Cali Kid Corals

SPS upgrade

Blaise006

Blaise006

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I am looking for the clubs opinion on how to upgrade an sps tank. The current tank has vermitde snails that I would like to avoid, but that makes using the current live rock difficult.

What would you do?
 
Vermetids are tough to avoid long term. I just accept them as part of reefing but try to pick off when i can.

Other thing you could try is submerse you rocks in heavy melafix solution. It'll kill off all your inverts like pods, and worms too. But not you biofilter.

Then rinse and run carbon to remove remaining melafix
 
depends how many rocks you have and how infested the rocks are. you can try to take each rock out in separate container, use something to break the vermitde off. i just epoxy them if i see them in my tank.
 
jhuynh said:
depends how many rocks you have and how infested the rocks are. you can try to take each rock out in separate container, use something to break the vermitde off. i just epoxy them if i see them in my tank.
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Let me ask this. If you were upgrading, would you just throw in the old rock and skip all this hassle? I worry the sps will just die (i know they will) in a new dry rock environment.
 
Blaise006 said:
Let me ask this. If you were upgrading, would you just throw in the old rock and skip all this hassle? I worry the sps will just die (i know they will) in a new dry rock environment.
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Yes, if you can pick the snails off, do it, or glue them shut with super glue. Other than that, I would just run with your old rock.
 
i would try to keep the live rocks since its already matured and established.

for me, i started off everything fresh when i went sps dominated. i ended up having vermitde snails from some sps i got even though i cut off every plug.
 
In addition to what everyone has stated above, you can also snip the vermetids with bone cutters, especially the fine ones, and your wrasses will usually go after any of the leftovers.

I've also had really good luck with blue throated triggers before, which consumed them, but you just gotta make sure that it's a controllable population of vermetids vs. a full infestation.
 
what are you upgrading to? personally, if you are going sps dominate. id ditch the sand and go bare bottom to increase your flows.
 
Blaise006 said:
Thanks everyone, any tips on making the transfer?
Someone on R2R just shared this with me. Never seen this before.

Would love some tips our thoughts on the below :)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/official-sand-rinse-and-tank-transfer-thread.230281/
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I do not recommend following Brandon’s advice on this unless you have hundreds of hours to spare to really try to understand his methods, as well as the cons. I understand the Biology and Chemistry of this and I still can’t follow what he is saying generally. I’m not saying he is wrong, just that reading his posts is exhausting and confusing. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.
 
I start from dry rock. Clean slate. QT everything wet. Eventually I’ll likely end up with pest, but I’m trying everything I can to reduce the risk.
 
As far as vermetid control goes, I just snip the base with a small pair of bone cutters of the ones I see. I don’t get too worked up about them. I feel about the same toward vermetids as I do about bristleworms. I don’t like them, they don’t really cause many problems for my livestock, I get rid of them manually when I see them.

I think your risk to your corals starting from dry rock and transferring over a bunch of sensitive SPS (even after cycling) is much higher than just using the same mature rock after manually removing as many vermetids as you can. Plus you’ll have them again eventually either way.
 
JVU said:
As far as vermetid control goes, I just snip the base with a small pair of bone cutters of the ones I see. I don’t get too worked up about them. I feel about the same toward vermetids as I do about bristleworms. I don’t like them, they don’t really cause many problems for my livestock, I get rid of them manually when I see them.

I think your risk to your corals starting from dry rock and transferring over a bunch of sensitive SPS (even after cycling) is much higher than just using the same mature rock after manually removing as many vermetids as you can. Plus you’ll have them again eventually either way.
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This ^
 
jhuynh said:
what are you upgrading to? personally, if you are going sps dominate. id ditch the sand and go bare bottom to increase your flows.
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I am thinking a 180 but might settle on a 125.

This is day 1 on planning so I am open to advice on how best to plan this.

I am on the fence about going bare bottom at the moment.
 
JVU said:
As far as vermetid control goes, I just snip the base with a small pair of bone cutters of the ones I see. I don’t get too worked up about them. I feel about the same toward vermetids as I do about bristleworms. I don’t like them, they don’t really cause many problems for my livestock, I get rid of them manually when I see them.

I think your risk to your corals starting from dry rock and transferring over a bunch of sensitive SPS (even after cycling) is much higher than just using the same mature rock after manually removing as many vermetids as you can. Plus you’ll have them again eventually either way.
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Agreed, if even one or two sps died trying to achieve pure clean rocks I feel isn’t worth it.
 
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