Killing corals - guilt and questions

ThunderGoose · Jun 9, 2019

Like many new reefers I bought an aggressive coral that got out of control. In my case it was a branching form of GSP. I still love the look but it spread too far. I fragged some and I'm going to try to "carpet" the back wall of the tank. But that left me with a lot of leftover.

I spent about an hour this morning bent over a rock, carefully scraping and pulling and removing a LOT of GSP.

And I felt guilty.

Which is ridiculous, while corals are animals they don't have a central nervous system or brain.

Anyone else feel guilty for killing corals or is it just me?

Question: Now what do I do with the rock? Do I need to treat it like it's a new live rock that might have dead stuff on it? Do I just rinse it off really well to get all the dead stuff out of nooks and crannies?

Jinko · Jun 9, 2019

It's natural to feel sometime for killing a living organism, you should be worried when you don't.

I would try and keep the rock in a dark area whilst curing it, so nothing grows back.

Scurvy · Jun 9, 2019

I felt similarly when dealing with xenia over my first year or two in the hobby but eventually just said to heck with that. I doubt you'd feel bad pulling weeds in your garden and in my mind its the same thing. Pull the weeds to save the fruits of your labor.

Assuming its just one rock and a very small portion of your rock work Id just toss it back in the water if it were me.

Auquanut · Jun 9, 2019

I know there are a lot of opinions out there, but GSP grows very quickly. If you can find someone to take it, that's great. I have to prune mine periodically and no one wants it. It gets wrapped up and thrown away.

I would worry about it coming back. If it were me, I'd let it dry out or soak in a bleach/water solution and re-cure it.