), tossed it into the live rock tank. He expects I should see several more species of coral pop up in the near future. LFS suggested I go nuclear, remove the rock, sand , water and filter media and start completely over. They even offered to replace all of the sand, live rock, media, water at no charge. He thinks because it was in the sump and had no care given it’s to infested to be worth the benefits. He says all of the inside crevices will be full of the worms and snails that I can’t reach, and will forever be battling them... Chime in on the LFS opinion please.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

By the way, so far I’m thinking it’s a huge boost to have such an established rock, and I’m leaning towards keeping it and dealing with the pests... I wasn’t even thinking of removal until they suggested it’s not worth the trouble...

 

[brandon429]

Perfect intuition. They’re doing the best they can to be loyal to their customer, but you can tell its a great score, the zos are about fifteen bucks worth or ten depending, and the ric would be 15-20$ in my lfs. All the worms shown not a big deal. Lift rock out obliterate aiptasias. Use a blue jet creme broulet torch on aiptasias, we did it with camping wind proof lighters.

it won’t harm the rock these are established ways, just showing the range of creativity. I just chisel mine out handling the rock like a dentist does to a bad tooth, directly and resolutely. Nothing needs replacing everything they sold you is great.


when green hair algae pops up one day, impress us with how you disallowed it, pick any resolved approach / apply show the former algae spots, not the spots with algae. With this approach, you skip uglies phase, like u skipped the cycle. This reef can be skipped into corals, kill the aiptasias and go buy fifty bucks of frags. It’s not rushing, it’s directly indicated you already have two frags. Rushing would be adding fish before researching disease controls.

you have very matured live rocks / call was made early on

these are permanent biofilters in full, nothing else needed no matter what you add to the tank. You can reef to any degree you want, it’s ready cuz the rocks are old. You have a matured reef, not a new one


disclaimer. burning aips is harmless. If you burn a palythoa youll wipe out the entire west coast, even if you’re on the East.

 

[brandon429]

This thread is added to post #1 of the microbiology of cycling thread as an example of benthic verification / cycle completion by associates seen.

 

[OKCorals]

So, stopped by the LFS and discovered the origin of the one of a kind rock (they have no others like it anywhere in there live rock bin) appears that one of the new employees was cleaning out the sump on the massive frag tank and found this rock inside of it. They knock off the coral growing on it and put it back... but this time He knocked off the coral (for reasons unknown), tossed it into the live rock tank. He expects I should see several more species of coral pop up in the near future. LFS suggested I go nuclear, remove the rock, sand , water and filter media and start completely over. They even offered to replace all of the sand, live rock, media, water at no charge. He thinks because it was in the sump and had no care given it’s to infested to be worth the benefits. He says all of the inside crevices will be full of the worms and snails that I can’t reach, and will forever be battling them... Chime in on the LFS opinion please.

Honestly, say you did restart and completely wipe the tank, you might end up with all of the same issues 6 months from now anyway. It's really your call. You'll just have to decide if the risk is worth the reward. The only reason I started out with dry rock instead of live rock was because it was cheaper. That's it.

 

[GibsonGuitars]

My only advice on wavemakers is to not go cheap (too late it sounds). You'll just end up buying the cheap one and then a more expensive one later. I learned that one the hard way.

Ok, unbelievable but the cheapo wavemaker I bought seams to be working very well! It was $8, it’s about 2.5” and it seems to be giving me a moderate but full flow of water. I could probably use two to get a more powerful flow or step up one size... but shocked it’s working very well. I’ll post pics tomorrow... going to start a thread for my build since it’s my first and I am sure I’ll need tons of help.

 

[S.K.]

Very lucky . free softies good for you buddy!

 

[StatelineReefer]

Do not go hog wild crazy on the aiptasia. Find a local reef club if you have one in your area, join it, and see if anyone has any bergia nudibranch they're willing to loan out to defeat your arch-nemesis. Just keep in mind that once your aiptasia is gone, they will need to be passed along the chain of custody to the next infested victim.

Berghia are obligate feeders, they can only eat Aiptasia.