Removing Polyps

[Manaz101]

I have some green polys that are going crazy on one of my rocks that have my Sunny D's and a Blasto frag. What is the best way to remove some of the invading polyps?

 

[EW_Fish]

If you dont want to keep them I would just take a razor blade and cut them off then dip the rock or frag plug so the toxins in the paly don't get in the aquarium

 

[Manaz101]

Wow, I just noticed all my spelling errors, sorry bout that!

The rock is pretty big, so I'm not sure if I can take it out easily? Is there anything I can do while the rock is in the tank?

Thanks for the quick response EW_Fish

 

[EW_Fish]

There is another idea but a buddy of mine did it but I don't remember the chemical he used. I think it was something to do with aiptasia. All he did was shoot the coral in the mouth and it died. But I would be scared of the high dollar zoas dieing since they are in the mix

 

[Manaz101]

Yea, that's my thought as well. The blast I know I can remove, but I'm a bit more cautious of the Sunny's

 

[EW_Fish]

Yeah I wouldn't recommend it. Thats about all I can think of. I'm sure someone will chime in.

 

[Manaz101]

Any other suggestions from anyone?

So my only hope is remove the rock and take them off outside the tank. How long should I wait until I return the rock to the tank?

 

[TJ's Reef]

I have had to deal with this situation a few times, to large of rock to remove so have just taken my large Tongs and firmly grabbed them near base and pulled them off. I use a small container with some water in it to deposit the unwanted removed/squished palys and occasionally clean off Tongs. I crank up my Ozone for this and feel safe in removing up to several dozen at a time. You could run a temporary HOB filter with fresh Carbon or just fresh bag in sump to help reduce toxins as well. With a little practice you can get pretty good at just applying the right pressure to pull them off cleanly, sometimes multiples attached at polyp base.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Manaz101]

Thanks Todd, that hadn't thought about the carbon or ozone.

I think I'm just going to risk taking the rock out into a 5gallon bucket with tank water and go to town! I may just remove the Sunny D's and blasto.... I'm going to have to anyway because I'm upgrading tanka in the next month once its cycled

 

[Manaz101]

So I ended up just using some really long tweezers and plucking off polyps. Made some close and then I was able to follow the trunk to the rock and then punched it off as close as possible! I was nervous about it, but did a 40% water change afterwards, so as to minimize any toxins in the water. Everything looks good and now my Sunny D colony looks good again and blasto frag is cleared.

Thanks again for the suggestions!