Hitchhikers on siporax

[lone reefer]

I have a few pounds of siporax that I took from the sump of a tank that I broke down to restart because of an ich or velvet outbreak. The infected tank was a 220 waterbox that was only up for about 6 weeks before I tore it down to sterilize it. The live rock in the tank had a few aiptasia and a lot vermetid snails which is why I decided to just start over fresh. All the live rock came from my previous 125 gallon that I had for almost 10 years so it had a well established bio filter. When I set up the 220 I loaded up the sump with the siporax so it had at least 4-6 weeks to seed with bacteria from the live rock. Before tearing down the 220 I moved all the siporax to a 100 waterbox that contained only coral and a couple pieces of live rock from the original tank. The rest of the live rock was acid and bleach cured so that I can start the 220 back pest free. My question is, is can I take the siporax that I now have in the 100 and add it back to the 220 without having to worry about the v. snails or aiptasia being reintroduced back to the 220? I’m not worried about ich or velvet eggs as no fish will be introduced into either the 100 or 220 for at least 4-8 weeks and has already been fallow for 2-3 weeks. My main concern are the coral pest. In my 125 gallon I had a lot of aiptasia at one point and one good filefish completely cleaned them out. The fish eventually passed and the aiptasia slowly started coming back. At this point I can only see about 3 aiptasia on the rock in the display and probably a thousand or more vermetid snails on a large rock and coral skeletons and the siporax is in the sump. I would really like to be able to add the siporax back to the sump of the 220 to get it jump started with the cycle. I will be doing a fishless cycle with live bacteria and ammonia but I think the siporax will add more biodiversity than what get from a bottle. I just don’t want to bring back the in wanted hitchhikers as well. Any input would be appreciated.

 

[AJsReef]

How long exactly has the media been out of commission? If there hasn’t been heat/flow/salinity control there’s likely minimal returns on using it even for bacterial additions. Personally, if something has had aiptasia, I don’t put it in my tank ever. Not worth the risk IMO

 

[lone reefer]

How long exactly has the media been out of commission? If there hasn’t been heat/flow/salinity control there’s likely minimal returns on using it even for bacterial additions. Personally, if something has had aiptasia, I don’t put it in my tank ever. Not worth the risk IMOT

Thanks for the reply. The media (siporax) hasn’t been out of commission. When I setup my 220 waterbox I used live rock from my previous 125 gallon tank. I placed about 3-4 pounds of siporax in the sump and it was in there being seeded for about 4-6 weeks. Before I tore down the 220 to sterilize it from ich or velvet that came from a new unquarantined fish, I bought a 100 gallon WB and took a couple large pieces of live rock, coral, and the siporax and put it all in the 100 to preserve the bacteria and corals. Since the siporax had only been in the sump for about 6 weeks I feel the chances are low that the aiptasia or vermetid snails would have made it into the sump that quickly. In my old 125 I did have both of those make it into the sump after many years of growth and poor maintenance on my part, but there were few in the sump and it took a very long time for them to get to the sump. There are only 3 visible aiptasia on one rock that is now in the 100 but a ton of vermetid snails. It is a little late now btw though. A couple days ago I got the 220 setback up and cycling with the sterilized dry rock and live sand and took the chance and took a few media bags of siporax from the sump from the 100 and put them directly back into the display of the 220 on top of the new rock to reintroduce the bacteria, along with some turbostart 900. So we’ll see what happens lol, I was mostly concerned about not reintroducing ich or velvet but the 100 has been fallow since I set it up at least 3 weeks ago and the 220 will go through a 4 week fishless cycle at around 85 deg so not worried about fish parasites living through that. Now only time will tell if 4-6 weeks is long enough for aiptasia or vermetids to travel from a display to the sump and colonize on media in the sump. After the tank has had several months to get established and grow I’ll post back wether I have the pest or not.

 

[damsels are not mean]

I have a few pounds of siporax that I took from the sump of a tank that I broke down to restart because of an ich or velvet outbreak. The infected tank was a 220 waterbox that was only up for about 6 weeks before I tore it down to sterilize it. The live rock in the tank had a few aiptasia and a lot vermetid snails which is why I decided to just start over fresh. All the live rock came from my previous 125 gallon that I had for almost 10 years so it had a well established bio filter. When I set up the 220 I loaded up the sump with the siporax so it had at least 4-6 weeks to seed with bacteria from the live rock. Before tearing down the 220 I moved all the siporax to a 100 waterbox that contained only coral and a couple pieces of live rock from the original tank. The rest of the live rock was acid and bleach cured so that I can start the 220 back pest free. My question is, is can I take the siporax that I now have in the 100 and add it back to the 220 without having to worry about the v. snails or aiptasia being reintroduced back to the 220? I’m not worried about ich or velvet eggs as no fish will be introduced into either the 100 or 220 for at least 4-8 weeks and has already been fallow for 2-3 weeks. My main concern are the coral pest. In my 125 gallon I had a lot of aiptasia at one point and one good filefish completely cleaned them out. The fish eventually passed and the aiptasia slowly started coming back. At this point I can only see about 3 aiptasia on the rock in the display and probably a thousand or more vermetid snails on a large rock and coral skeletons and the siporax is in the sump. I would really like to be able to add the siporax back to the sump of the 220 to get it jump started with the cycle. I will be doing a fishless cycle with live bacteria and ammonia but I think the siporax will add more biodiversity than what get from a bottle. I just don’t want to bring back the in wanted hitchhikers as well. Any input would be appreciated.

If there was ever aiptasia in that system then there is a good chance it can get into the new one via that media. Not a 100% chance but why risk it if you really don't want aiptasia? If you could observe it for a while in a separate tank that might work.

 

[lone reefer]

If there was ever aiptasia in that system then there is a good chance it can get into the new one via that media. Not a 100% chance but why risk it if you really don't want aiptasia? If you could observe it for a while in a separate tank that might work.

Well it’s a little late now because I already added the media back to the 220 lol. Both the 220 and 100 waterboxes are new systems. The live rock containing the few aiptasia and vermetids came from my previous 125 gallon tank that was almost 10 years old and was started with live rock. It was well established just had the aiptasia and snails. That was all moved to the 220 when I upgraded from the 125, then I had an outbreak of ich or velvet because of a new fish. Instead of going fallow for 2 months I bought the 100 and moved all the coral, rock and siporax over and surviving fish to a separate 55 gal hospital tank. Then broke down the 220 and acid/ bleach cured the rock and sterilized the tank with 35% h202. I decided to take the risk because of the value of the bacteria that took almost a decade to grow, there is also beneficial life like copepods that I already see on the siporax. From my past experience it took a really long time for vermetids or aiptasia to make it to the sump, and that disturbing the aiptasia is what seems to make them spread faster. Since I only had a few aiptasia on the rock in the display and the tank had been setup for less than 6 weeks I’m hoping they didn’t have time to travel to the sump, but now only time will tell.