Bryopsis and Aiptasia...oh my!!!

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
I'm currently cycling my tank and I've noticed both bryopsis and aiptasia on my live rock.

Needless to say, this isn't how I want to start, so I'm doing a restart.

I'm literally just going to take the live rock out and replace it...probably with a purple reef rock. Yeah, there goes a bunch of money, but whatever. I just don't want to start with those types of problems.

Is there anything else I should do to make sure I kill off the bryopsis in my tank while I'm at it? I was going to completely change water and sand too.

Or, anyone think there is an easier way to go about this?
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I'd just go after the problem areas you have.

Both bryopsis and aiptasia are extremely easy to reintroduce that it hardly makes sense to replace live rock over them. Think of these as something you need to keep after, since it's unlikely you'll get rid of all of them forever.
 

spiraling

Well-Known Member
You can also "cure" your rock and get rid of the pests (and all the good stuff) and not lose the rock.
aptiasia is easy easy to get rid of with aptaisia-x (and other solutions). I have had bryopsis in a tank I started dry and QTed pretty extensively. You will get pests. How much effort you want to put into them to kill them is up to you. You might succeed with dry rock, you might introduce the same ones with corals you add.
 

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
I understand that Bryopsis can be eliminated with magnesium and aptasia with peppermint shrimps....you may want to quarantine anyone new thing entering the tank going forward, easier just to keep them out.

Has anyone tried the mag increase thing?
Does it work or was this just a myth?
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone!!!

I definitely get what everyone is saying. It's easy to reintroduce bryopsis and aiptasia.

I know it's likely I'll have to deal with at some point anyway, possibly soon. Although, I kept it out for about 3 years on my first tank.

However, in this case, I actually really want to try some other live rock anyway and see what I think. So, this was one more reason to do that. Basically, I was looking for a reason to change anyway and this provided one.

I've taken the old live rock and I am going to get it cleaned up in case I just decide I don't like my new rock and I put it back in.

What should I do to clean it up? I don't mind just turning it into dry rock for now. H2O2 bath? Just let it dry in the sun (which is hard right now cause hurricane) ? Something else?
 

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
Put it in a large pail with SW and run an air stone, completely change the week every week, remove waste and critters weekly, brush lightly with a toothbrush, or larger brush depending on rock size, in 6 weeks, iodine dose, another week, flush with SW, and back to the tank if you want to keep. No light during the process.
 

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Put it in a large pail with SW and run an air stone, completely change the week every week, remove waste and critters weekly, brush lightly with a toothbrush, or larger brush depending on rock size, in 6 weeks, iodine dose, another week, flush with SW, and back to the tank if you want to keep. No light during the process.

Thanks!
 
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