Removing cyphastrea

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

I have some cyphastrea on a rock I want to remove to make room for new fuzzy sticks. Anyone have experience with this, or some kind of technique that would be the most effective. I'm planning on cutting around the square it came on to give that away, but the rest on my rock needs to go. Just yesterday it got to the point where it is a millimeter away from my strawberry shortcake acro and I don't want the cyphastrea to win that battle. Ideas please?

Wilsoni · Mar 29, 2016

Start chiseling away at it.

Big B · Mar 29, 2016

Signing in on this. I have been wondering about how to do this as my rock is all attached into one big structure and not coming out.

d2mini · Mar 29, 2016

I've "deleted" some encrusting monti by covering it up with epoxy.
If you can manage to cover it up with a layer of two part epoxy without really pressing it into the coral/rock, you should be able to peel it off in a week, revealing dead coral that will eventually just get covered in coralline and whatever frags you glue on top.

Chris Adams · Mar 29, 2016

^^^^2nd the epoxy

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

I'm trying to avoid chiseling because like Big B my rocks are all drilled with rods through them and I don't want to accidentally crack it in half. I was thinking epoxy, but that was what I was worried about... it getting stuck to the rock and being a big eyesore. I will try just covering it up. Still open to any other ideas.

FarmerTy · Mar 29, 2016

Cyphastrea on a rock is a bad idea. I learned the hard way myself, it'll burn everything in its path.

I'd use kalk to burn it off. Just turn off the pumps, mix the kalk into a paste, and smear away. Do a little at a time to not spike your alk and pH in your tank. Works like a charm.

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

FarmerTy said:
Cyphastrea on a rock is a bad idea. I learned the hard way myself, it'll burn everything in its path.

I'd use kalk to burn it off. Just turn off the pumps, mix the kalk into a paste, and smear away. Do a little at a time to not spike your alk and pH in your tank. Works like a charm.

Yeah, lesson learned. Is there a danger of the kalk paste particles floating around and burning the polyps or tissue on my sps? I imagine if it burns cyphastrea it could do the same to other coral.

FarmerTy · Mar 29, 2016

I've had no issues with the residual blowing around and burning anything else. You'll want to turn off the pumps though for application. I usually leave pumps off for an hour or two and then turn back on.

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

FarmerTy said:
I've had no issues with the residual blowing around and burning anything else. You'll want to turn off the pumps though for application. I usually leave pumps off for an hour or two and then turn back on.

Ok, thank you. I may try that tonight because I have plenty of kalk, but no epoxy... at least enough to keep it away from some of the coral it is almost touching.

ReefQueen · Mar 29, 2016

What about trying to pry it off in small pieces? And then send the pieces to me;) haha. Other then chisel the rock (which you've mentioned you dont want to do) I don't see any other way of getting it off without destroying it. You might have to go the epoxy or kalk route. Which seems a shame for such a beautiful coral. Cyphastrea is one of my favs! Would you be able to switch it with another rock and place it away from the sticks? Or would that be too difficult with the rods?

d2mini · Mar 29, 2016

I agree with ReefQueen about trying to save some of it. Try to break of a few small pieces and frag them, see if they heal up ok. Cyphastrea can be a bit finicky when fragging, but if it works out you can isolate the new piece and/or sell/trade locally.

Triggreef · Mar 29, 2016

d2mini said:
I've "deleted" some encrusting monti by covering it up with epoxy.
If you can manage to cover it up with a layer of two part epoxy without really pressing it into the coral/rock, you should be able to peel it off in a week, revealing dead coral that will eventually just get covered in coralline and whatever frags you glue on top.

I had to do the same with some Monti cap, is worse than aptasias!

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

ReefQueen said:
What about trying to pry it off in small pieces? And then send the pieces to me;) haha. Other then chisel the rock (which you've mentioned you dont want to do) I don't see any other way of getting it off without destroying it. You might have to go the epoxy or kalk route. Which seems a shame for such a beautiful coral. Cyphastrea is one of my favs! Would you be able to switch it with another rock and place it away from the sticks? Or would that be too difficult with the rods?

My biggest problem with getting a new rock is that the SPS frags I got 6 months ago have already encrusted nicely on this rock showing potential of new growth from the bases. I don't want to break them off and start over. I was thinking maybe I could find some flat rock to epoxy above it and then glue the new coral to that rock, but not sure that would get rid of the cyphastrea and it might just start growing on that rock too. I do really like it and it's doing great, but it is starting to become invasive.

ReefQueen · Mar 29, 2016

Salt Creep said:
My biggest problem with getting a new rock is that the SPS frags I got 6 months ago have already encrusted nicely on this rock showing potential of new growth from the bases. I don't want to break them off and start over. I was thinking maybe I could find some flat rock to epoxy above it and then glue the new coral to that rock, but not sure that would get rid of the cyphastrea and it might just start growing on that rock too. I do really like it and it's doing great, but it is starting to become invasive.

What about gluing rubble rock around it and as it grows take the rubble off, and replace, then you can sell the rubble with the cyphastrea on it:)

Wilsoni · Mar 29, 2016

Aside from all of the great ideas previously mentioned... you could always place an Acan Echinata in it's path which will eventually spew it's mesenterial filaments causing your Cyphastrea to swiftly dissolve.

Although it may find your Strawberry Shortcake to be a lovely dessert once it's finished with the Cyphastrea ;)

reefaboo · Mar 29, 2016

i use bone cutters and if you are handy with it .. it would come off in small pieces .. you may have to siphon off the debris at the end but you also would end up with some frags of it that you can PIF or sell ..

Salt Creep · Mar 29, 2016

ReefQueen said:
What about gluing rubble rock around it and as it grows take the rubble off, and replace, then you can sell the rubble with the cyphastrea on it:)

Wish I would have thought about that last year :oops:

Wilsoni said:
Aside from all of the great ideas previously mentioned... you could always place an Acan Echinata in it's path which will eventually spew it's mesenterial filaments causing your Cyphastrea to swiftly dissolve.

Although it may find your Strawberry Shortcake to be a lovely dessert once it's finished with the Cyphastrea ;)

I used to use hydnophora for that :) got rid of it for the same reason...

reefaboo said:
i use bone cutters and if you are handy with it .. it would come off in small pieces .. you may have to siphon off the debris at the end but you also would end up with some frags of it that you can PIF or sell ..

I may try with bone cutters... or scrub it with a wire brush!!!