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View Full Version : Blue cloves....look nice but.....


miserkris
01/05/2012, 09:55 PM
Can blue clove polyps take over a 75g?
I had a small frag now seems it is sending polyps in current, now they r growing in opposite ends of dt....

But I love the blue color though.do ikeep it or toss it?

(I have a mixed reef.....with some fish.)

Pls advice....thx

cromedogg33
01/05/2012, 10:18 PM
Good luck at this point. Best advice is I hope you really really like it, if you don't......boil your rock.

ir_danno22
01/05/2012, 11:28 PM
you can run some fresh water for a few seconds over them. it kills a quite a few of them and tones them down for a while.

TRENT_G
01/05/2012, 11:49 PM
check this out. People that see my tank think its cool. Not so sure I see it. But their here to stay. Good luck getting rid of them.

http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r479/TRENT_G_album/IMG_2202-1.jpg

http://i355.photobucket.com/albums/r479/TRENT_G_album/IMG_0767.jpg

MabuyaQ
01/06/2012, 09:36 AM
They may even be reproducing sexually when they start appearing at the other end of the aquarium. They do so in mine, every (other) month they get pinkish colored eggs that are released in the water column.

I have them growing all over the live rock as well, but can't be bothered as they don't have any stinging powers. All other corals (mainly sps and lps) I have will kill them once they touch so the other corals simply create their own growing space if necessary. They also have an advantage as well as they are great in polishing your water, I always have zero nitrate and phosphate. Personally I also prefer the color of these than that of bare live rock.

A paste of calcium-hydroxide will kill them permanently if you want to get rid of them.

Daleo
01/06/2012, 11:48 AM
Blue cloves a beautiful just like GSP but will grow over and suffocate other coral unless the other coral can defend itself (sweeper/chemical warfare). Best bet is to boil the rock you don't want blue cloves on and tone down the colony. If you periodically frag the blue cloves, they tend not to go sexual in your tank.

miserkris
01/06/2012, 02:49 PM
Thanks all, great pics.

If other corals can sting blue cloves, I'm ok with the spreading....

Anyone have experience of this stinging other softies or zoa etc? Can this clove *smother* other corals or damage or grow over them?

Pls share, thanks all!

baja_driver
01/06/2012, 04:14 PM
I think it would be really nice to have your rock covered in them.

droth335
01/14/2012, 07:35 AM
They are pretty harmless IME. They do spawn and spread like wildfire but we have sold an awful lot of them to people who have seen our tank and really like the look. Trent G - looks very similar to how established they are in our tank.

Here is a FTS:

http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/droth335/algae%20pics/210%20tank%20pics/tank%20pics%20-%20new%20camera/DSC_0029.jpg

And a picture of them spawning recently in our tank:

http://i923.photobucket.com/albums/ad73/droth335/algae%20pics/210%20tank%20pics/tank%20pics%20-%20new%20camera/DSC_0011.jpg

CDone
01/14/2012, 06:32 PM
I just replied to this post http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2117962 with what I used, worked on my anthelia as well as my cloves.

Colin

Tahoe Reefer
01/19/2012, 01:03 PM
I've got these things in my tanks as well and love them. They were the last coral I put in and have really filled in the blanks. None of my LPS have any trouble with them, a few zoas are competting for space but I don't care who wins so, no problem there for me.
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p174/seekndestroysa/100_0947.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p174/seekndestroysa/100_0955.jpg

LittleFish2012
01/27/2012, 08:35 AM
They are good filler corals just like zoas. Harmless IMO.

redfishsc
02/07/2012, 07:48 AM
I'd love for them to overtake my tank like that. Most of our corals are too tall (or too strong of a sting) to be overrun by this blue clove/anthelia.

Other than their fast rate of growth, mine are definitely a passive coral. They don't seem to hurt anything.

rhdoug
04/03/2012, 11:09 AM
THIS is the info I have been looking for, thanks everyone for their experience. If anyone wants to sell or trade for some, or know who has them please PM me. I am thinking of adding some for the blank spaces in my reef.

Radioheadx14
04/08/2012, 09:26 PM
Can't wait for mine to start spreading

Radioheadx14
04/15/2012, 09:09 PM
question, does any one have experience with these and shrooms or ricordea? I just bought 14 ricordea polyps, and want to keep them and the blue cloves together. anyone know if the can over grow ricordea?

ddmiller38
04/18/2012, 01:20 PM
Never heard of them growing over, just around the coral

AcroporAddict
05/14/2012, 09:42 AM
Blue Clove polyps are a plague on a tank. They grow around acropora bases, preventing them from encrusting, and they crowd out zoas competing for light. They also secrete a ton of chemicals into the water, and in all of the above photos they are easily the singular dominant form of life in the tank.

They don't seem as much of an issue in euphyllia dominant tanks where the corals can sting them, but in an SPS dominant tank they are terrible.

I treated my 300 with Fluke tabs and completely destroyed them. Here are some before/after pics. Best thing I could have done for my tank. My average ORP jumped by 100mV after I got rid of the blue clove Poyps. That shows just how much organic secretions they were putting in the water. I got rid of 4-5 square feet of them. In a tanks like the above, only a complete teardown will get rid of them, besides a fluke tab treatment like I did.

Link for a thread that talks about treatment more in depth:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2153276&highlight=fluke+tabs

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36318&d=1333491960

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36319&d=1333492030

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36320&d=1333492052

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36321&d=1333492090

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36322&d=1333492104

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36323&d=1333492145

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36324&d=1333492156

http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=36325&d=1333492191

Cptn Spaulding
05/22/2012, 10:10 AM
I bought a palythoa grandis frag once with some blue cloves on it. Knowing it would compete for space with my zoas, I thought long and hard about what to do to get rid of them before that happened. Then it hit me: bury it in the sand! After 36-48 hours in the sand, there were no more. Food for thought, I suppose.

frugalreefer
05/22/2012, 11:01 AM
My rock is completely covered with the blue cloves and I love the look. My sps don't have a problem encrusting onto the rock with the cloves surrounding it. I actually just glue SPS frags on top of the cloves and when it starts encrusting it pushes them away.

They do however find their way in between zoas and will compete for space, but I found that if the zoas are happy can tighten up their colony and push out the cloves. Another observation is that snails will not(or hardly ever) crawl over the stuff, so with my rock being completely covered my snails are only on the glass 98% of the time.

Cloves will also keep nuisance algae from growing wherever its covered.

wireefman
05/22/2012, 12:31 PM
they make a wonderful filler, however they are very hard to control and will never have a home in my tanks... they are a beautiful addition however

ddmiller38
05/22/2012, 02:25 PM
Mine are on a small rock the size of a half baseball and haven't moved or spread as of yet but I have been keeping an eye on them.

SushiGirl
05/23/2012, 06:59 PM
I want some of these so bad...perfect for my softie/LPS tank.

chrismnash
05/20/2014, 06:33 PM
How you get the blue clove polyp they got to be cheap I just can't find them near me.

cloak
05/21/2014, 10:29 AM
I would avoid these things like the plague. They are quite beautiful, don't get me wrong, but sooner or later they'll be popping up EVERYWHERE...

Green star polyps grow from that mat, which can be easily manipulated. Whereas these things just ride the current and start growing wherever they land. :thumbdown

miserkris
05/21/2014, 03:29 PM
They'll destroy the natural beauty of the rocks. Choke zoa too.

cloak
05/21/2014, 04:00 PM
+1.

I can't stand it when I have a nice little colony of zoanthids, and then five or six of these little things pop up in between them. :angryfire:

GhostCon1
05/21/2014, 06:48 PM
Good luck at this point. Best advice is I hope you really really like it, if you don't......boil your rock.

Blue cloves a beautiful just like GSP but will grow over and suffocate other coral unless the other coral can defend itself (sweeper/chemical warfare). Best bet is to boil the rock you don't want blue cloves on and tone down the colony. If you periodically frag the blue cloves, they tend not to go sexual in your tank.

DO NOT EVER BOIL LIVE ROCK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!! EVER! Read this!! (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253493)

enchelycore808
05/21/2014, 07:53 PM
Out of curiosity, how long did it take your tank to be taken over like that?

chrismnash
05/21/2014, 11:27 PM
My wife likes them i m not really doing any zoanthids. I've got gsp, grape torch, Kenya tree, pulsing Xenia, green flower pot coral. I had some give me a floating piece that has 6polyps of blue clove and they are just bulbs they were growing in the sand bed and they haven't opened yet everything is grow like a weed except the flower pot coral he was half dead when I got it. It was butchered when they fragged it I'm hoping it'll cone back.

miserkris
01/13/2015, 07:39 PM
I got my last box of fluke tabs avl. $15 shipped. Pm me.

SushiGirl
01/13/2015, 08:00 PM
I just used some AiptasiaX on a saltwater dipped Qtip Saturday to kill blue cloves around some zoas I dont want to lose. Granted I could remove the small rock to do it, but you could target fairly well, I imagine. Worked well.

pitmindi
01/16/2015, 11:58 PM
Do you have any to sell?

Ohioreefer7
01/21/2015, 06:13 PM
Does anyone have pictures of them growing in the wild (ocean)? Do they over grow everything there or are they controlled by animals and other corals?

enchelycore808
01/21/2015, 06:57 PM
Does anyone have pictures of them growing in the wild (ocean)? Do they over grow everything there or are they controlled by animals and other corals?

I don't have any pics but I never see them overgrowing everything like that. I only see them growing in small patches in tidepools down to about 10ft or so. Never really looked for or noticed them any deeper. Most patches I see are only a couple inches in diameter. I'll take a pic next time I go out.

Daniel62
01/30/2015, 08:34 PM
5 yrs in my tank, they only seem to grow on 1 rock

ozmosis7
02/28/2015, 11:23 AM
I just picked up a leather that a handful of these growing on the rock. Snipped it off and put it on a frag pedestal. PM if interested. Local only. I'm in SE PA.

yzguy01250
10/27/2015, 03:58 PM
I want some of these so bad...perfect for my softie/LPS tank.
I fall into the "I Love Them" category. They really make my other corals POP! I got a chunk about the size of a quarter from my LFS store and they have exploded all over my tank! Check it out... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivTqgiVnYcM

SushiGirl
10/27/2015, 05:27 PM
I fall into the "I Love Them" category. They really make my other corals POP! I got a chunk about the size of a quarter from my LFS store and they have exploded all over my tank! Check it out... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivTqgiVnYcM

I finally got some a few years ago, they do take over but it's all good. I moved the frag all over as they grew off it, plus they spawned the first year. Only drawback is they will overgrow zoas...have some I keep toothbrushing off the cloves to save lol.

Whole tank just now.
332047

yzguy01250
10/28/2015, 08:59 AM
I finally got some a few years ago, they do take over but it's all good. I moved the frag all over as they grew off it, plus they spawned the first year. Only drawback is they will overgrow zoas...have some I keep toothbrushing off the cloves to save lol.

Whole tank just now.
332047
Nice! My Zoas manage to fight them back somehow, but that definitely worried me at first. They are very crowded together for sure.

wez
11/10/2015, 10:19 AM
i wish that was my tank! i love them covering the rocks

Clownfish Chris
03/20/2016, 08:09 AM
Sorry for bumping an old thread but I feel this is important.

NEVER BOIL LIVE ROCK

Boiling rock is never a good idea and it is suggested several times in this thread. In fact, it can cause DEATH. Not to the rock but to YOU. Here are three sources and a quick google search will pull up more.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1083843
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/palytoxin-the-worlds-second-deadliest-poison-possibly-available-at-your-lfs
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/criem/2015/621815/