Cloves are slowly taking over my SPS tank. What are my options?

[deputydog95]

It started out with a couple of small patches. I didn't know what they were and more or less ignored them. Certainly, have regrets about that...

Fast forward, they're growing exponentially in the tank at this point.

I have a lot of encrusted SPS and LPS corals, so taking rocks out is not really an option. Not to mention the cloves are now growing on the back panels of the tank. They're pretty much everywhere. Short of a full tear down, I'm not sure I could rid the entire tank with 100 percent certainty they're gone.

I tried introducing a couple urchins per someone's suggestion, but they just walk right over the cloves with little to no disruption in their growth.

I've searched online and "fluke" tabs used to the answer, but are no longer available. I'm not a huge fan of putting chemicals in the water column, as there are always consequences. I'd be ok with acceptable losses, but it's a moot point since the fluke tabs can't be purchased.

So what are my options?

Do the cloves have any natural predators that can be introduced into a reef tank? I have to believe there's something that must east them or the reefs around the world would be overrun.

Are there any "relatively safe" chemicals that have come available with similar properties to the fluke tabs?

Is there any chance of the cloves eventually life cycling out and just disappearing? Wishful thinking, but figured I would ask.

I'm really at a loss and cringing at the prospect of breaking the tank down and starting over...

 

[oshanickreef]

Are they the blue cloves? Otherwise known as sympodium?


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[deputydog95]

I believe so. I can take pics tomorrow and post when I'm back in the office.

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[water is wet]

Are they actually harming your other coal? It's been a while but I've seen another member that had them all throughout his tank but they only grew in places that didn't have anything growing and if I remember correctly he would even place new corals on top of the cloves without issues.

 

[oshanickreef]

I have stumbled upon this

https://www.*********.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/


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[deputydog95]

Are they actually harming your other coal? It's been a while but I've seen another member that had them all throughout his tank but they only grew in places that didn't have anything growing and if I remember correctly he would even place new corals on top of the cloves without issues.

Yeah, it's really starting to interfere. Plating corals are being surrounded and halted. If the SPS coral has any bare spots, the cloves somehow find those spots and start clinging/multiplying on the SPS skeleton.

Not to mention it's really unsightly in general. Not sure why people like them...

 

[deputydog95]

I have stumbled upon this

https://www.*********.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/


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Could you double check your link, please? I tried to read it but I'm getting this error message:

This site can't be reached
www.*********.com's server IP address could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

 

[deputydog95]

I have stumbled upon this

https://www.*********.com/threads/eliminating-blue-clove-polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/


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Even though I couldn't open the link, I was able to see the chemical name and google it. Came up with this:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2649892&page=2

https://www.thomaslabs.com/product/fish-bendazole/fish-wormers

Looks promising. If you google the chemical name and cloves, you get a ton of threads. I need to do more reading before I risk putting it in the tank.

I really wish I knew if there was a natural predator for cloves versus the chemical route...

 

[oshanickreef]

Eliminating Blue Clove Polyps with Fenbendazole

Just google this and it should come up. It's a reef 2 reef link


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[Yonp11]

fenbendazole is usually used to kill hydroids, it will kill clove polyps as well as some other soft corals like leathers.

Also, you won't be able to put certain snails back in the tank for a while (months).

 

[deputydog95]

Here are some pics. They're more dark purple than blue.

These are cloves, right?

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[morphos]

If somebody wants to test it: All my blue star polyps and all bryareum was gone. I had a big pest. Accidently, the value of dkh was on 12-13 for about 3 weeks. I have lost some acros but it was when the DKH value went down. Now DKH value is 8,5 since 3 weeks and I do not see any blue clove… some small áreas of briareum begin to shine again, I think I am going to cover them with opaque something .

 

[Dmorty217]

I'm sure a butterfly of some variety will do the trick, the problem there is it might not be the only coral that gets eaten

 

[deputydog95]

If somebody wants to test it: All my blue star polyps and all bryareum was gone. I had a big pest. Accidently, the value of dkh was on 12-13 for about 3 weeks. I have lost some acros but it was when the DKH value went down. Now DKH value is 8,5 since 3 weeks and I do not see any blue clove"¦ some small áreas of briareum begin to shine again, I think I am going to cover them with opaque something .

Oddly enough, I had the opposite experience. I recently had a dkh spike from 8.5 to 13.5, and now the cloves are expanding again. I hadn't seen them in weeks prior to that. Grrrrrr.

 

[deputydog95]

I'm sure a butterfly of some variety will do the trick, the problem there is it might not be the only coral that gets eaten

There's the rub... If they eat cloves, they're probably eat something else.

Honestly, I could live without my zoas. But I have a ton of SPS and a clam I've had for years that I can't risk with an iffy fish.

You would think at this point there would be something definitive that would eat them.

 

[Joe0813]

what size tank? what about a emperor angel? they eat zoos and won't touch SPS

 

[Wonton Soup]

what size tank? what about a emperor angel? they eat zoos and won't touch SPS

Won't touch SPS? Ha! That is far from true. Most importantly it depends entirely on the specific fish. Occasionally you'll get one more interested in softer corals than hard but I can assure you emperors will absolutely eat SPS polyps.

 

[Dmorty217]

What about kalk pasting them like you would with aiptasia or something similar? A single fish that will just eat those and nothing else is a one in a million chance that isn't worth taking

 

[deputydog95]

what size tank? what about a emperor angel? they eat zoos and won't touch SPS

It's a 115, which might be kind of small for a fish like that...

What about kalk pasting them like you would with aiptasia or something similar? A single fish that will just eat those and nothing else is a one in a million chance that isn't worth taking

Unfortunately, they are in all sort of small nooks and crannnies in the tank. I went through a period of scrubbing them with a stiff nylon brush, but they always come back. They're living in places I can't see or get to in the tank.

Honestly, I'm perfectly fine with a fish that will eat any and all of zoanthids/paly's, so long as they don't eat my SPS or clam.

It would be nice to know what eats these things in the wild. Something must or the reefs would be covered in them.

I wish I was more comfortable dumping a pesticide into the tank as some have suggested, but with mostly SPS, I don't want to risk it. They're just so sensitive.....

 

[Dmorty217]

a Raccoon butterfly might fit the bill. There is no real way of knowing how it will react to the clam though