Neomeris Annulata

jorge0912 · Nov 7, 2017

is this good or invasive killing algae??
my biocube 29 gallon is about a year old and i just noticed like 6 sprouts of this things 5 in a rock with a huge kenya tree and one in a rock full of mushrooms how can i kill it and not get it back in the system.....

flsalty · Nov 8, 2017

It can become invasive if conditions are right. I remember reading in another forum there was speculation that a high boron content can cause a lot of growth. There was some concern about Sea Chem salt, but I don't know if any of that was conclusive.

jorge0912 · Nov 8, 2017

pluged them out today i missed one doe ill take it out tommorow maybe hydrogen peroxide ???

Victoria M · Nov 9, 2017

Cover with putty and say a little prayer. I hate the stuff. I have battled it for years. Too many theead about it taking over and yet many people report it comes and goes with no problems.

flsalty · Nov 9, 2017

Some people complain they can't grow it...lol

nautical_nathaniel · Nov 9, 2017

It sure does look neat but I can understand how it would be a pain to deal with if it took off.

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2017

My take on neo

We have battles documented with it and peroxide and any other thing you can imagine dosing at it when invaded at reefcentral/pest algae challenge thread and it's rated number one tank scourge.

Above every scourge I've ever seen posted if hyperbole helps any

I'd take a straight vial of your best ostreopsis into my delicate old reef vs one rock that once had neo five years ago, was treated and hasn't been seen since.

For sure in some tanks it's ornamental and stays isolated due to X variable

But in the tanks they want corrected it is not beat. We spiked two quarts of *35%* peroxide all at once into a ruined neo test tank in that thread, by accident lol

Result

Complete tank loss even down to ammonia issues and it's darn hard to kill a nitrifier bed. Neo remained.

It's classification on the ironic marine algae database is moderately easy to care for. It's true Linnean clarification is

from mars take the whole rock out.

acro-ed · Nov 9, 2017

I had a tank many years ago that was totally overrun by Neomeris annulata. This was in college and I moved my 90g tank to a new apartment. This included moving the sand bed (bad idea). I had maybe one or two N.A. "bananas" in the tank previously, but once in the new apartment it kept multiplying like crazy. I got to the point where every rock had hundreds of bananas and nothing would knock it back. I finally sucked the sand out and scrubbed the rocks and it slowly dwindled into nothing. I attribute it to the "stirred up" sand releasing all sorts of nutrient and decay into the water, coupled with some luscious 10k MH lighting.... it was a perfect storm for the N.A. I've never seen it since in any of my later tanks.

-Ed

flsalty · Nov 9, 2017

acro-ed said:
I had a tank many years ago that was totally overrun by Neomeris annulata. This was in college and I moved my 90g tank to a new apartment. This included moving the sand bed (bad idea). I had maybe one or two N.A. "bananas" in the tank previously, but once in the new apartment it kept multiplying like crazy. I got to the point where every rock had hundreds of bananas and nothing would knock it back. I finally sucked the sand out and scrubbed the rocks and it slowly dwindled into nothing. I attribute it to the "stirred up" sand releasing all sorts of nutrient and decay into the water, coupled with some luscious 10k MH lighting.... it was a perfect storm for the N.A. I've never seen it since in any of my later tanks.

-Ed

I have a question for you or anybody who has had this problem. Do they overgrow coral or are they harmful in any other way?

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2017

brb w pic of eventuals for the unlucky

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2017

why, post #10 heh
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/neomeris-annulata-reboot-only-option.279012/

we also had a some reports of easy correction, for sure outliers will exist in any bio turf battle. recurring correction threads for it are the rare stuff

its only a monster in threads where people show up to beat it, after having tried many times.

acro-ed · Nov 9, 2017

flsalty said:
I have a question for you or anybody who has had this problem. Do they overgrow coral or are they harmful in any other way?

It’s not that it “killed” the coral, but it would grow right up to the edge and prevent it from encrusting/expanding out. I remember having some on the edge of an open brain and the N.A. irritated the tissue bc it couldn’t “expand” over the rapidly growing bananas. Same for acros trying to encrust out; the algae would grow right up to the edge so that the coral was “healthy” but didn’t want to encrust any further. Very frustrating. Others may have different experiences.

-Ed

flsalty · Nov 9, 2017

acro-ed said:
It’s not that it “killed” the coral, but it would grow right up to the edge and prevent it from encrusting/expanding out. I remember having some on the edge of an open brain and the N.A. irritated the tissue bc it couldn’t “expand” over the rapidly growing bananas. Same for acros trying to encrust out; the algae would grow right up to the edge so that the coral was “healthy” but didn’t want to encrust any further. Very frustrating. Others may have different experiences.

-Ed

Thanks! And you answered another question I had which was if corals would grow on it or over it. Sounds like it might do a little chemical warfare of it's own.

brandon429 · Nov 9, 2017

hey you know what would be new and definitive measures regarding neo for the google searches

take a test rock of it and break off a chunk that sections the invasion area. we are dying to know if this invader is holdfast mediated, little anchoring tendrils creeping in and through the rock, or is each individual stalk terminating deep into the rock as solitary, implying a water-borne transmission vector for the tanks that do wind up becoming a problem. we do not have that info in anyone's pic or documentation. it would be sick if the plant can use acidic root systems to bore into rock and weave through it. its origination from mars will be most assured then

jorge0912 · Nov 13, 2017

little update
i have been dealing with this for days now..
i plugged them out and well new little head s are coming out
it was on two rocks one with mushrooms and another one with my kenya tree

the one on the mush room seemed to not grow back but the kenya tree is now with 10 more heads ... id doo not want to restart tank maybe hydrogen peroxide in a bucket with the rock and then scrub it rinse and back in tank as black out has done nothing and well this thing cant be killed.. anyone think it will hurt my kenya tree or mushrooms if i do this ???

brandon429 · Nov 13, 2017

It cannot be controlled in an aquarium once established. Your option is to take out the rocks containing it.

That thread linked has all required info, nobody made a cure in it.
Nobody online has ever corrected a neo invasion twice in a single thread, that means something.

we've been doing algae cure threads for seven years or so in long running posts... Peroxide won't work as noted.

The only neo corrections online are ones from someone's tank at home, it's not via online documented ability to restore in other's tanks. this remarks well on the invader, a combination of either fragmenting or spore reproduction makes it number one invader. The longer the delay, the more likely 100% infection. The time to remove and never put back a neo rock is when the first sprig is seen.

It's the worst in reefing. Contrast that to GHA challenge tanks where our documented cure rate is upwards of 90%

For neo to wreck a tank it only commands two things: happenstance import and hesitation. Not a single tank parameter including salinity and temp differences harsh changes will affect it, when it does, Google will have pics of the two cures posted in one post to show ability.

jorge0912 · Nov 13, 2017

i broke some peaces of a huge rock that had the algae and on one of the rock toked
the whole rock off and just left a little peace with the kenya tree hope fully it does not come again

Victoria M · Nov 14, 2017

My experience was that it's presence waxed and waned, even down to not even being visible. I remember when it first appeared in my tank I sent a picture to wetwebmedia and was told it was not very common, preferred reef conditions and would likley dwindle away. Not how it went thogh. lol. When I stopped using kalk one summer it died back. Then about a year or so later Bryopsis came and I used diflucan. Then neo went crazy towards the back of the rocks where I could not see them.