Bad Palythoa growing on LFS Live Rock

[Hanfam1111]

Hello all. Take a look at these, I know all Palys have Paly Toxin but I thought some were much worse than others. Are these any worse than any others? There was one on my live rock when I bought from LFS now as you can see they are thriving and starting to grow a new head every two weeks. Since they aren’t the greatest looking, to ease my wife’s mind I’d like to get rid of them or give them away. Any suggestions? And yes I know not to boil them. Any and all help or suggestions are welcome. This is my first post.

Tank 90 gal
Time: 5 months
Consider myself still a novice but have done a ton of research.

 

[P-Dub]

You might want to check out the two-part series about identification to ease you and the CEO's mind... a little.
https://reefs.com/2015/09/14/the-dangers-and-myths-of-zoa-toxicity-part-1/

 

[mfinn]

Welcome to R2R


As long as it is just a few, what I would do is get some kalkwasser powder ( Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime ) and make a thick paste out of it. Make up 3-4 tablespoons worth of paste.
Turn off all flow in your tank. All the pumps.
Using a plastic syringe with no needle on the end cover the polyps in a thick layer of the kalk paste.
Let it sit on them for at least 20-30 minutes.
Then siphon off the paste.
The kalk paste really damages the polyps and they usually die.
Sometimes you need to do it a couple times.
This way will allow the bacteria in the rock to survive.


Or remove the rock with them on it and do a strong bleach bath.
Take the rock and put it in a bucket with 4-5 cups of bleach and 2-3 gallons of water and let it soak for 2-3 days.
The bleach should dissolve the polyps. For a thick mass of them it may take a second bleach bath.
Remove the rock and rinse it off.
Then do a strong dechlorinator soak at 10 x the dose on the bottle.
Air dry for a day or two and it's done.

The bleach will do it, but the bacteria will be dead.

 

[Hanfam1111]

You might want to check out the two-part series about identification to ease you and the CEO's mind... a little.
https://reefs.com/2015/09/14/the-dangers-and-myths-of-zoa-toxicity-part-1/

I hadn’t seen this as of yet so thank you. One other thing is there always is a slime string off one of them that connects to a rock and is about 3-4 inches long. I’ve broken the string of mucus or slime with my coral spot feeder but sure as can be there is another one there in the morning. Is this a Paly Toxin slime? I’m very careful not to touch it.

 

[Hanfam1111]

Welcome to R2R


As long as it is just a few, what I would do is get some kalkwasser powder ( Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime ) and make a thick paste out of it. Make up 3-4 tablespoons worth of paste.
Turn off all flow in your tank. All the pumps.
Using a plastic syringe with no needle on the end cover the polyps in a thick layer of the kalk paste.
Let it sit on them for at least 20-30 minutes.
Then siphon off the paste.
The kalk paste really damages the polyps and they usually die.
Sometimes you need to do it a couple times.
This way will allow the bacteria in the rock to survive.


Or remove the rock with them on it and do a strong bleach bath.
Take the rock and put it in a bucket with 4-5 cups of bleach and 2-3 gallons of water and let it soak for 2-3 days.
The bleach should dissolve the polyps. For a thick mass of them it may take a second bleach bath.
Remove the rock and rinse it off.
Then do a strong dechlorinator soak at 10 x the dose on the bottle.
Air dry for a day or two and it's done.

The bleach will do it, but the bacteria will be dead.

PERFECT! I just received my Kalkwasser starter kit on Friday so perfect timing. I’m bringing my Alk levels up before I start the Kalk with just some Sodium Bicarbonate, would the the SB work the same way? Thank you for the detailed answer. Also my tank is “fallow” right now as I had ich or velvet kill ALL my fish. Terrible everyone was perfect for 5 months and 1 new powder blue and bam. All gone. Oh well. I love my corals more.

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r!!

 

[mfinn]

PERFECT! I just received my Kalkwasser starter kit on Friday so perfect timing. I’m bringing my Alk levels up before I start the Kalk with just some Sodium Bicarbonate, would the the SB work the same way? Thank you for the detailed answer. Also my tank is “fallow” right now as I had ich or velvet kill ALL my fish. Terrible everyone was perfect for 5 months and 1 new powder blue and bam. All gone. Oh well. I love my corals more.

I'm not sure. I only know that kalkwasser powder, or Mrs. Wages pickling Lime works.
It's really important to siphon off all of the kalk paste before you start the pumps back up.
Any left over kalk paste can damage other corals.