Removing zoas from rock

[HB AL]

What would be the easiest, safest most effective way to remove all these zoas from this rock. I believe I can take the rock out of the tank. I do not want to save them just want to get rid of them as they are taking up prime real estate and want to put the rock back in. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Dsnakes]

What would be the easiest, safest most effective way to remove all these zoas from this rock. I believe I can take the rock out of the tank. I do not want to save them just want to get rid of them as they are taking up prime real estate and want to put the rock back in. Thanks for any advice.

That would be difficult. It’s a nice colony!

I would consider selling the rock and replacing with a similar shaped rock to fit.

 

[joey123]

Honestly I'd try to sell the rock and buy a new one. Other option if you really wanna keep THAT rock, could be set up a small qt style tank and start getting people to give you their problem fish and emerald crabs and stuff to have them eat them all. Could take a while though, you got mad zoa's there

 

[HB AL]

Ya that would be easier but they are on an old piece of Fiji rock and I really don’t want to get rid of the rock. But maybe that’s my only option other than leaving it out in the sun for a few days then just blasting them off with a hose. Was just off today and looking for a quick solution as I have some Acro frags I wanted to put on it now.

 

[HB AL]

How about taking them outside and torching them?

 

[biecacka]

Acid bath. Will kill it all. But then it’s like a brand new rock being put back in the tank.


corey

 

[crawling junk]

ill buy it

 

[HB AL]

ill buy it

If you were local I would tell ya to come over, but the rock is kinda large and not really replaceable and don’t wanna deal with shipping it plus it’s heavy and probably not worth the shipping charge.

 

[crawling junk]

I get it lol im a sucker for zoas

 

[hllb]

That's a really nice colony. If I were you, I would look to sell it or even swap it for a similar rock from someone's tank. I picked up an awesome piece of Pukani rock from my LFS. Nice rock is still out there.

 

[IAReefer]

I’d buy it for the cost of shipping and a replacement rock for you

 

[Malifry97]

You could use Aiptasia-X on it

 

[HB AL]

I’d buy it for the cost of shipping and a replacement rock for you

Thanks but don’t want To deal with shipping and all that goes with it.

 

[HB AL]

You could use Aiptasia-X on it

Now that I have gonna try it out on a few right now and see how it works.

 

[Malifry97]

Now that I have gonna try it out on a few right now and see how it works.

Cool!

 

[saltyhog]

The other option is to take it out and manually scrape them off with a scalpel. It's tedious and you never get them all the first time. Always wear gloves and do it in a well ventilated area.

 

[Waynerock]

I had the same problem with this rock. You can’t get rid of them without doing some nasty stuff to the rock unfortunately. Even if you took the rock and flipped it totally around so the zoa where smooshed and out of the light they will survive. Luckily I had a friend starting a zoa tank and gave it to him for a Christmas present.

 

[muzikalmatt]

I've been removing some trash palys from a rock in my tank by using a small tube during water changes. I just pull each polyp off the rock at its base with sharp tweezers and suck them into the tube (with the syphon not with my mouth obviously). You definitely should wear gloves while doing this though. Since I'm dealing with trash palys, I've been going the full nine yards wearing arm length gloves, safety goggles and a mask as I don't want to mess with palytoxin. I also run some fresh carbon and a polyfilter after the water change just in case some palytoxin got released into the water. That may not be necessary depending on your tank's water volume, but mine's only about 32-34 gallons so I try to be extra cautious. It may take a few sessions to get them all, but it seems to work when you can't remove the rock from the tank.

 

[BloopFish]

You could put the rock in a tank with something that eats corals. My sponge crab will clean out a zoa frag like it's nothing. There are a lot of crabs out there that will munch on polyps like potato chips.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Gaudy clown Crabs eat Zoas and Palys, so if you have a quarantine and the cash to get one of these little guys. Then boom. You got Zoa and Paly devouring crab. On the other hand, if you want to get rid of all Zoas and Palys in your DT, then just get the crab and put it in your DT.