War of the Reefs: Have you ever battled a tank invader?

[AlyciaMarie]

An annoying but unfortunately familiar part of reefing is the part of it where unwanted invaders cause a ruckus on the reef. These invaders can come in various shapes and forms, with some being easily removed and others...well, not so much. Whether it be an extreme overgrowth of nuisance algae, fast-growing coral, or a hitchhiker that seems to have multiplied by a million overnight, we will all face this battle at some point in our reefing journey...

Have you ever battled a tank invader?

You and your Aiptasia are having a faceoff:

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Gha is our current invader!

 

[corosato]

I checked way too many off this list XD BUT, I would do partial ocean live rock every time even still

 

[XtraKargo]

I checked way too many off this list XD BUT, I would do partial ocean live rock every time even still

Yeah me too...

About 7 I think.

 

[shakacuz]

aiptasia, flatworms, bryopsis, gha/turf, dino's, cyano, hydroids! always came out victorious

 

[BriDroid]

Ghost flatworms and hydroids! Luckily my new tuxedo urchin eats the hydroids as he is eating algae. He's the only thing I've found so far that will get rid of them, down the the bare rock!

The flatworms I did a Flatworm exit treatment. I only did one, and I know I need more than that, since the eggs have hatched and I'm starting to see them again. It made a few of my corals and most of my snails really mad, that is why I haven't done it again.

 

[armyvetheather]

I love so much that no one has clicked "no" - awesome to know that none of us are alone in the fight!

 

[Reefer Matt]

If you stick around long enough, you’ll likely collect the whole set!

 

[exnisstech]

I checked 7. Vermatids are the worst IMO since there really isn't a natural predator that I'm aware of other than bumblebee snails which didn't do much for me but I have thousands of the little nasties.

 

[LegalReefer]

I was the first to check "Other," apparently. My rainbow bubble tip anemones have reached plague proportions in my 20-gallon, to the point where I regrettably consider them an invader at this point. Kinda funny, kinda sad

 

[SnowyFox]

I also checked "Other", in that my reef aquarium has been overrun by African Cichlids. They took over the tank before I could add any salt to the water, and I've been trying to get rid of them ever since. Hoping to have them eradicated in the next week or two once I can finish getting their new tank setup and ready for them lol.

 

[reeflife3]

SEA SPIDERS!!!!

 

[Rocketfish]

I have had about 7 of them.
Cyano and dinos were mostly just a matter of time and balance.

The Aptaisia was the one I fretted over the most, but a combination of Berghia and Peppermint shrimp took care of it. Unfortunately, I had to give up LPS coral for a while because the Shrimp would pick at it incessantly.

The vermetid snails are ugly, but I overdosed Bumblebee snails and noticed 6 months later no more vermetid snails. I had 10 Bumblebee snails in a 30-gallon tank.

GHA was a balance issue, but a sea hare took care of it very quickly. I tried to put in algae to keep it alive, but they eat so much so fast that if you take a vacation, you will lose the sea hare.

I also faced bristleworms, but 3D printed a trap to get rid of the bulk of them, and then they just turned into an appropriate-sized cleanup crew.

Invasive coral was a problem for me in one tank and I never solved it. It was a tiny blue star polyp that got on everything and I could never get it to go away. At first, I thought it was neat looking, but then I changed my mind. It grows on the body of Zoas and everything. I ended up just isolating that tank to a couple of clown fish and letting it take over.

I did make the mistake of getting grape caleurpa in a tank once, I thought I would never be rid of it, but with patience and mechanical removal over time, it finally went away. Nitrobacter 7 helped.

 

[vlangel]

I checked 6 and that's in 25 years of reef keeping so not too bad. Aiptasia was the first and I only had a few and eradicated them immediately. Asterina starfish are not really what I consider an invader but I have been known to siphon them out when doing a water change. Cyano seem to plague the sand in my seahorse tank. It's never been a problem in any of my other tanks that have much higher nutrients. Bubble algae is the one problem that I have never been able to get rid of. After years I have just made peace with myself if I can keep them in check. The one that I could kick myself for was adding a common green/brown paly that has migrated to multiple places in the tank. I have to regularly pull them out when they begin to take up too much real estate. Of course I did not learn my lesson because in the past year I added about 3-4 more varieties of palys. Finally I never had gha until the last few months. It's not awful but it does need tended to. So that's my list, definitely not the nightmare that some folks have dealt with. I have been fortunate.

 

[billyocean]

7.....the newer aefw type was the worst of them.

 

[56longroof]

Since September I've dealt with- bryopsis, dictyota, aptasia, calico crabs,pistol shrimp, vermetid snails and bubble algea. All came in as hitchhikers on real live rock. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[PharmrJohn]

My answer was NO! I was REALLY lucky with my last tank. And I don't expect a repeat performance with my next. I did have some aiptasia but they were controlled with Peppermint Shrimp I just happened to put in there. At the time I didn't realize they were controlling said population. I was kind of clueless back in the day, LOL! I only clued in years after I started reading up on the issue. Like I said. I was VERY lucky!!!!

 

[subodhs]

Vermetids. I have so many of them I might someday just give up on this hobby because of them. Nothing I've done makes a difference. And I think I've tried all the advice I could find on R2R. I even changed my entire aquascape, the rock, food source, and plumbing; they're still winning.

 

[Uncle99]

First was Aptasia. Eliminated with Copperband.

Then bubble algae. Eliminated.

Then was flatworms. Controlled with 6-line.

Last was a 5-6” green mantis shrimp.
Beat the hell out of my rock dwellers, one by one, until he showed himself one night.

Nasty guy. Stalks at night, wacky the fish and stuns him (or kills him) then dragged under and into the rock work to eat. Thought I had ick, every few days, another fish gone.

Is deadly, but fairly slow and not to smart.
Netted him and elimitated.

Have always used dry rock. Must have come in a coral as a baby.

Back to safety….I think.

 

[KrisReef]

The most trouble I have encountered was a pretty little red wire algae that came on an aquacultured acro colony. I thought it looked nice, kind of a pinkish red little bushy tuffs. Then it started spreading about and began growing over everything. I hand worked at it, for many months and then I tore the tank apart and scraped everything it was growing on. Then I gave up, kept the nutirents low, stopped feeding the tank for the most part and ignored the corals it grew over and killed. I had picked up AEFW during the same time and I ignored the tank and just kept up with minimal maintenance and one day, many years later I noticed that the wire had tuckered out, most of the corals were toast from the AEFW, and a lot of the corals had either died or were growing in the dirty water.

I cleaned up the tank, then I tore it down and put the survivors in a large bin with a skimmer and lights and move the tank into a new location, and have slowly been bringing it back on line. I have some giant green fuzzy mushrooms and organ pipe coral that I need to eradicate, there are aiptasia everywhere that the Copperband has decicde to eat once again, and I might just put some serious effort into it this weekend if the wind stops blowing.