Live rock cleaning

[jaded]

I can’t see anyway to eliminate aptasia or any hitchhikers for that matter... its part of having a reef tank. As you add LR and LS you will bring things into the tank that you don't plan on. It's usually good stuff, but not always. Berghia, vinegar, joe’s juice, etc. can handle the aptasia, but don’t totally eliminate them... EVER! You can trap many hitchhikers like undesirable crabs, worms, etc. but remember that many of the things you’ve been told aren’t good really are, like bristleworms. My advice is to be as careful as possible about adding LR and deal with the problems they may or may not come up. Since you already know there will be some aptasia, then you will need to deal with them with one of the many methods that are available.

Washing the LR in vinegar probably is a really bad idea… I’m not sure about the affect it would have, but I doubt it would kill the aptasia if it’s not directly injected into the body.

Drying the LR before putting it in the tank would certainly kill the aptasia but it would also kill everything else

Trying to QT LR seems like a waste of time to me… I really don’t know how you would get the “bad stuff” out of the LR no matter how long you QT’d it. Maybe there’s a way that I don’t know about, that’s totally possible!!!

If it were me, I think I’d add your good LR and 6 or 9 berghia… any aptasia that gets big enough I’d inject with plain old white vinegar (that’s the only thing I’ve had any real luck with).

[GaryP]

Berghia never go away. Like I said, a few cells are always left over that will re-generate. You really need to talk to Instar about them. I think you are swimming against the tide here Hino. There is no other practical way to rid LR of aiptasia. You can go with peppermints. They MIGHT eat them, as well as a lot of other things in your tanks.

Excess food is not the only source of detritus in a tank. I wouldn't think an undergravel filter would have anymore bacteria then a DSB, probably less. Bristle worms eat detritus. If there is a lot of bristle worms then it follows there must be a good supply of food for them as well.

My opinion is that most pests are usually an indication of something else going on in the tank.

[JimD]

Jester nailed it, the only way to achieve you goal is to start with dead rock and new sand. Anything else and youre gonna run the risk of introducing nastys to the tank.

[Thunderkat]

Thanks Gary and Jaded. I guess I have just been getting worked up over nothing. I still don't want bristleworms due to them being poisonous. I don't want anything poisonous in there except soft corals.

You should have seen me freaking out when I saw that giant bristle worm in hawaii. When I introduced the carnivourous crab it yanked it out of a rock and ate the thing, it was cool watching it (took a while). My crab was later murdered by somebody off of my sub but I never found out who did it. :angry

[JesterGrin_1]

Thankya Jim D . But as I mentioned you can go the route I stated and get live sand and anything else you would like to add to the tank and by doing so you can control everything that goes into the tank. Even corals you can use cuttings and grow them in your tank without using any wild caught ones.

[GaryP]

Yes, you can start off with a dead tank, but you are probably looking at a long time before you will have a tank able to handle any biological load. In addition, you are going to be going through a lot of algae blooms and other potential pest problems. You just went through a very bad bloom situation, I don't think you want to do that again.

Try reading the bullet proof reef on the GARF website. I think you might get some good ideas from it.

[JesterGrin_1]

He He GaryP I was not going to mention that site but that is where I got all of that info on such a setup. I myself will be setting up a new tank soon and instead of cooking the rock I have I thought of just using a few pieces of my old rock with new rock of which I would make. Small tank really only 187 Gal.