LiveRock Die Off

[Azilla]

Hey guys im kinda curious i have had that snail problem for some time now and i have been killin them but cant get them all. Now my question is how long will Live rock last outside of water before die off happens??? Im asking because im almost at the point where i want to pull out my liverock and scrape it with a brush to romove the pests. Also wanted to pull out the rock to find the clicking menace. So what kind of time frame do i have???

[Beverly]

What kind of pests do you hope to remove by scraping the LR?

[Willow]

fresh water dip should get stuff out of the rock fast.

[Beverly]

fresh water dip should get stuff out of the rock fast.

I considered a FW dip to get rid of the crabs in my 37g and decided against it. IMO, crabs and similar creatures are pretty hardy and could stand a long time in FW before they would come out. I thought the rock would have to be in the FW too long to be of any use and stuff on the rock would suffer too much and probably even begin to die.

[Azilla]

vermetid gastropods snails have taken over my tank. so i need to get them out


http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=109573&highlight=#109573

[Beverly]

Gads! I read the link that was provided in your link. These things are going to be tenacious! IMO, you will have to use a sharp, fine pointed knife to scrape them off AND you must scrape off the whole tube, which may go deep into the rocks' holes in many places. I don't envy your task :eek:

What I would suggest is using an Xacto knife for scraping. Get one with a very fine blade point. Have a bucket for rinsing the rock while you work on it so you can scrape one area, rinse then go onto another area for more scraping. Then rinse each rock in another bucket before placing in a holding container for the scraped rock.

Good luck at getting them. You may have to do this a few times over the next few months to make sure you get them all.

[Azilla]

Hmm well i was thinking some kind of strong wire brush??? i mean there all over my overflow and pumps i cant control them i cut down on my feeding alot and still they spread. So if i take the rock and scrape it good in a tub my fish should be ok for a while right??? Ill fill a tub up with some sump water and scrub the rock in there. with a power head. I dunno im out of ideas anyone know of a fish that might enjoy these snails??????

[Carl]

Shamefaced crab. Read an article that says they eat all snails. It's what they're designed for apparently. Don't know if they readily available though.

[Beverly]

Hmm well i was thinking some kind of strong wire brush???

A wire brush will take off stuff the you will still like to have on the LR, such as coralline, and may not get to the bases of these snails. I would still go at each snail on each rock one at a time wuth something small, long and sharp.

i mean there all over my overflow and pumps i cant control them i cut down on my feeding alot and still they spread.

Man, that sucks :eek: I'm wondering if you have a smaller second tank to set up temporarily so you can do some serious work inside the tank itself without water running. That way none of what you scrape off will go back into your water column.

So if i take the rock and scrape it good in a tub my fish should be ok for a while right??? ??????

Yeah, your fish will be okay for a few hours with a heater and powerhead. But really, if you've got to scrape parts of your tank, it might be best to set up a second temp tank and do a serious clean.

Ill fill a tub up with some sump water and scrub the rock in there. with a power head. I dunno im out of ideas anyone know of a fish that might enjoy these snails??????

You won't need a powerhead in the tub if you are only scraping the rock in it. I wouldn't advise scraping the rock in the tub then putting the scraped rock into the tub. Too much opportunity for re-contamination from the snails you just scraped off.

IMO, have LOTS of NSW made. Make up a temp tank for the fish, corals, scraped rock, etc. and do the job right. PITA, I know, but will be well worth it in the long run.

[Azilla]

Anyone think a copperband fish will eat these snails???

[G1GY]

Anyone think a copperband fish will eat these snails???

Mine doesn't.

[Azilla]

well been pulling rock out since 11am and still not done. Crushin the lil bastards in my finding i saw a huge crab sneakin threw a rocks well lets just say he ate steal!!!! then i found about 15 frags so far toooT!!!!!!!!! haha well back to work.

[Beverly]

Crush and remove anything you find, otherwise they may have enough body mass to regenerate themselves. Rinse or scrape the rock thoroughly so that the dead stuff is all removed. Dead bodies might cause an ammonia spike. Good luck!!!

[Beverly]

Azilla,

How did the rock cleaning go?