- Messages
- 26
- Reaction score
- 0
I am new to saltwater tanks. Up until yesterday I was admittedly feeling pretty good about my progress so far; I was reading and researching a ton, several experienced friends and acquaintances were helping me out with my Biocube 29, giving me advice, and helping to control my novice impulses to go out and do and buy everything at once. Parameters were stable, my clownfish were happy, some great people from ARC had given me some awesome beginner freebies, the frogspawn was happily waving in the current, and the Hollywood Stunner frag was just starting to take and feed at night. The worst thing that had happened so far was a sudden algae bloom that turned the glass sort of green.
I had acquired my live rock from a certain individual (who will remain nameless here) who had posted on the Dry Goods & Livestock forum that he was selling live rock at $2/lb. What a deal! I arrived at his place and picked out some rocks, and noticed that some of the rocks had some sort of coral on them already. Noticing my interest he immediately offered to sell me that rock for $20 extra since it came with corals. This particular colony of whatever it was covered about 1/3 of the rock, so I figured it was a decent deal and forked over the cash. Newbie mistake #1. (I thought they were zoas…)
Fast forward a few weeks, and I’m at a friend’s place drooling over his beautiful corals and fish as we talk about his tank and the recent shipment that just arrived. We decide to wait another week or so until I’m absolutely sure my tank is stable before we add more corals. I mention to him that a big piece of the live rock came with some coral already on it, which was doing really great in the tank. He raised an eyebrow as I described my “zoas” and he advised me to get them out of there ASAP before they took over all 29 gallons of my Biocube. Apparently I had paid extra cash for the Kudzu of the reefing world. Saltwater Kudzu palys with deadly toxin inside. Very nice. Facepalm moment indeed. Recommended method of extermination: take the entire rock out and BURN THE ENTIRE COLONY TO A CRISP.
A few days later: I take the rock out and torch the weed palys as best I can, and then scrape off any other tissue remnants I can find, with a decent rinse and brush-down thereafter. Everything looked pretty clean, and I had taken care not to inhale any of the fumes or come too much in contact with the toxic coral. Time for the moment of truth…aaaand newbie mistake #2. I put the rock back in the tank. For the first few minutes, everything seemed okay…and then suddenly my corals were all up in arms and on the warpath. My two heads of frogspawn shot out its sweeper tentacles, looking very angry indeed. The beautiful piece of Hollywood stunner that had JUST started to take and grow also had its sweepers out, and the two smallish mushrooms were all shriveled up. I did a 25% water change right away realizing that things were very, very angry.
This morning I came downstairs, fearing the worst…and my fears were confirmed: the chalice had literally melted away, and the frogspawn was all retracted and coming apart. The clownfish looked fine, as did the anthelia and the colt coral. Snails and crabs were seemingly unaffected.
Incidentally the hermit crab also ate my starfish.
It's been a rough day.
Besides doing water changes, does anyone have suggestions for fixing this?
I had acquired my live rock from a certain individual (who will remain nameless here) who had posted on the Dry Goods & Livestock forum that he was selling live rock at $2/lb. What a deal! I arrived at his place and picked out some rocks, and noticed that some of the rocks had some sort of coral on them already. Noticing my interest he immediately offered to sell me that rock for $20 extra since it came with corals. This particular colony of whatever it was covered about 1/3 of the rock, so I figured it was a decent deal and forked over the cash. Newbie mistake #1. (I thought they were zoas…)
Fast forward a few weeks, and I’m at a friend’s place drooling over his beautiful corals and fish as we talk about his tank and the recent shipment that just arrived. We decide to wait another week or so until I’m absolutely sure my tank is stable before we add more corals. I mention to him that a big piece of the live rock came with some coral already on it, which was doing really great in the tank. He raised an eyebrow as I described my “zoas” and he advised me to get them out of there ASAP before they took over all 29 gallons of my Biocube. Apparently I had paid extra cash for the Kudzu of the reefing world. Saltwater Kudzu palys with deadly toxin inside. Very nice. Facepalm moment indeed. Recommended method of extermination: take the entire rock out and BURN THE ENTIRE COLONY TO A CRISP.
A few days later: I take the rock out and torch the weed palys as best I can, and then scrape off any other tissue remnants I can find, with a decent rinse and brush-down thereafter. Everything looked pretty clean, and I had taken care not to inhale any of the fumes or come too much in contact with the toxic coral. Time for the moment of truth…aaaand newbie mistake #2. I put the rock back in the tank. For the first few minutes, everything seemed okay…and then suddenly my corals were all up in arms and on the warpath. My two heads of frogspawn shot out its sweeper tentacles, looking very angry indeed. The beautiful piece of Hollywood stunner that had JUST started to take and grow also had its sweepers out, and the two smallish mushrooms were all shriveled up. I did a 25% water change right away realizing that things were very, very angry.
This morning I came downstairs, fearing the worst…and my fears were confirmed: the chalice had literally melted away, and the frogspawn was all retracted and coming apart. The clownfish looked fine, as did the anthelia and the colt coral. Snails and crabs were seemingly unaffected.
Incidentally the hermit crab also ate my starfish.
It's been a rough day.
Besides doing water changes, does anyone have suggestions for fixing this?
