Bargain rock overrun with aptasia.

[hotdrop]

Picked up some $20 bargain live rock and turns out it’s full of aphasia and it’s got hair alge to boot. Sound like it probably should get bleached and recycled or just tossed but what next? Can live rock be bought without these pests? What’s the current best practice for starting a new system? My local area LFS sells either mystery live rock (see above) dry or the man made stuff. 

[mtnbikeracer]

Peppermint shrimp eat the aptasia anemones.

[seabass]

Dry rock seems all the rage these days (no new pests introduced).  However, I still feel there are advantages to using at least some live rock.  You could certainly quarantine it and take care of the pests in there.

[Floundering_Around]

Peppermint shrimp for the aptasia, blackout or CUC for the hair algae.

If you QT it in a bucket or tub without any light, you can get away with only having the peppermint shrimp for the apatasia as the GHA will eventually die off

[hotdrop]

23 minutes ago, Floundering_Around said:

Peppermint shrimp for the aptasia, blackout or CUC for the hair algae.

If you QT it in a bucket or tub without any light, you can get away with only having the peppermint shrimp for the apatasia as the GHA will eventually die off

Yeah but is it worth the effort? To save some bacteria.

[Floundering_Around]

46 minutes ago, hotdrop said:

Yeah but is it worth the effort? To save some bacteria.

you tell me. If you didn't think it was worth it, I'm assuming you would have gone with dry rock that was probably cheaper. Plus, I like peppermints (I do not like when they eat my RFAs and pick food out of my corals' mouths but other than that they're reef safe)

[hotdrop]

1 hour ago, Floundering_Around said:

you tell me. If you didn't think it was worth it, I'm assuming you would have gone with dry rock that was probably cheaper. Plus, I like peppermints (I do not like when they eat my RFAs and pick food out of my corals' mouths but other than that they're reef safe)

I had read great things about live rock but getting it pest free may be impractical/impossible. The shrimp might eat most of the aptasia but there will probably always be a bit leftover that will reseed so that’s a concern 

[seabass]

If you want pest free, you pretty much have to use dry rock.  Although some say this lack of competition can contribute to other pests like dinos.

[hotdrop]

56 minutes ago, seabass said:

If you want pest free, you pretty much have to use dry rock.  Although some say this lack of competition can contribute to other pests like dinos.

Ha this rock has those as well

[Floundering_Around]

On 2/5/2019 at 10:54 AM, hotdrop said:

I had read great things about live rock but getting it pest free may be impractical/impossible. The shrimp might eat most of the aptasia but there will probably always be a bit leftover that will reseed so that’s a concern 

if the peppermints are constantly in the tank, then you'll never see aptasia cause they'll get to it before you notice. It's when you remove the pepps that you'll notice, even then it'll take months.