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Colony control/placement (1 Viewer)

Leicester56

Leicester56

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When I acquired my cured live rock for my tank it apparently had a zoanthid colony that revived itself from a primordial goo on the rock and is now expanding rapidly. I want to keep Zoas, but these are not overly attractive ( brown with a little green ring). Can I place other, more colorful species around it to prevent it from spreading further ( about 50 heads have popped up in the last 6 weeks).
 
It's a gamble. If they are fast spreaders, they could very well take over the new introductions. If you don't want this type, you could do an alk paste treatment on them to kill them off.
 
Will that release a lot of palytoxin into the water column? Also, will it lead to a large amount of decaying material in the tank? It is on an 8lb live rock. Would it be better to frag the rock in two and replace it with new cured live rock?
 
If worried about it at all, just run some carbon after nuking them. Toxins etc. would be minimal and in an otherwise healthy system will be a nonissue.
 
I think he meant to say kalk paste, where "kalk" is short for "kalkwasser". Kalkwasser is the term that Peter Wilkins (a German reef aquarium pioneer 20+ years back) used to refer to the solutions of calcium hydroxide (also sometimes called limewater) that many folks drip into reef tanks to maintain calcium and alkalinity (I think Peter Wilkins might have been one of the originators of this technique?).

"Kalk paste" is just a very thick paste made by mixing calcium hydroxide powder with a bit of water. Placed on pests of various sorts growing on rocks it will kill them.
 
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Regarding those zoanthids (which look like some species of Palythoa) on your rock: I think they will probably outcompete many other sorts you might want to grow if they are placed close together.

While these might not be the most sought after zoanthids, I've seen colonies of these general sorts for sale at local shops. You might be able to sell the rock (or part of it if it was easy to break) and replace it with a new rock, and possibly come out ahead.

This is an idea that David Grigor has suggested a number of times in the past as possibly the best way of dealing with a rock that has been overtaken by zoanthids or mushroom anemones (though the likelihood of an overtaken rock being seen as being valuable to an aquarium shop owner is surely greater the more attractive the zoanthids or mushrooms).
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Incidentally - I think those Palythoa that you have are kind of cool looking.
 
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Anybody know where the best place to get a fully cured replacement rock? The original cured rock I got cycled very quickly ( 3 days) but I am a little concerned about replacing 8lbs (19% of my live rock) in terms of going through another cycle when I have corals, fish, and shrimp in it. Maybe not such a big deal? Of course the rock it is growing on has to be the biggest one on the tank. ;) My tank is only 8 weeks old so I am worried it is a bit fragile. Thoughts? Thanks for all the input!!!!!
 
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You will be fine replacing the rock. You should have plenty of established bacteria to take up the slack. No likely to cause any issue, but can always cycle the new rock in just a 5g bucket of used saltwater after a water change and just a simple powerhead. No heater needed.
 
Leicester56 said:
Anybody know where the best place to get a fully cured replacement rock?
Click to expand...

If you definitely want to get cured rock, Kevin at Aquaria Guru usually has a good selection of various types of rock available.
And he's right in St. Paul.
 
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