I am at 76 days fallow for my garage tide pool that has sand and live rock in it. The live rock is covered in the vermetid snails, so I really don't want to put it in my tank. However, I know there is a ton of stuff living in the rock that I would like to keep. What is the best way to get them out?
Best way to get crabs, shrimp etc, out of live rock
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Bottle trap would probably work for most. I've made them out of pint and two-liter bottles.
Live rock collected is often placed on racks and sprayed with seawater. This causes most of the invertebrates to fall off into bins placed underneath the rock. The invertebrates are then sorted and sold, or returned to the sea if undesired.
If using this method, I would make a drip tray by drilling holes in it and placing over the rock. Place bin(s) underneath/bottom of the racks to catch the vertebrates. You might be able to use those plastic shelves available at HD & Lowe’s for the rock & to hold the drip tray. Put a pump(s) into bi s for water return up to drip trays.
Good luck if you pursue this & please post pics!
If using this method, I would make a drip tray by drilling holes in it and placing over the rock. Place bin(s) underneath/bottom of the racks to catch the vertebrates. You might be able to use those plastic shelves available at HD & Lowe’s for the rock & to hold the drip tray. Put a pump(s) into bi s for water return up to drip trays.
Good luck if you pursue this & please post pics!
You may need to leave the rock on racks for days to get most of the inverts off. Once done, you can then nuke the rock with citric acid, which will kill vermitids and help to remove nutrients including bound phosphate.
After that I’d give the rock several soaks in DI to allow remaining nutrients to leach out. Then reseed rock with a good bacterial supplement or a combination of several.
Some like Korallen-Zucht, Prodibio, Fritz & Brightwell offer multi strain cultures. Brightwell offers one specifically for seeding live rock.
After that I’d give the rock several soaks in DI to allow remaining nutrients to leach out. Then reseed rock with a good bacterial supplement or a combination of several.
Some like Korallen-Zucht, Prodibio, Fritz & Brightwell offer multi strain cultures. Brightwell offers one specifically for seeding live rock.
I don't know how much rock you're dealing with. Putting pieces in a tank with nothing else, no coral, no fish, no sand, nothing but the rock. Then add ammonia daily to feed the bacteria. With no real food being added to this tank it will force most everything out of the rock to scavenge for something to eat where you can then pick out the stuff you want to keep and discard what you don't. It will also starve the vermetid's out and kill them off.
I have read that some people have success simply placing the rock out in the sun for a couple hours, with most of the critters coming out that way.
Contrary to some of the posts here I would recommend against nuking the rock and reseeding it. While this may result in clean rock with nitrifying bacteria there are lots of other bacteria present on “live” rock that you cant get in a bottle, many of which are beneficial and part of a healthy reef.
Contrary to some of the posts here I would recommend against nuking the rock and reseeding it. While this may result in clean rock with nitrifying bacteria there are lots of other bacteria present on “live” rock that you cant get in a bottle, many of which are beneficial and part of a healthy reef.
Interesting idea since I wouldn't have to start over with the fully cured rock and I could use a bottle fish trap a few days from now. I have 30-40 lbs of rock. There's at least half a dozen crabs I need to ID and a few pistol shrimp from what I have seen. I have the 20L's I was using for QT, so I could set one up for that purpose. How much ammonia a day would I need to add and how much time needed to kill the vermetid's? The only negative to not starting over is that there are hundreds of sharp pointy sticks on every piece of rock.
I have been hesitant to nuke them for that reason plus the time it will take to reseed.
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So it sounds like vermetids are the issue...
I've got this amazing lil whelk that kills them and it reproduces readily in the tank. No idea what they are called but they are smaller than bumblebee snails when grown and they will go after vermetids. My vermetids have been mostly knocked out. They are hard for me to catch as they seem to hide in the rockwork during the day and its not like there are a ton of them either but I'll try and grab a few for you if you like.
I've got this amazing lil whelk that kills them and it reproduces readily in the tank. No idea what they are called but they are smaller than bumblebee snails when grown and they will go after vermetids. My vermetids have been mostly knocked out. They are hard for me to catch as they seem to hide in the rockwork during the day and its not like there are a ton of them either but I'll try and grab a few for you if you like.
To get everything you'd pretty much need to do a standard QT of 2 months of no feeding. You could break off as many of the snail tubes as you can too.
I'd get Dr Tim's ammonia and dose per his guidelines. I don't remember exactly, 10 drops per 10gal every day maybe.
Either way it's a lot of work and time if you forego nuking.
I would like to try them if you can capture a couple. Will you have some time over the weekend? I'd like to grab those AOI's from you anyway.
I forgot about the Dr. Tim's stuff, I'll review the directions. Work and time, two things I underestimated when I started this hobby. Thanks all for the suggestions.
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I'm back in town really late on Sunday. Some evening during the week would work. PM sent.
