What's something that grew out of control in your reef tank?

[Dr. Jim]

I thought I've seen every nuisance pest over my 50+ years of reefing, but during the past year I had the misfortune of dealing with a new one: The Bearded Fireworm. I have a thread about these worms killing my SPS frags, one per night for about 30 days until I figured out why the corals were dying:

White Tips on SPS Frags Every Morning for Past 15 Days

Warning: I tried to make this as concise as possible but it is a "long read", so continue only if you have a lot of patience and curiosity! PROBLEM: For the past 15 days, every morning I wake up to find a white tip that I have to snip, usually on one frag each day. Only once was there STN from...

www.reef2reef.com

(You can jump to post #136 on page 7 for my discovery).
I never saw these worms before because in all my years of reefing I always purchased Pacific Live Rock. Last year was the first time I ever bought "Florida Rock" (KP) and that's where these worms came from. They love SPS and are a nightmare to get rid of! They usually only come out at night and if part of them is in a rock they will break apart if you try to pull on them. I got so frustrated with one that I smashed the rock into pieces to get to it. Inside the rock there were 3 huge adults and a bunch of babies. (Babies are black and very thin). I'm guessing it will be an endless battle to get rid of them, but now that I know about their presence I spend a lot of time looking for them (mostly after the lights go out) and occasionally catch one.

The first time I saw one I was fascinated by it's beauty......but not so much anymore:

 

[JKBrown]

Leather coral. See front and center finger and two large green Toadstool. Seems the more I frag the faster they grow.

 

[boacvh]

Can't believe people consider RBTA and Montis as out of control. I can see Mushrooms, GSP, Xenias and Clovers. Been reefing since 1999, so I know better to stay away from those. Kenya trees and colts are easy to control, just trim them.

In my tank, its the little A. Starfishes that are out of control. I keep sucking them out during every water change, they keep multiplying.

I will take or buy all of them stars

 

[Rocketfish]

I also have a small dark purple polyp with a white center that is about 1/4" in diameter that has overgrown a bunch of rocks in a nano tank. It has filled in a huge amount of space between zoas so that the zoas can't or won't spread anymore. I tried kalkwasser and AptaisiaX and that didn't even slow it down even though it killed a couple zoas near it. I don't dare move anything from that tank to my main display now!



Anyone in the DFW area want a fully operational 13 gallon nano tank with fireworks polyps, utter chaos, AOI's, BamBam and Rockstar zoas? It also has a very well established GSP population. There are 2 frags of Cyphastria in there, a skittles bomb and meteor shower. It comes with a tailspot blenny, a black oscellaris clown, sand sifting star, and a few snails and crabs. It is a very healthy tank, and I outfitted it with a wifi power strip to co trol the lights and added a 460nm strip to it. I can send photos on request..

 

[Ruzoko]

Recently got some favia that had 1 aiptasia on it, got it out of the tank dabbed dry 1 time no multiple and super glued.....now it turned into 10 babies all over the frag -_-

 

[Rollman]

Been battling some GHA in my established 180. Made too many changes at once during pandemic. Lesson learned, getting around it with CUC and TLC . Wanna use vibrant but keeping it old school for now

 

[GillMeister]

GHA and valonia. Spawn of the devil himself.

 

[Simsung]

I can't seem to get sea lettuce under control. Even my snails are now covered in it

 

[ScottJ]

Bristle worms! I'm making a trap to set up tomorrow night. Got to thin the herd.

Also GHA. But I'm getting there.

 

[N1Husker]

I had a flatworm problem, I got a Meanurus Wrasse, he elimnated them. I also had those little white colonial feather dusters all over my tank, plus some aiptasia. I bought a Copperband butterfly and he took care of those, wiped them out. He also ate my ornametal feather duster, he wiped that one out too, lol. I guess that was his reward.

 

[Bubbabobobbrain]

Aiptasia for sure. I had a 75 that had enough aiptasia in the dt after a few years to really bother me and after buying 15 berghias they knocked the population way down. The population went down but never disappeared and when I discovered the reason I almost vomited. I hadn’t cleaned out the center overflow in a while because it was a real hassle and when I took the cover off of the overflow to do a deep cleaning of the tank I realized the entire center overflow was an aiptasia haven. I’ve never seen that many in my life. Shortly after that I tore the tank down to start a new system.

 

[Azraz]

I have a problem with Manjano aneminies. Anyone have a solution to rid them. I tried the kale paste and other so called remedies but the only way I see results are to phyically remove them with forceps but I know the spores create more of them.

 

[DHill6]

Rainbow bubble tip anemones kept splitting, there were three different ones to start with, ended up with nine. I gave them away along with a pair of ocellaris who kept bulldozing the SPS off the rock and putting them on the opposite side of tank. They were little mean ones
Purple Death palys, kept spreading so I removed all of them. No more palys for me.

 

[Kris 2020]

For me, it's fireworks clove polyps, Xenia, and GSP. They're all really happy, and growing everywhere! GSP and clove polyps are almost impossible to get off the rock work, but Xenia I can cut off with a razor.

It's not too bad all-in-all, looks really pretty. But they don't discriminate.. grows right over my Monti encrusters, acros... completely covered a zoa frag and torch frag like they weren't there! Tank steamrollers!!



YES, There's a poor suffocated torch head in there!!



And the GSP do love to do their thing..... They're inching up towards my beautiful monti's! (orange

For me, it's fireworks clove polyps, Xenia, and GSP. They're all really happy, and growing everywhere! GSP and clove polyps are almost impossible to get off the rock work, but Xenia I can cut off with a razor.

It's not too bad all-in-all, looks really pretty. But they don't discriminate.. grows right over my Monti encrusters, acros... completely covered a zoa frag and torch frag like they weren't there! Tank steamrollers!!



YES, There's a poor suffocated torch head in there!!



And the GSP do love to do their thing..... They're inching up towards my beautiful monti's! (orange filte

your tank is beautiful! And I can’t get clove polyps of any type to thrive in my tank! Those and rics are big notes for me. Every few years I try them again, and they just ... dwindle away.

 

[chaoticreefer]

I will take or buy all of them stars

Is it a safe bet that you have a Harlequin shrimp?

 

[michaelb]

Aiptasia in my sons 10 gallon. Oh wow. Finally got it under control recently. Also xenia my son lives it so I have to sneak it out of his tank. But now that I’m seeing Blue Cespitularia it might be that.

 

[carbasaurus]

By far Xenia and green star polyps.

Also a monti cap that I have to trim about every two months.

When my sps tank was new I had a green poicillopora damicoris that self sowed all over the tank. Seems to be a “new tank issue” as it stopped once there were other sps coral in the tank

Finally I have a bubble tip and one that has divided about eight times

 

[jesspal]

purple monster and nirvana zoas

 

[Sylvester]

I’m restarting a 120 gallon reef due to aptasia craziness and one of my kids dumped something in the tank that wiped out my coral

it’s a pain and money down the drain , but not giving up

 

[scottbapilot]

I had a really bad Bristle worm problem, It was so bad that when I fed my fish it looked like the rock would come alive. I bought a few Horseshoe crabs, Problem solved really quick.