Does anything eat blue cloves?

childress5tyler

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My tank is 99% SPS, and that 1% is stupid clove polyps that I got a long time ago and I've tried everything to kill them but they always come back! I can't take the rock out cause I've got acros encrusting on them. Does anything eat these?! Thanks
 
I've also came across this method, risky though, right?

I did it and had minimal loss. I think the losses I had were due to ammonia spike from the die off. My tank was completely covered in blue cloves though.
 
I've got a 2"x2" patch of it, so it's not out of control just yet. I'm going to try to shade it and cut it from the light source before chemicals
 
Are we talking the cute little tiny blue polyps? I didn't know those were cloves. I've had them for years and they've grown slowly enough. But now my tank is taking off and they are starting to spread rapidly. I think they are pretty enough and I don't mind all of my rocks covered with life, although I may want a little diversity - so I'm planting zoa's and encrusting corals to compete.

Anyway, I don't think they are aggressive so that's good. I've not tried removing them yet so I don't know know how much of a problem that will be when the time comes.
 
Are we talking the cute little tiny blue polyps? I didn't know those were cloves. I've had them for years and they've grown slowly enough. But now my tank is taking off and they are starting to spread rapidly. I think they are pretty enough and I don't mind all of my rocks covered with life, although I may want a little diversity - so I'm planting zoa's and encrusting corals to compete.

Anyway, I don't think they are aggressive so that's good. I've not tried removing them yet so I don't know know how much of a problem that will be when the time comes.

Yes. Also known as Blue snowflakes polyps. Search my 75 gallon build thread and see how invasive and aggressive they are. I was at the point of breaking my tank down because of those things.
 
I used to have them in my 75 and found that using Hot water with a turkey baster used to keep them in check really well.
 
I have a lot of it in my tank. I don't see them as a problem, though. It doesn't seem to inhibit any of my other corals growth spread. It's actually pretty.
 
I, too had a blue clove polyp come in as a hitchhiker on another coral. Didn't think anything of it as it was pretty. Little did I know over the next year it started covering everything in my tank and even closing in over my zoas. Little bothered it and when I tried sucking them off while vacuuming or taking out a small rock and scrubbing with a toothbrush. The little varmints came back with a vengeance! I did finally find a bottle of fluke tabs(they aren't sold anymore, so you need to find someone who has some) in a clearance rack at one of my LFSs. The tabs will also kill leathers, coco worms, crustaceans, green star polyps, feather dusters. Please do your homework before using. Research a lot. I did. I had too much covering my rocks to start over or just do one piece at a time. I was about to take my tank apart then decided to upgrade. I did not want any going into the new tank set up nbut wanted to keep my rock and corals. Here is the link to see the killing of my cloves! Eradicating Blue Clove Polyps
 
I've never had an issue with them... A healthy acro should be able to fend them off.......... As such:
 

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I've never had an issue with them... A healthy acro should be able to fend them off.......... As such:

I didn't have problems with them either, for a few years. The sps would plow right over them. They will "nuke" themselves at some point and wipe out the whole colony with it.

Like this.
img_9122.jpg


That milli had cloves all around it.

They don't sting but they are like little ticking time bombs.
 
Interesting observation although the mechanism for damaging the acro isn't clear. Can they be mechanically removed from the bases of corals?
 
I found out by accident that you can kill them by taking the rock out, squirting the polyps with hydrogen peroxide, and letting it sit for about 30 seconds before returning the rock to the tank. I was trying to get rid of some algae on my neon cloves and they didn't like that peroxide at all. They shriveled and died.
 
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Lol, who has these reefs where you can take rocks and corals out at will? My rocks are all carefully interlocked and the corals encrusted. But that was just an aside. Interesting about the H2O2. Any way it could be used inside the tank?
 
Lol, who has these reefs where you can take rocks and corals out at will? My rocks are all carefully interlocked and the corals encrusted. But that was just an aside. Interesting about the H2O2. Any way it could be used inside the tank?

Some people use it to reduce algae, so a little in the tank is known to be okay. I don't know how effective it would be spot-treating cloves, just because of how fast it would be diluted. Also, be aware that I have had h2o2 dips negatively affect certain corals; my monti in particular took it very hard. I dunno, again, what effect it would have squirted in-tank.
 
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As a quick side note... Back in the 80s a well known reef aquarium company sold hydrogen peroxide diffusers. As the H2O2 slowly trickled out it turned into oxygen...

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