Pesky Palythoas, aka Texas Trash

[ErikH]

Ok this is it for me. I want everyone here that has some trash palys in their tank to help find a solution to the ongoing problem! I am SICK of them.

So far, i have taken rocks out. burned the affected area with a blowtorch. They still came back. Scraped, and scraped, and scraped them. That just made them quadruple.

Well today, I am going to try something new. It's risky, but, I have dosed enough of it to know the effects on my PH. I am going to try and subject them to a vinegar injection. Vinegar is not good for your PH. a few ml can significantly reduce your PH. This is not for the faint of heart. I will try and post pictures if I remember, or if my wife helps.

[BIGBIRD123]

kalk works too...

[cbianco]

In my best Larry the Cableman's voice,

"Git er done!"

Christopher :)

P.S. Should we start looking up solutions to low aquarium pH now, or would you rather us wait?

[ErikH]

will kalk kill the entire colony? I am looking for something that will go through the mat and go around to each paly and kill it. One at a time would take a month or two.

[Bill S]

You can try a kalk paste. It's pretty aggressive. BTW, any chance those palys came from me? They are a pain in the tail.

[BIGBIRD123]

If you can take the rock with them out, you make kalk paste thick/thin enough to use paint brush. NOTHING can live after having the kalk paste on it that is 12.4 ph. This also works with most forms of hair algae and some bryopsis. Then just take the rock and clean off the paste. I took mine to the car wash...

[jpond83]

what are these? do you have a picture?

[jrsatx20]

Had some of your paly's bill they never spread to anything else.

[Big_Pun]

so would the aptasia x work it looks like it's a kalk paste, I have te same problem, and last month my prized hot pink chalice fell on them and it got nuked the palys where fine they are hard to kill

[ErikH]

All of my rocks have coral on them or I would PH nuke the tar out of them. I figure vinegar is low enough in PH and thin enough to possibly affect the mat. Just did some dry runs with air, and found out that needles pierce the palys way to easy. I would pierce one and see air bubbles coming out the other side. Of course I ran out of vinegar, so I need to go get some more. Jason, I'll post before and after pics.

[ErikH]

8:40 I dosed 1 ml into several spots on a large trash paly's mat. They all seem to be affected. Palys on the underside of the rocks are closed as well. I will keep monitoring and post as things change.

Before:
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x315/erikharrison/Fish/Pests/DSC_0271.jpg


After:
http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x315/erikharrison/Fish/Pests/DSC_0273.jpg

[ErikH]

9:04, signs of perkiness at 9:00, so I just dosed another ml.

[ErikH]

9:48, lights going out. about 20 of them seem affected. More tomorrow!

[stoneroller]

Here's one of my favorite shots...

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r10/stoneroller/zoas/bluepaly-1.jpg

Cut the rock in half and throw it away. I've been there and done that. I have the brown ones covering my overflow box, looks awesome but is a disaster in the waiting. Good luck.

[stoneroller]

I assume you are turning off all of your pumps and "shooting" the vinegar at the mouth and base of the protos? I've done kalk paste in the mouth like you would Aiptasia; may require multiple treatments but that was for a limited number of polyps in the wrong place.

[ErikH]

No, I am shooting them up! LOL

I have a needle and am literally injecting vinegar into the side of the polyp. The polyps I injected are completely gone, but the others around them are not affected. Seems like injecting each one is going to have to be the route. I can't destroy my agrocrete, so cutting stuff off is a non option.

[tebstan]

Too bad it didn't spread into the mat, that would have been great. If you're going to inject each one, how long are you going to wait between treatments? You mentioned the vinegar could crash the pH. How do you determine how much to use and how often, or are you just winging it and monitoring your levels?

Will this work on other pests? Say... maybe something that looks like this...?
9263

[RayAllen]

LOL, am I the only one that likes Powerblue palys, haha.

I know the brownishorange/green ones are not to pretty, but I think the powderblue are nice to look at.

[jroescher]

I love them. They have filled in all the open areas of my tank. To add another coral I simply peel off a section of the mat they've formed.