Restarting question

[Mattb1612]

Hey everyone, thank you in advance. So I’m approaching the 2 year mark on my tank and all corals are doing well. I made a mistake when I started though one of my rocks had small piece Xenia and I dremeled it off and thought I was ok. Well I didn’t get it all and as you can figure it has taken over my tank. I’ve tried pulling Xenia out and made progress then small pieces got lose and now I have a tank full Xenia LOL. I tried taking all the rock out and dremeling it and still no luck. I’m out of options. So I have a thought

1: I take all the rock out and replace it with dry rock

2: I’ve heard of this reef rock that has spores biological material making it mature faster

3: mature Marco rock in brute with a heater, powerhead and frits turbo start and wait 2 months.

 

What’s everyone thoughts and ideas I appreciate it.

 

 

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[YHSublime]

There’s a guy I follow on R2R who dosed something that killed all the Xenia, same problem as you, big SPS dominated reef, I’ll see if I can find it.

[YHSublime]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/marks-150-gallon-sps-heavy-reef.199807/

[ReefdUp]

Xenia is also temperature-sensitive. Depending what else is in the tank, you may be able to raise the temperature enough to knock it out without hurting the other inhabitants. If I remember right, a temp of 80 is usually enough to knock it out (they tend to like cooler tanks.)

[Mattb1612]

@sublime the issue with dosing goat-dewormer is I have zoas,frogspawn and other softies .

I don’t know if I can raise the tank temperature high enough to kill them. I’ve had the tank between 78-80.


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[Jon Lazar]

IIRC fenbendazole kills xenia and some other softies like gorgonians, clove polyps, and green star polyps.  Zoanthids and frogspawn are safe.  Not sure about leather corals.

 

I've had great success with using bandage gauze to remove xenia.  Take a 1" x 2" piece of gauze and fold it in half between your index finger and thumb.  Then pinch the xenia and tear it off the rock.  The gauze allows you to grip the xenia and remove nearly all of it.  Scrape any remaining scraps off with a toothbrush.  I got the idea when a dentist did this to my tongue (gripping it, not the tearing it out!) while doing his routine check for mouth cancer. 

 

Regardless of whether you use fenbendazole, I would try manual removal first to knock it back to manageable levels.

[Mattb1612]

Thank you everyone. I started on thread that sublime posted and then started researching https://maxdraco.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/fenbendazole-eliminate-invasive-soft-corals-blue-cloves-polyps-xenia-aiptasia-hydriods-etc/.


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[BtmDweller]

What about moving piece by piece out.  Basically take one out set it in the sun, put it in a rubbermaid after with tank water and no light while whatever is left dies off and using old tank water cleaning off the mess.  Once the die off is clear put in the sump where there's no light or Xenia growing, as you keep going with the remaining.  If no sump room back in another rubbermaid with flow.  This way you'll killing while recycling your rock.  Or get some new rock in the sump and do a swap.  Save a lot of your old water and if you have substrate.  Might be nice to try keep as much stability from the two years it's been running.

[Mattb1612]

Yea that’s a thought. Here is the one rock where it all began


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