Mushrooms and Zoanthids! What should I do?

[npaden]

Well since my ozone poll worked so well I thought I would try another poll!

I'm starting to really get excited about my tank again after a partial crash this summer when I was on vacation (killed most of my SPS and my big yellow leather) and my recent experience with my calcium reactor pump leaking and me being slow on the uptake and dumping 4 - 20lb co2 tanks into the tank in a 2 month time frame.

When I was setting up my tank I planned on devoting the far left side to soft corals and the middle to a mixture of clams and SPS and keeping just SPS on the right side.

This worked pretty well except for mushrooms. They have dettached from the rock on the left side and are beginning to overrun the rock on the right side as well. I have a distinct break between the left and right side of the tank and have been able to keep the zoanthids that I had to begin with to that side along with anthelia, encrusting gorgonians, xenia, clove polyps, etc.

I did have some hitchhiker zoanthids and button polyps on the rock that I bought however and they are really starting to grow in fast.

With the tank on the road to recovery I am trying to decide what to do now. I now know if I leave a single mushroom in the tank they will end up being the devils spawn and overrun the entire tank if given enough time. (MiNdErAsR can say a big "I told you so" on this one!) I am trying to decide if I should just trade in all the establish rock that has any mushrooms on it or try to use a hammer and chisel and just break of the portion of rock that has mushrooms on it?

Basically I need to make the same decision on the zoanthids and button polyps that are on the side of the tank that I want to be dominated by SPS. I've been successful in keeping everything contained to the soft coral side of the tank except mushrooms so I would like to keep the soft coral side of the tank as much intact as possible sans mushrooms.

Here is the latest pics of the tank. You can see the right side of the tank has been pretty much completely wiped out of most of my beautiful SPS I had about a year ago. I'm thinking that the time to do any major renovations in the rock work is now before I restock with a bunch of frags.

http://padens.homestead.com/files/left_side_1-25-04.jpg
http://padens.homestead.com/files/mid_left_1-25-04.jpg
http://padens.homestead.com/files/mid_right_1-25-04.jpg
http://padens.homestead.com/files/right_side_1-25-04.jpg

I guess the other option is just to leave it as is and start adding some SPS frags and hope for the best on the mushrooms and zoanthids!

Sorry for the very long winded nature of the post but I really am trying to figure out what to do. Since my ozone poll worked so good I'll see if I can work up a poll on what to do with the 'shrooms and 'zoos.

Thanks in advance!!

Nathan

 

[fungia]

i am not going to put in any mushrooms or polyps in my tank because i hear a lot lately they overgrow the tank. i am sticking with just lps and sps for my tank, no softies even. i would take out the mushrooms and polyps in your tank any way you can. you have a lot of options there

 

[reefland]

My vote is to use a small thermal nuclear device to solve your shroom & zoanthid problem. I hate them. Lost so many prized acropora's to them. It's not uncommon for reefers to tear down their tanks trying to get rid of them.... I did.

 

[Anonymous]

Take them out and send them to me.

 

[Mogo]

I have a similar problem with my zooanthids. They are starting to take over. I'm going to pull the affected rocks and swap them for bare lr at my lfs.

 

[hillbilly]

My vote is to use a small thermal nuclear device to solve your shroom & zoanthid problem. I hate them. Lost so many prized acropora's to them. It's not uncommon for reefers to tear down their tanks trying to get rid of them.... I did.

Sounds like a good idea. I also had to tear a 55gal. down to git rid of the mushrooms, a real pest. People who put them in their tank have no idea what they are in for, unless they want a tank coverd in shrooms!

 

[shr00m]

you'll swap them and then your lfs will make money off them... should just sell em yourself.

 

[reefland]

Spoken like someone who has never had the problem. Seems like a simple solution but just not practical. Once they get on a rock that has a nice coral on it then what? He has to swap out his corals? Not worth it.... once it gets bad its easier to just start over.

 

[npaden]

I think he was talking about swapping the entire rocks that have mushrooms. That's what I'm leaning toward. I know I need to get rid of every mushroom in the tank or I will have this problem again in a few years. If you look at the pics my real issue is with the zoanthids on the mid-right side of the tank. That's the decision I am struggling with the most.

Thanks for the input so far!

Nathan

 

[Mogo]

After having just got back from my lfs, they will happily take my "zooanthid rocks". In return I will get some "new" cured lr which will create needed space for other corals to grow out plus some other stuff (negotiation 8) or a credit. I will keep a small colony of zooanthids because I still like them . If I have to go through the same process in a couple years then so be it.

 

[CptnJack]

I too have nathan's problem. I have the now (or should be) patented Durso shrooms. The red ones Rich!

They came in on some nice green/orange button polyps I got from Rich a couple years back and they are a nightmare. I just shot up about 50 of them with kalk paste and moved my frogspawn into the middle of them (figuring it will win that battle). Kind of like playing chess, I just moved my queen into a field of 80 pawns.

Short of that, my next move is to rip the rock out which I am totally prepared to do. The big difference is I have the prob in the 29G in my master bedroom, not a 415G show tank.

If I found something to eat them and not the lps I have in the tank, I could rent him out when he's nice and fat...

-Cptn

 

[Anonymous]

I chose option 3. The problem with trying to get rid of every rock with zooanthids is that new rock you get are perfectly likely to have hitchiker zooanthids.

Mushrooms are evil. Actually, if you can afford it replace all your rock, on second thought...

 

[K9coral]

Ill take donations if you still need to get rid of them.

 

[Revstarky]

86 the shrooms. You can always isolate some zoo's on a lone rock somewhere.

 

[reefland]

I too have nathan's problem. I have the now (or should be) patented Durso shrooms. The red ones Rich!

They are the most evil of evil shrooms -- acclimated to full 400w halides. Grow at an insane rate. They trumpted to get even closer to the lights. If they ever get out into the wild.... we'll all be upto our arm pits in red shrooms.