Help with live rock ID

F

foxriverat

Member
Picked up 3 pieces of live rock today at LFS to seed my base rock. I researched what you want and don't want. But still not sure of the stuff on here. Cured rock I got was in a separate tank from rock being cured. Any help would be appreciated.
 
#1 is an aiptasia, #2 looks like bubble algae but elongated, #3 are majanos and aiptasia.

Kill them all, kill them with fire lol!
 
The rock was just put in today on top of my base rock. Can I just take the rock out and pull the stuff off and put it back in? Is there anything growing on the rock I should keep? Keep in mind this will and always be fowlr tank! Thanks
 
I would pull the rock out and scrape the pests off. If you break any of the bubble algae rinse off the rock before putting it back into the tank.
 
Well I knew you don't want hair algae on live rock. I researched the dos and don't for live rock before I bought some and my head was spinning. So many things were mentioned. I googled them. Looked at pictures. And still couldn't make heads or tails of the stuff. When I was asking the guy at LFS what things on the rock were. He never said aiptasia, or bubble algae. Made it seem like everything was fine. And I thought it looked cool. (dam newbie I am) I will pull it off tomorrow morning. The neighbors building a fire and I need a beer. Thanks for the help
 
ddiomede said:
#1 is an aiptasia, #2 looks like bubble algae but elongated, #3 are majanos and aiptasia.

Kill them all, kill them with fire lol!
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From what I have read that seems to be a good idea. Take the rock out and use a small torch and burn them out. Before I do that though I am going to call the LFS when it opens and ask the owner why the guy working there told me they were polyps. Maybe I can just return it.
 
foxriverat said:
From what I have read that seems to be a good idea. Take the rock out and use a small torch and burn them out. Before I do that though I am going to call the LFS when it opens and ask the owner why the guy working there told me they were polyps. Maybe I can just return it.
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I've read about that too. If you do, do it outside. You don't want to be breathing that. If you can, bring a really strong fan outside too. You can get sick depending on what being burned. Hospitalized sick.
 
Might be a spot of coraline algae, a red macro like Botryocladia, possibly a sponge but not likely. Hard to see. It's more than likely not cyano if you just put it in. Cyano would have sluffed off when they took it out of the rock vat.
 
If its FOWLR, and you don't mind the way those things look (personally, I think bubble algae looks cool...., majanos can add color, aiptasia can be ugly, but can also add movement (if they get big enough). Really, you'd only be worried about it "overrunning" the tank if you need that real estate for coral, other macro algae (which could out-compete it possibly), or if you flat out do not like the look. There are also some beautiful fish that will eat all of that for you that we simply cannot keep in reef tanks. If you're going FOWLR, I would encourage you to look for non-reef safe fish, as you actually have the opportunity to enjoy them! Raccoon-faced butterfly fish are beautiful, have a lot of personality, and eat aiptasia! :) Just a thought....
 
Well looks like a butterfly fish will be in my near future. Now I have to decide how to catch my 2 yellow tail damsels without pulling out all my rock. I know they would probably reek havoc on a peacefull butterfly. The clownfish will hopefully be all right with it. Probably try the soda bottle trick first. If that doesn't work. Tiny fly fish hook and line.
 
foxriverat said:
Well looks like a butterfly fish will be in my near future. Now I have to decide how to catch my 2 yellow tail damsels without pulling out all my rock. I know they would probably reek havoc on a peacefull butterfly. The clownfish will hopefully be all right with it. Probably try the soda bottle trick first. If that doesn't work. Tiny fly fish hook and line.
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Starve them for a day and then use the bottle trick.
 
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