Pest and Pestilence: What the WORST you have ever faced in your reefing career?

[Gatorpa]

I lost my 65 gal due to a mushroom explosion. And the few things they didn't kill, fell victim to my negligence once the situation turned hopeless. This happened at the height of lockdown. I was wavering on how to proceed but my only option was a full reboot. I can't find a pic of the full tank when it was overrun, but this one shows a little bit. When I went from LED to T5/LED hybrid, the things took off and spread everywhere quickly.

Kalkwasser them too

 

[Sunny in Miami]

For me its bryopsis. I have what I believe to be bryopsis in my tank. Purchased a black long spine sea urchin thinking at the time I only had GHA. The sea urchin is doing great and so is the bryopsis! Unfortunately bryopsis is not on his menu of faves. I was advised to bring the magnesium up to 1500 to kill the bryopsis but I dont want to kill my sea urchin or cleaner shrimp with high mag level.

 

[littlebigreef]

BCP by a wide margin.

 

[Pelagikos]

All of the above give me nightmares, but having fish in my tank as well as coral and other reef inhabitants....
it's a real tricky situation to try to catch fish and treat them without harming the corals.
Proper QT is a must but sometimes things slip by or pop up months later. ‍

 

[Pelagikos]

This crab i caught on camera has been wreaking havok for at least a year... its at least 1.5 in and has killed som snails, bangais, and ehsrk nose goby. Its too cunning to catch, so itll just stay until it get replaced by something worse i guess...
Gif via imgur

 

[Elise_]

Add a banded coral shrimp to the your tank, you won’t see them again

This is good to know! I don't know how well one would do in my 13.5 Evo, They have settled down a lot since I cut back my feeding but they caused huge issues a while back and I have no idea how to get rid of them.

 

[Kupo]

Digitate hydroids...

 

[Jwise]

I think that the worst thing that im dealing with currently and is defiantly the worst thing that ive ever experienced in this hobby is parasite problems with my fish. I had to drain my 125 gallon tank to get all my fish out of the tank because i have gobies and dartfish. I am currently dealing with flukes, velvet, and black ick. Its a nightmare and im just hoping that all my fish make it through quarantine. Im using copper power and prazipro this is still within my first week of qt and im leaving my display empty for 2 and a half months to let the parasites die before i put them back. Im also going to clean the bottom of the qt tank every week with syphoning out the waste and any parasites on the bottom of the glass of the qt. I will also freshwater dip all the fish once a week while im cleaning the bottom of the qt tank to help kill everything and remove any extra parasites the fall off to complete thier lifecycle. So in other words its a pain and its by far the worse thing that i ever had to deal with in this hobby.

 

[Dburr1014]

AIPTASIA, the bane of my existence.

 

[The_Skrimp]

I’ve been lucky that most pests I’ve seen in my tank have come and gone with minimal effort. The only thing that wrecked my tank for a while and continues to be a problem every now and then is hair algae. I got rid of most of it through carbon dosing but then had a second algae bloom and had to get rid of it all all over again. I’ve sort of learned the balance in my tank to keep it away but it was a struggle.

 

[bnord]

Yet to have anything awful though I do have a bit of cyano at the moment.

Funny story. I got 2 shipments from a well known coral site. The first one had Aiptasia hitchhiking which gave me a slight infestation. The second order came with hitchhiking berghia. I no longer have aiptasia.

great, can I get an order of the second one?

 

[bnord]

AIPTASIA, the bane of my existence.

have you tried peppermint shrimp? or a file fish?
have shrimp in each tank and a file fish in the DT and only find Aptasia in the overflow and sumps

 

[Dburr1014]

have you tried peppermint shrimp? or a file fish?
have shrimp in each tank and a file fish in the DT and only find Aptasia in the overflow and sumps

Neither, I use berghia.
As of late, I use lemon juice.
They seem to release and I suck them up in a turkey baster. Have to go slow, no flow. I did 2 like this and have 1 more to go. I'm waiting to see if it worked or released thousands in the tank.

 

[OlafsReef]

Nothing worse than persistent Dinos

Since 2005 I've had solved aptasia, red bugs, vermitids, various annoying algae, bacterial issues, nasty crustaceans, pesky worms...

Since switching to LEDs and dry rock Dinos are now the one pest I'm almost ready to quit the hobby over.

Not sure if it's the ocean, or our setups but Dino issues today are not what they were decades ago.

 

[Hairyteeth]

I’ve had almost everything in my nano….
Aefw, planaria, monti eating nudis, asterinas and amphipapods at plague proportions, Dino’s, cyano, bubble algae, and of course me!!!
Aptasia seems to be the hardest to shake for me, there’s always a piece of one left somewhere, currently breading berghias to keep them at bay

 

[scottbapilot]

Bristle worms, Hundred's of them. Took all the rock out and pressure washed and crashed the tank.

 

[Smoke-Town]

Definitely dinos! Second would be bryopsis 10 years ago before the well known solutions were around.

 

[thrillreefer]

For me its bryopsis. I have what I believe to be bryopsis in my tank. Purchased a black long spine sea urchin thinking at the time I only had GHA. The sea urchin is doing great and so is the bryopsis! Unfortunately bryopsis is not on his menu of faves. I was advised to bring the magnesium up to 1500 to kill the bryopsis but I dont want to kill my sea urchin or cleaner shrimp with high mag level.

Ok so I bought a used tank with rock that had Bryopsis on it. Fortunately has not spread far, but I’ve figured out how to manage it. I use a baby bottle nipple (anything flexible like that will work great) and cut a small hole to insert a syringe. Then I hit it with 5 ml of 6% H2O2 and hold the nipple in place about 5 mins. I can see the oxygen bubbles being produced, and next day, no more Bryopsis in that spot. Kill a 2” diameter spot at a time, very effective if you keep at it. And this will work with any algae. See GIF:

 

[bnord]

Neither, I use berghia.
As of late, I use lemon juice.
They seem to release and I suck them up in a turkey baster. Have to go slow, no flow. I did 2 like this and have 1 more to go. I'm waiting to see if it worked or released thousands in the tank.

nice, have tried that - now if that works for Xenia.....

 

[bnord]

in order of PITA'ery
1) Green Pocillipora
2) (and this is new to me - in my frag tang) Turf algae