noob chronicles...... what would you do next

[SaltyDog143]

Ok so here is where we are......

Purchased live rock from a fellow member on here that was shutting his tank down, that was this past saturday, also dropped into Big Al's and grabbed some cleaner crew, emerald crab, snails and hermits. One of the rocks has a mini carpet and we got his 3 chromis from him as well.

Not entirely sure how much rock but it looks to be enough for our 120gal, upon getting it home and closer inspection we found alot of bristle worms and some majona anenome's on the rocks. We also got a bunch of his water to ship the rocks and fish for the trip home, as it's about 3 hr drive. There was also alot of xenia on his rocks that we have no interest in so alot of that got scraped off. All in all the rock looks good aside from said issues, a mixture of fiji, punaki, some tonga, etc.

We took the rock with the mini carpet and a few others and imediately got them into the quarantine tank with their water. long story short did some reading on the majona and bristle worms and decided to give the rocks a cold dip in the water they would be housed in, so out came water from my main tank and out on the deck for a couple hours. Next we dipped the rocks and cleaned as much bristle worms and majona as we could, did some aqua scaping and into the display tank they go (will post pics from my phone later).

Have the main display tank running with the rock in there since sunday, tested parameters last night on both tanks and here is what I came up with.

Display tank..................... quarantine tank
Salinity 1.025...................... 1.026
Ph8.2.........................................8.0
Amonia 0..................................0
Nitrite 0..................................0
Nitrate 5.0............................160


So after these readings, I did a 25% water change to the quarantine tank, will retest the Nitrate this evening.

I guess what I am asking here is should I move the stuff from quarantine over to my display? should I wait? how long should I wait or what parameters should I look for before moving things over?

My cleaner crew is in the quarantine tank, we did lose one chromis and the emerald crab on the trip home. I plan on cold dipping the rocks from the quarantine tank before putting them in the display, to get more bristle worms out and to try to get rid of the few majona that are on these rocks, but I don't want to harm the mini carpet so going to have to be very careful with him.

As always comments and advice are much appreciated
Randy

[IanWR]

At least as far as the bristle worms go, you won't get rid if them by anything short of something that would kill everything on the rock. I hate the look of them myself, but they are just another member of your cuc.

[Coralgurl]

Bristle worms are not a bad thing, you will end up with them at some point again, I wouldn't worry about them. Just don't touch them with your bare hands...ouch!

You may kill off other good stuff (bacteria) on the rocks by "cold" dipping them and end up requiring a full cycle of your rocks. Before placing in your DT, I'd put them where you can monitor the parameters to make sure you don't end up with ammonia from die off after dipping.

Regarding the majanos, you could epoxy over them, these pest nems are hard to kill for a reason, some may even say blow torch lol!!

[kien]

My question would be: what is your ultimate goal with the quarantine tank?

[kamloops_reefer]

arrow crab took care of every bristle worm I had, but then no one wanted him after and he likely caused some fatalities in the tank.

Bristle worms are good, but I prefer not to run the risk of getting stung by one

[SaltyDog143]

Thanks for the replies guys...

My ultimate goal for my quarantine tank....to hold the anenome and fish until its good/safe to move over to the display tank, nothing more. Just needed somewhere to put them while I was trying to get the tank and rocks setup.

As for bristle worms, I know I am not going to kill them all, just trying to reduce the numbers, when I turned one rock over it was almost orange there were so many.

So when would you guys move the stuff from quarantine to the display? should I wait maybe a week to see what happens? or should I be ok to do it now?

Thanks
Randy

[chi]

I had the same experience as you. Got live rock off a member and it had other unwanted algae and hitch hikers. At this point, as much as I like the biodiversity that comes with live rock, I'm planning to just kill everything with acid and bleach. Go for dead rocks and turn to mechanical filtration.

[kien]

If the live rock came straight out of the other dude's tank then chances are that it has already been cycled. The big thing to watch for is a cycle (ammonia and nitrite) in your display tank. I'm going to venture a guess that you won't see much of one as the rock you're using probably has enough nitrifying bacteria. However, having said that, since your tank appears to be quite new (like less than a week?) I would hold off on putting anything in the display tank for a few more days. Test Nitrite and Ammonia again in a few days to see if there is any rise in either. You probably won't, but the rock did travel 3 hours so there is a chance that there was some die off that may cause a mini-cycle (slight elevation in Ammonia and nitrite).

[ponokareefer]

I would make sure all the Majona's are gone for at least a month in the quarantine tank before putting it into the display. You will never get rid of them once they are in the display and will be a constant headache. You may need to kill everything on the rock to make sure they are fully gone. I'm afraid you are probably stuck with dead rock.

[CM125]

Thanks for the replies guys...

My ultimate goal for my quarantine tank....to hold the anenome and fish until its good/safe to move over to the display tank, nothing more. Just needed somewhere to put them while I was trying to get the tank and rocks setup.

As for bristle worms, I know I am not going to kill them all, just trying to reduce the numbers, when I turned one rock over it was almost orange there were so many.

So when would you guys move the stuff from quarantine to the display? should I wait maybe a week to see what happens? or should I be ok to do it now?

Thanks
Randy

There are lots of fish that will keep bristle worm numbers under control, I would go this route. Don't move everything over until your parameters are good, there is really no set time

I would make sure all the Majona's are gone for at least a month in the quarantine tank before putting it into the display. You will never get rid of them once they are in the display and will be a constant headache. You may need to kill everything on the rock to make sure they are fully gone. I'm afraid you are probably stuck with dead rock.

That might be a little excessive, there are lots of ways to kill these without having to fully kill and recycle

[Borderjumper]

Never heard of a cold dip. IMO this will only kill off the benificial stuff.. The nastys will survive.

[SaltyDog143]

I had read somewhere that a cold dig will help get the bristle worms to let go of the rock, and when I did it sure enough they started to come out, I dipped them in the cold water and would splash it around some and most would fall right off, I did pick some off as well. Once done this I would put the rocks into new tank water at room temp. If I noticed at that time any majona I would get under them with a semi sharp knife and they would let go fairly well after the cold water dip.

I'm not saying this is the end all be all for pest removal, I just wanted to decrease the numbers significantly and I think I accomplished that.

as for timing to switch stuff from the quarantine tank, I was thinking next week if my parameters are still good, was really curious about what you guys all thought because you have way more experience than me.

thanks again

[hillegom]

About the bristle worms. I think you should keep some, but you really don't have a choice. Unless you kill everything on the LR, there will always be some in the nooks and crannies.
If you want to decrease the population, there is a way.
Take a piece of an old nylon from your wife and put some food into it. Like maybe a 6mmx6mm piece of shrimp, anything really.Tie it up. Leave it in the QT tank overnight. The bristle worms will get stuck in the fine weave of the nylon. Just take the whole thing and chuck it in the morning.
Repeat as often as you wish.

[SaltyDog143]

About the bristle worms. I think you should keep some, but you really don't have a choice. Unless you kill everything on the LR, there will always be some in the nooks and crannies.
If you want to decrease the population, there is a way.
Take a piece of an old nylon from your wife and put some food into it. Like maybe a 6mmx6mm piece of shrimp, anything really.Tie it up. Leave it in the QT tank overnight. The bristle worms will get stuck in the fine weave of the nylon. Just take the whole thing and chuck it in the morning.
Repeat as often as you wish.


Hmph....cool idea, like I said wasn't trying to get rid of all of them but wanted to drastically limit the number of them, will keep your idea in mind

[duncangweller]

Take a pic of it if you do it. I would like to see

[Myka]

I would make sure all the Majona's are gone for at least a month in the quarantine tank before putting it into the display. You will never get rid of them once they are in the display and will be a constant headache.

My thoughts too. The cold dip won't harm the Majano Anemones.

[kien]

bristle worms are OK, but if you really really want to get rid of them, I've noticed that Coral Rx Pro does a great job of nuking them :-)

It sounded to me like you had already taken the live rock out of the QT tank and put them into the display tank?

[SaltyDog143]

Ok a little update......

checked the nitrate level in the Q tank, after doing 25% water change last night, still at 160ppm tonight, so we are going to do a 50% change tonight.

display tank....suddenly looks like its getting green algae on the the rocks?, should i put some of the cleaner crew in there?

As for my rocks, i put 5 rocks in the q tank upon start up all the rest went into the display tank.

[hillegom]

Sounds like you are going through a cycle. I would not buy anything live until the nitrates settle down.
That is if your test kit is ok. Maybe bring in a sample of water to your local LFS to check.

[SaltyDog143]

The high nitrate level is in the quarantine tank, the green algae is in the display, only rocks and sand in the display tank just yet, the test kits was bought this past weekend, I hope its good?

The original water in the quarantine tank is from the tank the rock and fish came out of, last night we did 25% change, tonight we did another 50% change, will see how the nitrates are tomorrow night.

[Madreefer]

I don't know if the other members that read your OP over looked what you said or think it doesn't matter. But did you not transport this rock for a while, cold water dip it and than leave out in the cold on your deck for a while? IMO you may have killed or possibly damaged it enough that it'll cause you problens like your experiencing now. Good luck

[SaltyDog143]

I transported the rock from Edmonton in tubs in my car in the original tank water, got it all home moved to tank water into the Q tank added 5 rocks and fish to Q tank.

Next I took water out of my display tank put that water out on my deck to cool it. After it was cooled took the water in the house dipped the rocks in the cool water then placed them in the display tank water at room temp.

Once I was done with all the cold dipping I placed all these rocks in the display tank, aqua scaped and added the sand. Let everything settle over night then started up the pump and skimmer.

Few days later did the water tests listed in my original post.

Sorry if I wasnt clear in the original post.

[asylumdown]

my two cents - there is a short list of creatures you couldn't pay me to knowingly put in my system. Mojanos are one of them. However, I've (thankfully) never had to deal with them personally, but if they're anything like aiptasia, there's nothing on live rock that I'd consider worth the trouble.

[reefwithareefer]

I am a noob as well and I thought the Majano was cool looking in my tank until it was everywhere within 3 or 4 months (Probably about 150 of em).

I went and found a majano wand for sale and zapped about 50% of them. The wand worked great, except for the ones hiding deep inside crevices. It could not reach them when they retracted.

The next thing I bought was a file fish, at first I did not notice much Majano disappearing, but about 2 weeks later, there was none. The file fish is still in there 4 months later and does not seem to eat anything else. I have heard that Filefish can cause issues or not even eat the Majano, so I guess I lucked out.

I had a few aptasia that the wand killed. The filefish ignored the Aptasia,

[SaltyDog143]

Interesting, I am hoping I have cleaned out all of the majano from the rocks before I put them in the display tank but only time will tell. Everything is moved over we even added a few frags, now lets waitcand see how thing fair. Here is the tank right now.

[reefwars]

Interesting, I am hoping I have cleaned out all of the majano from the rocks before I put them in the display tank but only time will tell. Everything is moved over we even added a few frags, now lets waitcand see how thing fair. Here is the tank right now.

That's a killer scape , I've seen a lot of tanks but that defies gravity literally ;)

[SaltyDog143]

Why the hell is the picture upside down??????

[hfp75]

There must be some new laws to science as another member figured out how to run a tank upside down also. Absolutely amazing!!! Looks great.

For the OP, the bristle worms - who cares, manjoes - if you have a rock that's covered, let it dry. If there are just a few, figure out a way to get rid of them!!

I got a syringe and needle and was injecting them with lemon juice, yes real lemon juice... They are all gone now but I was persistent... They either disappeared or fell off!!! If I got more I would inject lemon juice into them again!!!!