Reset bio media to get rid of pest

[shneerf]

So I made the mistake of buying a mixed set of copepods to introduce biodiversity to the tank and a few months later only one species won and it ended up being zoa eating amphipods. I'm relying on some wrasse to keep the tank population down but I still have a lot in the fuge. I've cleaned the whole thing out but since I refuse the bio media they come back after 2 weeks.

I was wondering if there's a smart way to go about this, I really want to remove them from the sump but I feel like if I nuke the bio media even if I use some bacteria for a few days it might throw things out of whack. Am I overthinking this? What would you guys do?

 

[homer1475]

And what makes you think they are eating your zoas? In all 20 or so years in the hobby, I have never seen an amphipod eat a zoa. Eating detritus, algae around them, or dead, dying tissue sure, but never actually eating the zoas.

Personally I think your over reacting and there is nothing wrong with the amphipods in your tank.

 

[shneerf]

I'm not overreacting and I've dealt with this for a long time. Nothing else in my tank was affected and the zoas were doing absolutely great until I introduced those zoa eating ampipods to my tank. Nothing else in my tank changed. I was in the same boat as the rest of you and didn't think it was them but there's nothing else in my tank that could have caused a whole colony of 12 utter chaos polyps that started off from only 4 die within 2 months of introducing the amphipods. My tank parameters were great and stable and have been great for a long time. Everyone loves to just say they're dying from something else and the amphipods were eating the dead flesh but if you did the research and seen what I've seen you'd know its not a coincidence that every single time someone is having issues with these specific amphipods. It's not a coincidence that they were flourishing for 6 months then all die to absolutely nothing.

Again, if you don't believe me look it up, there's plenty of evidence that they slowly kill off zoas and other similar coral. I've seen these little ***** on the zoas at night when I shine my light. Also, even if you don't believe me, I'm still going to purge them from my sump. I'm simply asking for advice on how to accomplish their removal with minimal disturbance.