Need to rescape…need your input

[anizato]

Hey everyone!

 

My 10 gallon has been running well for over 5 years now and has survived two moves.

 

most interesting things in my tank’s history?

 

This nano began with one fish and one anemone and a small rock of blue rhodactos mushrooms. All transferred from a 50gal I had when I moved.

I had this Ony mc Clownfish named Onyx, yeah i know, very original, she was a beauty, her pattern was perfect in my opinion and I really loved her, had her for 6years. Yeah past tense. A couple of years after keeping her fat, healthy and happy, i got her a partner, Selenium, he was very docile. His pattern is cool but not perfect like hers. Anyway, they laid eggs successfully about three times in two years, happily married LOL. Long story not so long, LOL she was killed by him after three years together… out of the blue, it took him three days of stressing her out by constantly nipping and she finally perished from the wounds.

RIP ONYX.

Selenium has been a widower for about 18 months now and the tank is finally thriving! Copepods everywhere, fat Selenium, Happy Anemones, multiplying Zoas and Growing Monti by the day!

The anemone has split 7 times since the tank was started and the rhodactis shrooms have overtaken 95% of the surface of the rocks. I have added some zoas in an empty pocket of the rock surface and they are growing happily

BUUUT it’s impossible to grow anything else at this point.

There is a Montipora thriving off the sandbed and some other zoas that I have no room for on the rock…

 

So here is where my question comes in…eventually… soon I promise he he he

 

I want to see mostly zoas and possibly some encrusting coral and give that monti a place to grow off the rock so it can start plating nicely.

 

The scape is made up of three similar sized pieces just laid on each other with a small “cave” underneath.

 

QUESTION (Finally)

 

How can I go about rescaping or adding new bare rock or removing rhodactis infested rock?  So I can add different coral? Literally you guys, there are so many shrooms they are flying in the water columb and i have to remove them… at least a couple per month for about nearly a year I would say.
 

Should I just place a bare rock on top of the rhodactis infested rock? Won’t that just get covered in shrooms like the rest of the tank? 
 

Should I remove one of the rocks? I can only renove one si de the other two have anemones attached. Or what would you do toove the nems? Keep in mind they are 8 and the tank only 10gal.

it is a Innovative Marine AIO.

 

Any ideas are welcome and all ideas are good. I am literally fishing for any type of input. 
 

I’d like the tank to be concentrated on the nems since they are all so happy but I want to see zoas instead of boring shrooms basically and like I said, a place for the monti to start growing upward.

 

How would y’all go about this? What would you do?

what is safe for me to do to not disrupt my perfect little system? Or should I nust leave it as it is?

 

[M. Tournesol]

I cannot help you as I never had shroom but looking at this other forum post (ie, killing them slowly) may help you.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rhodactis-removal.342493/

[seabass]

9 hours ago, anizato said:

How can I go about rescaping or adding new bare rock or removing rhodactis infested rock?

Unfortunately, the mushrooms will likely take over any new rock that you add.

 

9 hours ago, anizato said:

what would you do toove the nems?

It's fairly easy to remove anemones which are on glass.  However, it's much more difficult to remove them from rock; and generally, I wouldn't recommend trying.

 

9 hours ago, anizato said:

what is safe for me to do to not disrupt my perfect little system?

That's just it.  It sounds like a nice little setup.  Making major changes could throw things off.

 

Besides embracing what you have, there are a couple of things that you might try.

• Get all new, fully cured, live rock and basically start over (maybe saving one of the anemones if possible).  You should be able to get decent money for the anemones and mushrooms.
• There is something called a Majano Wand which is used to kill Majano anemones, aiptasia, and mushrooms.  While killing a desirable organism isn't an ideal situation, it has become a pest situation.  Basically, most of the methods used to kill aiptasia, should also kill mushrooms.
• While downsizing from a 50 gallon tank has seemingly worked out for you, at this point, you might consider upsizing.  With a little work, you might be able to control the mushrooms without completely eradicating them.  The extra space might be a more suitable home for all those anemones and some plating Montipora.

[mcarroll]

My system has been plagued by this "beginner coral" since almost Day One of coral keeping (many years ago).  They have killed off many of my SPS over the years.  NOTHING kills them.  Without going ballistic (I'm not going into the tank with a scalpel x10,000) at least.  I've done all the usual tricks that work on aiptasia and they don't even seem to notice.  More or less I've made peace with them and grow corals that grow OK with them.  😬☮

 

My current and only hope is the Black Damselfish – which gets mis-sold as a Talbots a lot (mine is a rescue from a nano tank).

 

Juveniles are white overall (like the Talbot's) and very attractive, but they eventually grow to 6-or-8 inches or something like that and ultimately turn very black....mine is a rescue...2-3 years old now I think – that grows up to become a soft coral eater.  He's still hanging onto most of his juvenile coloration at this point, and (in keeping with that) still just a planktivore.  Mushrooms are still proliferating over the tank while we wait.  🥴

 

My shrooms are speckled blue, electric blue and I think there's still one neon green stripe left.  Speckled blue dominates.  Under the current light/flow/nutrient regime, the speckled blues have grown to sizes I've never seen before....some discs are >6" across during the day.  Yaaaaay.

 

But seriously....I've made peace with it as I have with dandelions in my yard.  The next tank (???) will not have mushrooms introduced though...and always I recommend against them for beginners unless they are explicitly getting into this for shrooms.