Total Infestation - Need Advice

[meganistkrieg]

On Saturday, after running my tank for about a week with just some bagged sand to make sure all my temperature/salinity levels were ace, I brought home my first live rock - about 13 lbs for my BC14. I had checked it out at the store and it seemed fine... boy, was I wrong.

 

First I find out that the few strands of macroalgae on it are dreaded grape caulerpa. I remove them the best I can, only later realizing that the runners are deep inside the pores of the rock.

 

On Monday, I wake up to find not one but two aiptasia wiggling out at me. Mind you, I've had no good hitchhikers at this time, and now have two of the worst in my display. Already have a headache, so at this point, I realize that I should get some better rock. I've heard great things about Sea Life Inc. so I put in an order for replacement rock and I'm waiting for an estimate.

 

Then, to top things off, I get home today to find flatworms (acoel, specifically - little brown guys with red spots) slinking around my scant bit of coraline. Great. Three of the worst pests in aquaria and I've got all of them, and absolutely nothing good off the rock to show for it. So, with great pain, I toss the rock. Screw it. I'm not going to fight for something that's so rancid with pests.

 

What I need to know out of this tale of woe is what I should do in the meantime to clean out anything that might be in the sand. I've shut everything off for now, the pump, the heater, the lights, tossed my floss, etc. but is there anything I can or should do to scourge the tank before my new rock gets here next week?

 

Let me know. I'm pretty broken up right now since this is my first attempt at saltwater, and I can't say I'm doing too well. I just want to make better steps forward from this point after my obvious mistake with using my LFS.

[gautschymy]

I would take it back and inform the person who sold it to you what it had on it.

 

Dont give up be patient. Begginers luck i guess.

 

[meganistkrieg]

I would take it back and inform the person who sold it to you what it had on it.

 

Dont give up be patient. Begginers luck i guess.

 

 

Thanks. I just couldn't believe it when I saw the flatworms. I can't even imagine a worse combination of hitchhikers to get all at once. I guess the small (very small) blessing in this is that the tank was just starting - better for this to happen now than two months from now.

 

I just don't know what to do to get it ready for new rock again, barring dumping all the water/sand and starting entirely anew. I'd rather not have to go through all that, but I will if I have to. Maybe I was just getting all of my bad luck out at once...

[meganistkrieg]

Decided on a new course of action. Complete water change, will be mixing the salt in-tank once it's filled up again (takes me a few days usually since I have to carry everything on foot). Let the sand stew in some low-to-no salinity water for a bit. Ought to kill off any malingerers from my previous plague, thus - no need to buy new sand, and a fresh tank to start over with on Monday.

 

If my thought process is wrong on this, feel free to correct - I don't want to revisit these same buggers later.

 

Thanks, y'all!

[nanodude87]

I'd just pick up some flatworm exit instead.

[cptbjorn]

You are going to love the sealife inc rocks but I think you are overreacting about the pests, they are something you just kinda have to deal with and you'll likely get caulerpa/aiptasia and other pests on your sealife inc rock.

 

I've had my tank up for a little over 6 months now and I've had just about every "pest" in there at least once. Flatworms, aiptasia, eunice worm, red bugs, bryopsis, zoa nudibranches, you name it. Take care of it right away and they never get a chance to take over. Good luck

[ReefEscape]

At this point, you have nothing to lose. Change out the water and suck out any flatworms you see on the glass. They probably won't make it through your new cycle anyway.

 

Cptbjorn is right in that pests are a part of having a reef. They are only pests to us, in the ocean they are natural inhabitants. Don't be discouraged, just take care of the problem right away before it takes over your tank. I had a friend with a 1000 gal system which got infested with flatworms because he didn't dip a few corals. It took him several months to get rid of them all, but he did it.

[ajmckay]

Who told you to dump the rock? Not necessary at all IMO.

 

This hobby is a lot of chance. What comes in on your LR is not predictable, and further there are no bad batches (unless a store sells you uncured as cured rock or vice-versa).

 

Good call on the sand. Rinse it with fresh water and that should kill anything left in it. Be sure to stir it up good. Personally I would siphon it out into a bucket and clean it out with tap water or something. But that's just my opinion.

 

As for the rock, I would have recommended that you just cook the rock for a while in a bucket with a powerhead for a few weeks. As long as the bucket is sealed off from light etc. the aptasia and macroalgae should die off. The flatworms could live on, but you could deal with that with some FWE or similar treatment. How much LR are we talking here?

 

Either way, I would recommend that you slow down and let nature do her thing. If you're hoping for a flawless entry into this hobby the chances of it happening are slim. You're going to get things you want and other things you don't. You're going to make mistakes. I don't want to sound harsh, but you need to just deal with it for now. Make a plan and stick to it. Making hasty decisions or changing things constantly will result in a longer, less stable cycle. Think everything through as much as possible.

 

That being said, I would still hold off on adding livestock until you have things fairly stable, but now it seems like you're starting over from scratch.

 

Best of luck to you. Maybe go through the members tanks forum and read some of those for ideas. For example in my tank thread you can see my aptasia rocks... There were at least 25 aptasia on my rocks, and a few of them were an inch or 2 in diameter!

[jeffblly]

I would have had to get new rock about 50 times if I were to change my rock everytime I have a pest in my tank. Its part of the hobby. Just be persistant and keep on top of your maintenance.

[meganistkrieg]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I think my problem was, after months of planning, I rushed into the purchase of the rock and went with my LFS instead of investigating other options. Of course, no sooner did I get a few pounds (approx. 7lbs live, 6lbs base) then I find SeaLife which seems to have a far superior product, more like what I'd imagined having from the very beginning. My mistake was not researching LR sources fully before buying, but when I made the decision to switch, the rock I already bought had to go anyway, though admittedly cooking probably would have been a better option than tossing it...

 

Will calm down about the pests. I definitely freaked out a bit, but as ajmckay pointed out, it's pretty naive of me to expect a "perfect" entry into the hobby.

 

Going to get things ready for my SeaLife rock, and take y'alls advice - roll with the punches and chill out. Time to have a drink, I think.

 

Thanks again. I needed the gentle scolding and feel much better than I did before, if not a bit silly.

[nanodude87]

Yea it's not the end of the world don't get discouraged its the first of many!