Slick Fork
05-12-2014, 07:43 AM
Hey,
So I've been battling Neomeris Annulata for the better part of the last few years. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a small calcerous algae that for 90% of people starts and ends it's appearance as a bit of a novelty and fades rapidly from their reef tanks. For the unlucky others it takes over the tank trapping detritus, and absorbing insane amounts of calcium and alkalinity.
I've tried everything I could think of; manual removal, ULNS, high nutrients, blackout periods, you name it I probably tried it. This winter I even went so far as to pull all the rock in my display and give it the cooler treatment on the back deck, leaving my tank rockless for the last 3 months. I introduced a few dry pieces two weeks ago (I have a good chunk of "fresh" rock that's been cooking in a Rubbermaid since January) and wouldn't you know it, the rotten stuff sprouted up again.
So, tonight, all the fish went into my quarantine tank, all my coral went into a Rubbermaid (with many possibly contaminated pieces in a 10 gallon coral and clam quarantine). I drained all the salt water out of my display and sump and refilled with tap water and a whole jug of bleach. So, now that my evenings work is done I wanted a few opinions;
1) I was planning on leaving the tank running with the bleach solution until tomorrow evening; this should be long enough to completely kill any Neomeris spores that were in the system right? I have all the pumps and powerheads/wavebox going.
2) Once I empty the tank of the bleach solution, I was going to do a tap water soak/rinse for another 24 hours. Should be sufficient to start mixing salt-water in the display after that correct?
3) Since the bleach is basic, I could add Vinegar to the rinse cycle to help counter it, would that be helpful or am I complicating things.
4) Once I get new salt-water made, I will be adding rock from an uncontaminated system, then my coral (all frags and whole pieces are now in new-salt water; items in the coral and clam quarantine will remain there for observation until I'm sure there's no risk of accidentally reintroducing this plague), fish will go in once I'm sure that any cycle I get is over. I've got about 50lbs of fresh rock that's been cooking since mid-January so I'm not expecting much, if any cycling. The fish will make the transfer from the quarantine system which has contaminated water and rock in it; I will likely have a "dip" in clean salt water that I can dunk them in while netted between the Q-tank and the now clean display. Anything seem over the top? am I missing any steps?
5) My corals and clam quarantine tank. Are there any dips I can do that might remove the spores of this stuff that would be coral friendly? I've only got a few pieces that I'm really worried about, but there is also a clam that's had this stuff growing on it. It wouldn't be the endof the world if the few corals never made it back to the display; but I'd sure like to get the clam cleaned up. I've been pulling it and dripping Hydrogen peroxide on any N. Annulata's that show up on its shell. Anything else worth trying?
Sorry this is a little rambly. It's now almost 2am, all I can smell is bleach and I'm just winding down after finishing everything for the night.
Cheers,
So I've been battling Neomeris Annulata for the better part of the last few years. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's a small calcerous algae that for 90% of people starts and ends it's appearance as a bit of a novelty and fades rapidly from their reef tanks. For the unlucky others it takes over the tank trapping detritus, and absorbing insane amounts of calcium and alkalinity.
I've tried everything I could think of; manual removal, ULNS, high nutrients, blackout periods, you name it I probably tried it. This winter I even went so far as to pull all the rock in my display and give it the cooler treatment on the back deck, leaving my tank rockless for the last 3 months. I introduced a few dry pieces two weeks ago (I have a good chunk of "fresh" rock that's been cooking in a Rubbermaid since January) and wouldn't you know it, the rotten stuff sprouted up again.
So, tonight, all the fish went into my quarantine tank, all my coral went into a Rubbermaid (with many possibly contaminated pieces in a 10 gallon coral and clam quarantine). I drained all the salt water out of my display and sump and refilled with tap water and a whole jug of bleach. So, now that my evenings work is done I wanted a few opinions;
1) I was planning on leaving the tank running with the bleach solution until tomorrow evening; this should be long enough to completely kill any Neomeris spores that were in the system right? I have all the pumps and powerheads/wavebox going.
2) Once I empty the tank of the bleach solution, I was going to do a tap water soak/rinse for another 24 hours. Should be sufficient to start mixing salt-water in the display after that correct?
3) Since the bleach is basic, I could add Vinegar to the rinse cycle to help counter it, would that be helpful or am I complicating things.
4) Once I get new salt-water made, I will be adding rock from an uncontaminated system, then my coral (all frags and whole pieces are now in new-salt water; items in the coral and clam quarantine will remain there for observation until I'm sure there's no risk of accidentally reintroducing this plague), fish will go in once I'm sure that any cycle I get is over. I've got about 50lbs of fresh rock that's been cooking since mid-January so I'm not expecting much, if any cycling. The fish will make the transfer from the quarantine system which has contaminated water and rock in it; I will likely have a "dip" in clean salt water that I can dunk them in while netted between the Q-tank and the now clean display. Anything seem over the top? am I missing any steps?
5) My corals and clam quarantine tank. Are there any dips I can do that might remove the spores of this stuff that would be coral friendly? I've only got a few pieces that I'm really worried about, but there is also a clam that's had this stuff growing on it. It wouldn't be the endof the world if the few corals never made it back to the display; but I'd sure like to get the clam cleaned up. I've been pulling it and dripping Hydrogen peroxide on any N. Annulata's that show up on its shell. Anything else worth trying?
Sorry this is a little rambly. It's now almost 2am, all I can smell is bleach and I'm just winding down after finishing everything for the night.
Cheers,