Killing cyphestra the quickest way?

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
I have a large rock that I want to clear a large amount of cyphestra off of. What methods would work best to kill it quick, and reintroduce it back into the tank? There is nothing alive in the tank at the moment, and I am in no rush.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
How big a rock are we talking about?

Do you want to kill just the cyphestra or do you want to killl everything on the rock?
 

frisbee

Well-Known Member
If you don't want to kill everything on/within the rock you could just smother the Cyphastrea with some epoxy.
 

Squatch XXL

Well-Known Member
How big a rock are we talking about?
12-14" and maby 20# its almost conical in shape.

Do you want to kill just the cyphestra or do you want to killl everything on the rock?

There is pretty serious covering by the cyphestra. Id be happy knowing it was dead and putting it back in the tank to cycle along. Whatever it takes to see it dead. Would sitting it outside overnight kill it?

If you don't want to kill everything on/within the rock you could just smother the Cyphastrea with some epoxy.
its a big covering. Id rather kill it off and start over.



I need a tunnel or an epic jutting piece, and this is it.
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Your best solution would be to remove the rock, put it in a large container, cover it with tap water and add about a cup of bleach per 5 gal. Leave it there over night. This will kill everything. Then remove the rock and rinse it off in FW. Then do 3 or 4 overnight soakings using only FW, until you can no longer smell any bleach. On the last soaking, you can add something like Seachem Prime to make sure you got all the bleach, but this isn't usually needed.

At this point, it's a dead rock and you can use it.
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Or you can smother the rock with aiptasia x. It kills coral polyps just like it does aiptasia. I've accidentally killed coral with it. You wouldn't have to take the rock out of the tank, just monitor for ammonia after die off and prepare for water changes if needed. Minor die off of the coral may not even affect the ammonia level depending on how well your bacteria are established in the tank.
 

frisbee

Well-Known Member
Looking at the picture above that would be a piece of cake to smother with some epoxy. You could do this under water too. No need to remove the rock or anything. Given time the white epoxy will be covered by Coralline algae (or other corals) and you'll never even know the Cyphastrea was there. Don't work too hard. GL.
 
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