Is it worth it???

[chappy121]

I've spent the last couple of years fighting mushroom is my mixed reef tank. I even took out rock, let it die, recured, and brought it back into the tank hoping the shrooms would be gone. Unfortunately, they are back again and killing SPS.

Recently, I had to move out my 90g into the garage to have the hardwood floors restained. Before I bring it back in, I was debating doing something drastic to attack the shrooms.

My debate is should I take all of the SPS corals off of my rocks, buy new rock and start over. I was also thinking of replacing the sand to get rid of the bristle worms. My overall goal is to remove all nuisance organisms. I have ceramic biospheres in the sump and was going to put the new rock in the sump for a couple of weeks to build up bacteria before I pull the rock and sand.

So, should I? Who's done this? Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I restarted a tank after an aiptasia plague. Do it. Absolutely do everything you can think of. Don't skimp. My old live rock became dead rock, after bleach. New live rock went on top. New sand. Bleach solution clean all wet things, including the inside of the tank. Only way to be sure. Be sure.

 

[cvrle1]

2 ideas for you that may or may not work. If you want to get rid of rock with all the mushrooms, and plan on replacing them, take that rock to LFS and trade it for new rock. They probably will do this swap as they get mushrooms out of it that they can sell for extra $

If not, take all corals off that you want to keep, put all the rock in a bucket, can, whatever can hold it all in, add tap water and bleach mix and let it sit for a week. I would use higher concentration than 1/10 as is usually done, to make sure all the shrooms get wiped out. Once it is done, you will have dead, clean rock that you can then cure/cycle and add into the tank.

Another thing you can do is give rocks acid wash. Acid is much faster than bleach (minutes vs week) but also more dangerous to work with, and you also lose a bit of rock as well. It will kill absolutely everything alive, thats for sure.

 

[windlasher]

I've spent the last couple of years fighting mushroom is my mixed reef tank. I even took out rock, let it die, recured, and brought it back into the tank hoping the shrooms would be gone. Unfortunately, they are back again and killing SPS.

Recently, I had to move out my 90g into the garage to have the hardwood floors restained. Before I bring it back in, I was debating doing something drastic to attack the shrooms.

My debate is should I take all of the SPS corals off of my rocks, buy new rock and start over. I was also thinking of replacing the sand to get rid of the bristle worms. My overall goal is to remove all nuisance organisms. I have ceramic biospheres in the sump and was going to put the new rock in the sump for a couple of weeks to build up bacteria before I pull the rock and sand.

So, should I? Who's done this? Any advice?

Thanks!

What kind of shrooms? Are they cool? Got a picture? If they are then I'll pay you to ship them to me. Been looking for a nice shroom rock for a new tank.

EDIT- Just realized - you are "up there" Oh, well.

 

[chappy121]

Thanks everyone.

Agree, you really need to be sure when cleaning. I left my rock outside in the sun for a week. Completely died and bleached out. Then shrooms completely came back somehow on the same rocks. Although I didn't use bleach, which was probably my mistake.

My worry is not having enough bacteria during the change and causing a crash or major nitrate swing. Although, I could put some of the base rock with nothing on it in the sump to ensure I maintain balance.

Shrooms are nice, purple, red and green, but they are so aggressive. Just tired of having to fight them when they grow in areas I don't want them to. I figured if I am breaking down the tank, now is the time to get drastic.

 

[Sk8r]

They will sell. Trade to your lfs for rock and food, and some future specimens.

 

[cody6766]

Don't ditch all the bristle worms. They're great at cleaning up stuff the fish/snails/crabs miss. You don't want them to over run your tank, but a healthy population is good for the tank. Same goes for pods, astrea stars, sponges, micro brittle stars, and almost all of the other neat microfauna that we get in our tanks.

I have never done a test to prove this...too many variables, but I've seen anecdotal evidence for my argument in one of my previous tanks. I had a yellow coris wrasse in my 40 breeder that I set up from dry rock. I seeded it with healthy live rock, but had limited bristle worms and other critters. The wrasse ensured that the tank stayed fairly sterile. Coral just never grew well in that tank. Water quality was correct and consistent, lighting was good, all that. The only variable from the previous set up, and follow on set up, was the quantity of microfauna.