AcroporAddict
There is no substitute.
I have been living with a blue clove polyp problem in my reef tank for about 3 years now. I started with a tiny frag, and the little suckers just loved my tank. Pretty soon the stuff was everywhere. I have a 300 gallon SPS tank and the blue cloves were on every exposed area of live rock that got light, as well as the sand in some places even. My rock is Totoka, and it was impossible to get rid of it. I always wondered what kind of chemical effect (allelopathy) it could be having on my SPS and other corals because it was the dominant type if life in the tank by a wide margin.
A rough estimate was that I had 4 square feet of the stuff on my rock.
The only way to really get rid of it, if even possible, outside of a tank teardown, was a type of systemic chemical treatment. I had read that Fluke Tabs did the trick, but were hard to get as they aren't sold any more. I was able to find a container of 100 tabs that is not even expired yet, so I have a ton of them now.
Anyways, I used one Tab per 100 gallons (4 Fluke Tabs total), and discontinued protein skimming, carbon, and GFO use. I also removed two leathers and a feather duster, as I had read the Fluke Tabs would kill them. Dissolved the Fluke Tabs in some water and poured them in. Not much happened Day 1. Day 2 the Blue Cloves looked OK, but they were not open nearly as much as before. late day 2 the tank water looked a bit cloudy. The fish and SPS looked fine. Day 3 the water was a bit cloudier as well and the blue cloves still seemed unhappy, and were closed up even more. Day 4 I reached in and touched some of the Blue clove polyp tissue and it peeled straight up off the rock and started falling apart. I went as far as to put some of it in another reef tank that has some blue cloves, but it is not a plague in that reef like it was in the 300. The tissue just fell apart.....yay!
End of day 4, I resumed skimming, GFO and carbon. I have done 25-50 gallon water changes for the past few days, skimmed wet, and change the filter socks daily and outside of a bit of red cyano on some of the dead Blue Cove Polyp tissue, they are completely dead and gone. My Turbo snails acted drugged for a while, but they are getting back to normal as well.
If you have used Chemi-Clean for cyano, then this is somewhat similar, but a bit heavier on the water changes.
The Totoka looks like crud right now because it is bare without any coralline, as it was all covered by blue cloves.
It feels so great to be out from under this pest, I cannot tell you! Some before and after pics to follow.
Dave
A rough estimate was that I had 4 square feet of the stuff on my rock.
The only way to really get rid of it, if even possible, outside of a tank teardown, was a type of systemic chemical treatment. I had read that Fluke Tabs did the trick, but were hard to get as they aren't sold any more. I was able to find a container of 100 tabs that is not even expired yet, so I have a ton of them now.
Anyways, I used one Tab per 100 gallons (4 Fluke Tabs total), and discontinued protein skimming, carbon, and GFO use. I also removed two leathers and a feather duster, as I had read the Fluke Tabs would kill them. Dissolved the Fluke Tabs in some water and poured them in. Not much happened Day 1. Day 2 the Blue Cloves looked OK, but they were not open nearly as much as before. late day 2 the tank water looked a bit cloudy. The fish and SPS looked fine. Day 3 the water was a bit cloudier as well and the blue cloves still seemed unhappy, and were closed up even more. Day 4 I reached in and touched some of the Blue clove polyp tissue and it peeled straight up off the rock and started falling apart. I went as far as to put some of it in another reef tank that has some blue cloves, but it is not a plague in that reef like it was in the 300. The tissue just fell apart.....yay!
End of day 4, I resumed skimming, GFO and carbon. I have done 25-50 gallon water changes for the past few days, skimmed wet, and change the filter socks daily and outside of a bit of red cyano on some of the dead Blue Cove Polyp tissue, they are completely dead and gone. My Turbo snails acted drugged for a while, but they are getting back to normal as well.
If you have used Chemi-Clean for cyano, then this is somewhat similar, but a bit heavier on the water changes.
The Totoka looks like crud right now because it is bare without any coralline, as it was all covered by blue cloves.
It feels so great to be out from under this pest, I cannot tell you! Some before and after pics to follow.
Dave
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