Neomeris Annulata and peroxide

[yetti]

hello all,

 

I'm having some trouble with neomeris Annulata. My tank has been setup for around 9 months, but the neomeris came in, and has taken over my tank.

 

My parameters are:

Temp 76

SG 1.025

nitrate 0

Phosphate 0.02

 

I have tried manually removing, raising Mg, cutting back feeding and adding phosphate removers, and nothing seems to work.

 

I am planing on re,ovine the excess algae and then dipping the rock in a 4 parts tank water 1 part 3% peroxide solution.

 

Anyone have experience with this?

[brandon429]

Yes

 

I mention it in several places in the peroxide thread as the single worst invader I have ever seen. I can't recall any aspect of 3% work ever fixing it

 

It must be directly accessed in the air somehow, tank drains or take out rocks, not in tank.

 

 

That doesn't mean its not worth a challenge, after all 35% is avail and more likely literal rock cooking and start over but we preserve corals somehow. I show great respect to neo while laughing down all other invaders in 60 page threads

 

Post full tank shot

[ndrobey]

This is a copy of a post on Reef Central. It seems that this algae DIES when nutrients are high and THRIVES when the nutrients are low:

 

 

I'm very sorry for you and your tank...These things are marine equivalent of the Tribbles from Star Trek. Though I'm now down to only a small clump directly under my light...I finally gave up on my SPS & Clams idea and am going with LPS, I like it.

 

-I do think my tuxeudo urchin does help, I noticed the places where you could tell he'd eaten coraline the neomeris seemed not to come back...I imagine this is a result of the urchin eating the spores along with the coraline...although, the urchin didn't eat the plants he did like to decorate himself with it.

 

-I switched my salt to ESV from Seachems Reef Crystals and no longer had the burning skin issue so I was able to do A LOT of manual removal with a pair of jewelers tweezers (like the ones they use to set stones) so I could get as close to the base as possible; I do think the manual removal did help some.

 

-What eventually cleared my tank of this devils spawn was my going on vacation for for a week...I pre measured my feedings for my tank for my tank sitter to OVER FEED (just couldn't bring myself to totally sabatoge my tank on my own), I turned off the skimmer, picked up my rental car and promptly dropped off the grid (told my tank sitter to only try and contact me if the tank sprung a leak, I was that fed up with the stupid stuff) when I came back it was nearly all gone and the few places is was still hanging on, it looked way less than happy. I did my regular water change to clean up the tank from my sitter's overfeedings and two months later it's still gone (exept for the one little spot, and I actually like it now haha!)

 

I'm not sure of how much this might help you, could you give us the rundown on your system? like other "victims" of this stuff have done in this thread...a picture would help too if you could.

[brandon429]

I welcome all input regarding the foul beast and am constantly in awe of its terribleness. On a highly consulted marine algae ID base its listed among collectible algae as moderately easy to care for and thats good to know

 

Undeniably for sure I would use the universal guarantee for it and this is harsh.

 

It is a required hitchhiker I'm positive, and its the rarest invader we see in trouble threads. Rarely does it appear on three rocks for ex across the tank at once unless we imported rocks all at once from the infected source. It typically comes up localized and isn't removed in time before spreading

 

My universal method is I'd throw out any rock it sprouts on no matter what else is attached to the rocks

 

Hopefully possibly save the tank in thirds but only if caught early. If trying to prevent a tank loss to it after it takes on, Id repeat any method someone has used to affect it.

 

 

Surely there is a matching grazer for each plant on the reef and input about working ones is gold

[yetti]

Thanks for the info, and I agree this algae is one of the toughest to battle. I had some issues with dinoflagellates, and they are easy compared to this stuff. It's ironic it survives in better quality water only...

 

Here's my full tank shot taken just now, it's pretty much everywhere! I have seen it die down in the past days as I stopped dosing Alk/Calcium for a week or so; I read low calcium levels could get it. I'm naturally keeping an eye on my LPS to make sure they don't resent that.

 

 

The rocks that aren't covered I manually removed this weekend using a medical forceps and taking it at the base. My plan is to after removing manually, dipping in the peroxide to see if that will help sterilize or kill the roots.

[brandon429]

Guess what

 

I don't think thats neomeris

 

The neo I'm used to is individual short fat stalks

 

Can't wait to see how we progress here

 

The external dip you are about to do could really be amplified with stronger percentage than 3%

 

Do you have any health food stores handy, they sometimes sell 35% be careful and you can dilute by half for a powerful upscale to hit those holdfasts hard

 

I'll be curious to see how virulent this invader w be

[brandon429]

curious to know updates here I have strong feeling this is attackable

 

 

 

a single area spot test would show good response by now maybe

[yetti]

I went through the painstaking task of manually removing all the nemeris in my tank last saturday (may 30). My wife helped me out thankfully, but still took a good 6 hours. After manually removing, we dipped in a 3:1 tank water to 3% peroxide solution every rock. I then did a 20% water change, and left it to see what the response would be. I was out travelling for the week, so got back on Friday to see the advance. I also ordered some AlgaeFix Marine to add to the mix, but I've been reviewing and is seems it will not directly attack macroalgae.

 

After a week, there were a few patches here and there coming back. The corals overall are doing OK, although I did lose some pulsing Xenias. As there were some patches, I decided to not let it take a foothold again, and re-scrubbed all the rock, and sprayed them with pure 3% peroxide, then rinsed and put back in the tank. I will continue doing this weekly, to ensure that the nemeris does not gain traction. It was also much easier than the previous week where I had to remove stalk by stalk. Below is a full tank shot today after the cleaning. I'll keep with this method of scrubbing, peroxide spraying and weekly 20% water change until I win the battle. I am also thinking about starting to dose the AlgaeFix, so I removed carbon and only left Phosguard to attack phosphates.

 

Water Parameters:

Nitrate: 0 ppm

Phosphate 0.08 ppm

Calcium 370 ppm

Alk 2.75 meq/l

Mg 1600 ppm

SG 1.025

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Thanks for the info, and I agree this algae is one of the toughest to battle. I had some issues with dinoflagellates, and they are easy compared to this stuff. It's ironic it survives in better quality water only...

 

Here's my full tank shot taken just now, it's pretty much everywhere! I have seen it die down in the past days as I stopped dosing Alk/Calcium for a week or so; I read low calcium levels could get it. I'm naturally keeping an eye on my LPS to make sure they don't resent that.

 

 

The rocks that aren't covered I manually removed this weekend using a medical forceps and taking it at the base. My plan is to after removing manually, dipping in the peroxide to see if that will help sterilize or kill the roots.

 

Am I the only one who thinks this looks nice? It has saltwater iwagumi tank potential. In the wild, I often see these in intertidal zones which made me think they're hard to keep (high light reqs.)

[yetti]

 

Am I the only one who thinks this looks nice? It has saltwater iwagumi tank potential. In the wild, I often see these in intertidal zones which made me think they're hard to keep (high light reqs.)

 

I'm sure some people would love it! It did have some issues, like it was very difficult to keep up with Alk demand, as the algae would use up a lot. If it would be easy to control to one rock, I wouldn't mind, but it tends to take over!

[sam_the_reefer]

 

I'm sure some people would love it! It did have some issues, like it was very difficult to keep up with Alk demand, as the algae would use up a lot. If it would be easy to control to one rock, I wouldn't mind, but it tends to take over!

I wonder if it's self-limiting...like it stops growing but is still alive and healthy once alk or other params are below a certain threshold, that would be nice.

[yetti]

The battle continues! Peroxide seems to have not impacted the neomeris at all, as a few days after scrubbing and treatment, there was green growth on the rocks again.

 

I have now re-scrubbed the rocks for the third consecutive week. I also replenished the Phosguard, adding 125 ml of the product, as well as added Phosban, 25 g.

 

I am also starting a dose of AlgaeFix Marine to combat the algae together with phosphate control and scrubbing any new growth. Will report back in the coming weeks.

[brandon429]

Excellent update do you have any pics

am curious to see if regrowth is bushy or short stubs this was good id opportunity

[yetti]

I didn't take any of the new growth, but I will this week. It starts off bushy and then starts growing individual stalks. I'll try to take some macro shots today and see if we can see it well.

[brandon429]

well I hate that its growing back regardless, attack it well.

 

id throw this in, we are always creative obligate hitchhiker killers

 

dont dose that to your tank, remove the rocks and treat w it direct. lets party lol, not kid glove dilution. if this is true neo you are basically battling frankenstein and the bleakness of my first post wasnt misplaced. if its neo, the holdfast network is immeasurable. in the end i just like to see tank keepers win under these conditions:

 

may be a long ugly battle but in the end won out by perseverance and didnt have to start over, cook rocks, recycle, etc. working within the boundaries of an all live tank makes the game fun, anyone could acid etch that rock into a clean start, but the bio able get creative and stay persistent.

 

id like to have a single thread avail where someone beat neomeris at all ~ thanks for updating!!!

[yetti]

Thanks, a lot of perseverance for sure!

 

I cleaned the rocks again this weekend, and took a picture on how it's growing back. Basically, it will start as a bush, and in about two weeks turn into small white base-green head stalks.

 

 

The ones that had more growth I sprayed with peroxide.

 

We'll see what happens over the coming weeks...

[brandon429]

I don't think Ive ever seen the early growth stages like that and yes can see the evil nubs poking out

thx for that pic update it w be valuable for another person to see one day

 

 

In our reefcentral peroxide thread we had a poster routinely putting beyond the safe known dosage of undiluted 35% repeatedly on the exposed rock, the ideal peroxide treatment, and it grew back. I expect zero results with 3%

 

Musings:

1. Splice the gene for this persistence into corn, wheat and legume crops.

 

2. A major marine macroalgae database online I found by googling lists these as moderately challenging to keep

 

3. Someone update that database

 

 

The rock can be acid etched and started again so there's always that in the back pocket

 

But before that I'm brainstorming whats the most we can do to your rock and still preserve biosystem? Not that a dry cooked etched restart wouldn't take all of 3 weeks, and provided no reimport from corals it w be gone, but let's keep fighting and documenting you'll see not much searchable effort for this stuff online

 

Not one marine article author has ever shown how to best it, post if we know of any.

 

I'd be curious how things would go if you held all corals in qt, then raised the pH on this tank higher or lower than known safe points sustained for two weeks as a plant insult, pH variances aren't instantly lethal to nitrifiers even though they have an ideal range. Thats first biofilter preserving attack #1 guess someone add some more

[yetti]

As an update, the Neomeris is keeping coming, but after two weeks of not cleaning it was less than before. There are two rocks which have more than the rest of this pest, so I took those out and put them through bleach. I will now rinse in RODI water to use in the next aquarium I have planned, a 150 gal.