For what its worth:
I have battled the blue snow flake polyps for 2+ years now.
2 years ago, I bought all new rock (220g). I sold about 90% of the corals I had since all of them were coated with the polyps. I only kept a few, but even they had them on them. I lost a bunch of corals from them. Whoever said they don't kill corals is wrong. It didn't do much to the SPS or LPS that have stinging tenacles. But it will implode your Doughnuts, Blastos and micromussa, weed through and collapse your zoos, suffocate clams, and basically grow everywhere. :cry: It doesn't kill them quickly, it takes several months to crowd them out.
They do suck up excess nutrients like a sponge. So if your not fully up on your phosphate remover, they grow much faster. They are very much light driven as well.
Since I kept a few corals from then, it didn't take long to re-spread to the new rock. I mean like 8-10 months max.
This year, I did a completely different approach. I acid dipped all the rock. I used ~10% muratic acid and dipped all rocks for 10-15 minutes. I felt like Hitler as all the pods swam off and died. But in the end, I got them. The rock has been ro water washed. Then soaked for a week in fresh saltwater and then back in the tank. I sold almost every coral this time and kept just a handful. I use super glue to glue them in place on the corals I kept. It works very well. They are incased in glue and will not spread or float off. I tried epoxy, but it takes much more and sometimes the epoxy breaks off the rock or plug and re-exposes the surface.
Its been about 2 months since I acid dipped and I routinely search for polyps. I have found a few on the corals as they must have been too small to see before. So I glue them immediately. I have found a few individuals on the rock work, but I either chip them off, or glue them in place. It is tricky, but if you hold a glue bottle upside down, you can submerge it and glue them underwater. Just don't unsqueeze the bottle before you bring it back up. (basically don't draw water in the glue bottle.)
As far as I'm concerned, there should be a complete ban on these polyps. I help a ton of peeps in Houston, Tx with their tanks, and they are a plague here. I have lost count of how many tanks I have seen or talked to the owner who have the blue polyp problem. A lot of lost corals, but more over, many have torn their tanks down due to them. It only takes a few polyps, and everything goes crazy. Here in Houston, even the LFS have them......so its impossible to buy corals here and not get them. ( not good for the LFS economy). If there is any way to notify ALL the members of this forum, I would HIGHLY suggest it. Knowledge is very powerful and it would really save some people from certain frustration.
I don't post very often, but this is very important information. I have been in reefkeeping 25 years and this is by far the worst (coral) epidemic problem I have run into.
Good Luck Shores805...... take the issue very serious, or you will be like I was a year ago........very frustrated and tired from the battle.....and a lighter wallet!:neutral:
P.S. I'm not a big fan of the sterile rock idea, but this was the last resort before I completely tear a 220g down and start over. Who wants to do that??
