Manajo and aiptasias

nuking rock?

 

nuking rock?

 

I have never needed to "nuke" rock, but from what I understand, you take the rock out of the tank and completely kill everything off by rinsing with a bleach and freshwater mixture. Let it dry out and repeat this process several times. This should kill off any aiptasia (and the good bacteria as well), but you will be starting from scratch with your live rock. No pests.

Hopefully someone who has done this will chime in and give you more details.

 

This is taken from Otty's page (under his blog):

"Recipe I was taught for nuking (cleaning) Live Rock
1. Soak rock in 50/50 Bleach and water solution for 3 days.
2. Soak rock for next 3 days in RO water if possible but tap is ok
3. Soak rock in RO/DI water and Baking soda for 3 days to neutralize the bleach. For a 30g trash can I use 4 lbs. of Baking soda.
4. Let rock sit outside in sun for 2 weeks turning the rock to make sure all water is out of holes. If cold out side I have put in my garage with a fan on the rock for about 1.5 weeks and still turn rock every day.

Last couple times I nuked rock I was not ready to add to tank when I was complete so I mixed some SW and added the rock with some PH's and heat to kick start a cycle until I was ready to add to the tank.

This will ensure you are not adding anything in your tank that you don't want, just like getting base rock. It will become live rock once it is seeded."

 

my rock looked like that when I broke my old tank down. they are very invasive. you will never get those out without killing the rock. sorry to break it to ya. take the rock out and eithe rkill it with bleach or as i did, let it sit dry for a month or two. that is the only surefire way to get rid of them.

now, if you are not as infested or want to knock them back, I have Tangster's recipe for a kalk paste that works wonders.

take some pickling lime and add RO water to it to make a paste about like toothpaste. spread it on a microwave safe plate. add to it a tsp of red pepper, and some texas pete or your favorite hot sauce. blend it well and them microwave it till it bubbles. remove and is should still be like toothpaste. add some water if need be. it needs to be thick so it stays put. take a syringe and fill it with the mixture and squirt a drop in their mouths. they will melt within 30 mins guaranteed. it will also kill off any other invasive weed you put on it. Ive used it on GSP, Xenia, anems and pavona and it works great.

 

will rock still be good if i kill it

 

It will become base rock. Still good to use, just white rock with nothing living on it. Coralline algae will come back in time, but the Aiptasia won't.

 

agreed with Reeron. you will have rock to put back in teh tank. it will not be live after nuking. it will become live again after it is introduced into the tank, just wont have any of the pests on it. I did that to my rock. let it sit for about 2 months. then I put it with some new liverock I got and that seeded it with the bacteria. If your tank looks like the photo you put, this is your best option.

 

i had real good luck with joes juice, took two tries to get it ALL but worked and its been three weeks and NO signs of em

 

Looks like there is corals attached to that rock. Unless you want to sacrifice the corals or want to take them of i would try the nudibranchs. use joes juice for the remaining majones. skip all that nuking your rock and messing with your aquascape and corals. Especially how it seems from the picture it is not just one rock and judging by the amount of them, there probably spread in other rocks of the tank already. Joe juice and the nudibranchs.