Brown Polyps - How to Kill

[clevername]

That's drastic! There must be something that can be done other than this. If this was my only option, I would not re-start. I would just leave it down. Too much work and expense to start over.

mother nature doesn't care about your lack of foresight. It sucks but lesson learned.

Pick corals that you will be happy with long term not just the first you see at the fishstore. Iv 100% been there, i thought polyps were the coolest coral ever.... then i saw long term reefers tanks and noticed non of them had polyps. As for getting rid of it, dont even mess with it. honestly, trash the rock (yes i mean trash it) and spend the 50$ on new rock call it a new start

 

[clevername]

Don't get crappy, ugly, fast growing coral then......that is extremely poisonous.

Dropping truth bombs over here! All newbies this is some good advice!

 

[Radicaljbr]

Bleach diluted will neutralize palytoxin & make it safe to re-use the rocks tho one will have to restart completly over from scratch with a lesson learned about housing any Palys.
Amazingly it is true that most LFS will take in live rock over grown with these ugly nasty toxic soft corals because some uninformed about them poor guy or gal will buy them so its a money maker for them.
The main loss is time not money in a restart, maturing a tank again is a dull affair.
Another neg is if you also have hard corals where and what to do with them?
Without another mature DT your stuck with selling/trading them off until after the DT again matures a painful lesson also.
I never understood how anyone could even contemplate housing toxic Palys in a home DT when the heater could fail and then everyone in the home people & pets could end up in the Hospital at best.....crazy, could not pay me to do that ever would be living in endless fear and under stress.

What do you mean one would have to start over from scratch? If it is only on 1 rock and you only bleach that rock and place back in, wouldn't there be minimal effect on a mature tank?

 

[Oldreeferman]

Yes if its only on one rock carefully and safely toss it & add another rock however, IF the infestation has spread all over then all rocks must be replaced.
Takes dry rock months to mature even in a mature DT and again there is the issue of sensitive SPS corals they do not like changes. If a softy only coral DT then does not really matter all that much.
One could buy live rock or make live rock from cheaper dry rock in advance a good option if all rock needs replacing, is what id do in that case.
Most folks that ask what to do about palys after the fact usually have bad infestations, those that only have them on one rock well its a no brainer what to do obviously.

 

[Radicaljbr]

Yes if its only on one rock carefully and safely toss it & add another rock however, IF the infestation has spread all over then all rocks must be replaced.
Takes dry rock months to mature even in a mature DT and again there is the issue of sensitive SPS corals they do not like changes. If a softy only coral DT then does not really matter all that much.
One could buy live rock or make live rock from cheaper dry rock in advance a good option if all rock needs replacing, is what id do in that case.
Most folks that ask what to do about palys after the fact usually have bad infestations, those that only have them on one rock well its a no brainer what to do obviously.

No, I meant can’t I bleach that one rock and place it back in? I have it only in one rock at this point but it’s my favorite rock

 

[yacn]

isn't there a non reef safe fish you can buy that will eat the brown zoas?

 

[Oldreeferman]

Nope
Something to eat vermetid snails would also be a nice find.

 

[Dan.]

Nope
Something to eat vermetid snails would also be a nice find.

Try a handful of Bumblebee snails, they have an appetite for them.

 

[Radicaljbr]

So I took my one rock with the brown polyps out and soaked it in bleach. I was going to put it back in but thought it might cause issues. So I’m leaving it out side to dry for a few days then put back in. Any foreseeable problems with this?

 

[Dan.]

So I took my one rock with the brown polyps out and soaked it in bleach. I was going to put it back in but thought it might cause issues. So I'm leaving it out side to dry for a few days then put back in. Any foreseeable problems with this?

I would rinse it in some water with some dechlorinator first, then let it dry.

 

[Radicaljbr]

I would rinse it in some water with some dechlorinator first, then let it dry.

I don't have any of that. It's in a 5 gallon bucket right now in the back yard with a house with running water. I'll turn it off and drain it after a couple hours and then dry it a couple days and put it back in I guess