HELP! Drab brown zooanthid going crazy

[MUTiger]

As the attached picture shows, I have a prolific ugly brown zooanthid that is going crazy. It is multiplying rapidly and has taken over some far nicer zoas. King Midas, Rastas, Marley’s all swallowed up. How do I get rid of them? They were obviously a hitchhiker on another piece of coral. Unfortunately, they are on a base rock with extensive aquascape on top of them so removing the rock would not be easy.

 

[Uncle99]

Looks like palythoa, so be careful, leave in the water.
Palythoa can multiply very quickly.
Try some Aptasia -X on a few, see how they like that.
If it takes them out, you can do 10 at a time till gone.
You could consider putting 2 -part epoxy or reef gum over them, then peel it off later.

 

[MUTiger]

Looks like palythoa, so be careful, leave in the water.
Palythoa can multiply very quickly.
Try some Aptasia -X on a few, see how they like that.
If it takes them out, you can do 10 at a time till gone.
You could consider putting 2 -part epoxy or reef gum over them, then peel it off later.

You say “leave in the water” why is that?
I’ ll try the Aptasia X.
Thanks

 

[mfinn]

If this were my tank, I would find a way to remove the rock from the tank.
But if that's impossible I would go with kalk paste.
Remove any corals from the area you want to save.
Mix up kalk powder with tap water and nuke it into a thick slurry that will flow through a 5ml-10ml plastic syringe.
Turn off all flow including the return pump, and apply the kalk paste and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
Then carefully siphon off the kalk paste. Try and get all of it. If any breaks loose and hits another coral it could do serious damage to it.
Try this in a small spot and see how it works before doing a large spot.

 

[MUTiger]

If this were my tank, I would find a way to remove the rock from the tank.
But if that's impossible I would go with kalk paste.
Remove any corals from the area you want to save.
Mix up kalk powder with tap water and nuke it into a thick slurry that will flow through a 5ml-10ml plastic syringe.
Turn off all flow including the return pump, and apply the kalk paste and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
Then carefully siphon off the kalk paste. Try and get all of it. If any breaks loose and hits another coral it could do serious damage to it.
Try this in a small spot and see how it works before doing a large spot.

Thanks for the advice.
What exactly is Kalk paste? How do you make it?

 

[mfinn]

Kalkwasser powder can be bought at places like Bulk Reef Supply.
Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime ( same thing) can be bought at Amazon.

Kalk paste is just the powder mixed up with freshwater.
I've found that nuking the mixture for 15-20 seconds ( or longer depending how thin the mix is) will help boil it into a thicker mixer.

I'd try and figure a way to remove that main rock from the tank.

 

[DDenny]

You say “leave in the water” why is that?
I’ ll try the Aptasia X.
Thanks

Palythoa have a toxin called palytoxin can be extremely deadly.

Palytoxin - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[fish farmer]

Kalk paste, then siphon them out with stainless steel straws attached to a hose, you can scrape lingering ones easily. Wear protection since these may be toxic.

Or throw all the rock away before they take over your tank.

 

[2Flash1]

I would personally just take all corals off the LR that you want to keep and toss the rest away. If you have any on the opposing LR toss and start over. Those suckers will just multiply and multiply…

My wife’s tank had them in I went to the extreme and just bought her a new tank and all new LR. She thought they were beautiful for some reason. Until they went out of control.

Best of Luck!

 

[MUTiger]

I have a Red Sea Reefer 250. It has been set up for over 3 years and so is well cycled and doing well. The aquascape is essentially 2 islands of live rock. Yes, the palythoas are spreading and taking over, but primarily on the left side of the aquascape. If I totally break down the left “island” that is infested with palythoa, remove the corals that I want to save, and rebuild the left side with new dry rock, would I run the chance of destroying the tank balance almost as if I was starting with a new tank and new tank cycling? Would this result in an ammonia/nitrate spike that would harm the existing corals and fish?

 

[MUTiger]

Here are pictures of my tank.

 

[Nalgene00]

Might be worth trying a matted filefish. I picked one up to help with aiptasia which it did, then it ate a rock full of various zoas, and started alternating between duncans and green palys. It still keeps my palys in check and has pretty much isolated them to a single rock.

 

[JCOLE]

I would remove what you want and toss the rock. Not worth trying to remove all of them. I always have rock cooking for just this occasion.

 

[mfinn]

I have a Red Sea Reefer 250. It has been set up for over 3 years and so is well cycled and doing well. The aquascape is essentially 2 islands of live rock. Yes, the palythoas are spreading and taking over, but primarily on the left side of the aquascape. If I totally break down the left “island” that is infested with palythoa, remove the corals that I want to save, and rebuild the left side with new dry rock, would I run the chance of destroying the tank balance almost as if I was starting with a new tank and new tank cycling? Would this result in an ammonia/nitrate spike that would harm the existing corals and fish?

I would try to save as much of the left side rock as possible.
You can take the rock that has the polyps on it and using a hammer and wood chisel, break off good pieces ( or the bad pieces).
I've done this multiple times. I just lay a thick towel on the floor and put the rock with the offending polyps on it and break off the bad parts.
Just be careful to keep from damaging the polyps with the hammer or chisel.
Wear gloves, wear goggles or good safety glasses. Probably be a good idea to wear a mask. Keep anything from splashing.
Have a large water change ready to go.
The existing bacteria on the rock you are leaving alone will help keep the tank stable.
Feed the fish light for the next week or so.
As long as the new rock you add is clean, there should be an issue.

 

[Uncle99]

You say “leave in the water” why is that?
I’ ll try the Aptasia X.
Thanks

If it’s paly, then it may have paly toxin, this is dangerous to your heath.

 

[Harpo]

Reef Beef pod cast recently had a guest where the paleotoxin caused his heart to stop beating

 

[Doctorgori]

no worries, I can ship you some of these green palys with a guarantee they will crowd out those brown palys and take over themselves ASAP ….



seriously tho I feel your pain
added: thing I’ve tried (and didn’t work)
Using Xenia or gsp as a barrier…
placing the rock on the driveway in the hot sun
high salinity ( 45 ppm)
cold temps (50F) for 72 hrs

following for new ideas

 

[MUTiger]

no worries, I can ship you some of these green palys with a guarantee they will crowd out those brown palys and take over themselves ASAP ….



seriously tho I feel your pain
added: thing I’ve tried (and didn’t work)
Using Xenia or gsp as a barrier…
placing the rock on the driveway in the hot sun
high salinity ( 45 ppm)
cold temps (50F) for 72 hrs

following for new ideas

Obviously a tough situation. I have decided to remove the left side of my aquascape, keep the corals that I like and can separate from the horrendous brown palys, and then rebuild the left side with new rock. The only question: should I use Caribsea rock or Marco dry rock?

 

[2Flash1]

Obviously a tough situation. I have decided to remove the left side of my aquascape, keep the corals that I like and can separate from the horrendous brown palys, and then rebuild the left side with new rock. The only question: should I use Caribsea rock or Marco dry rock?

Good Call! You’ll be happy that you made that decision in the long run!
Either LR personal choice… wife’s tank I did the shelf rock and happy I went with it!


5 months of growth…

 

[mfinn]

Obviously a tough situation. I have decided to remove the left side of my aquascape, keep the corals that I like and can separate from the horrendous brown palys, and then rebuild the left side with new rock. The only question: should I use Caribsea rock or Marco dry rock?

Sounds like a good plan.
As far as what to replace it with, it a toss up.
One thing I have noticed marco rock just seems so darn white.