Help getting rid of Hydriods ???

[jman77]

Hello Guys,,

I got those darn hydriods all over my 15 gallon tank and need to get rid of them. They are the ones that look like tiny feather dusters without the hard tube. I know i can scrub rock/glass and remove them, but i can't keep up with the darn things. Anyone out there have luck with removing these dam things.

[equinecpa]

I went on a rampage and squished the ones in mine. Everytime I saw one on the glass...squish..I didn't think I could get the upperhand but in only a week or so I don't see anymore...

Carolyn

[Large Polyp Dave]

squishing them will definitely not kill them

you can try to ice them or kalk paste them

oddly enough my flame angel ate all of them

[jman77]

Problem is the little buggers have mixes in with the corals.... man these thnigs are a pain in the butt... Between the hydriods and the the red hair alage in that tank it makes me want to cook ( in a pot + boiling water) all the rock in the tank. I can't seem to control the darn things...

[fussoverthis]

jman, your avatar scares me.

[Reef Junkie]

jman77
You can try gluing over them with crazy glue; that will work.
Boiling the water will mean starting all over again.

If they're really imbedded, you might want to try scrubbing the rock in a seperate bucket.

I have heard of a nudibranch that will eat hydroids, I cannot remember the name of it though. I wouldn't mind having one myself, I have some hydroids as well.

I'll do a search.

[Runner]

I have them all over my tank. They seem to have stopped spreading now that my water has cleaned up some and I stopped feeding live phytoplankton to my tank.

Presently, my control method is to fill up a bucket of water from my tank (during water changes), take a few rocks out and hold them in the bucket, and then spend an hour or so with a pair of tweezers. My arms are itching from their minor stings by the time I've had my fill of this less-than-enjoyable task.

I've also tried boiling tank water and squirting it on certain locations using a baster. It seems to have had limited success -- but I can't do this near any other living things I wish to keep.

Just recently, I got a galaxea frag and placed it "upstream" from a grouping of hydroids. We'll see who wins that battle. :D

[Anemone]

At one time I had too many to keep up with using tweezers. I went with a flat bladed screwdriver - pry underneath the clump of hydroids and you get most of them at once. You lose a little of the rock, but in a month you won't be able to tell that you pried rock from an area (other than the fact that the area is free of hydroids :D ).

Kevin

[JnS]

super glue always works :)

[jgsensor]

I'm loosing the battle with them in my 375g. Too much tank for me to reach them and not enough time to get them all. I swear these things are the spawn of satan.

[jay24k]

You guys have any pictures of them?

[Runner]

I ID'd mine from the Sprung and Delbeek book (The Reef Aquarium, Volume II, Page 431).

There is a similar jellyfish in this thread with pics:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=638479&highlight=sprung+jellyfish

If the things were red or turquoise or even yellow, I might let 'em grow. But then I wouldn't have been able to find them in the first place unless I paid $50 for a frag. :)

[EvilMel]

I completely agree that hydroids are the spawn of satan. They are horrible!

I heard about the kalk paste thing. You are supposed to make a paste out of Kalwasser and put bits of it in places that you see the hydroids. Isn't it kind of a problem to do that because nothing will grow on top of Kalk so you have to knock the pieces off later if you can.

I have instead thought of trying epoxy. I know stuff will grow over that, so that's what is next on my agenda of things to try.

I have also noticed, as mentioned earlier, that if you can get them from the base and you grip really hard you can sometimes get a bunch at once. Seems like the grow in a little clump.

[jgsensor]

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/22200DSC01363.JPG

I have tried using kalk, scrubbing my rock, tangs, urchins, limpets, angels, you name it, these things always grow back. The only way I know that works is to remove the rock, put it in RO water for a few weeks and kill everything on it. Unfortunately if there is any trace of the hydroids left either on the rock or in the tank, they will grow right back. I have a 375g tank that they are just taking over. I am seriously considering removing 50-70% of my rock to kill off. I just have to figure out how to successfully remove them from the tanks back.

[-=DieselDave=-]

Get a small soldering torch and burn them off, nothing else will work.

[Reef Junkie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6341660#post6341660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by -=DieselDave=-
Get a small soldering torch and burn them off, nothing else will work.

:lmao:

[Runner]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6341660#post6341660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by -=DieselDave=-
Get a small soldering torch and burn them off, nothing else will work.

I hadn't tried that one. I think I'll add my heat-shrink attachment to my butane soldering iron tonight and see how it works on some of my lose rocks. :)

[Runner]

I brought out my propane torch from my copper pipe sweating kit and took it to a totally covered ~10lb rock. The crabs swarmed it when I put it back in the tank, too. A week later, the rock is now totally white and free of growth. I reckon I need to glue some zoanthids to it really quick to fill in the space.

While I was performing this operation, my wife gave me that "look" when she came out to investigate the burning seafood and caught me in the act.

[DensityMan]

Personally I use a pair of bent-tipped needle-nosed pliers. Take the rock/frag out of the tank and place it in a container of tank water. Place the container where you can work comfortably for some time. Once you're situated use the bent-tipped needle-nose pliers to grab the root/runner between heads and pull up gently trying to get as much of it at once as possible.

It's a huge pain, but I found it the easiest way to get rid of them on rockwork and in frags that I wanted to keep.

Never do this work in side your tank and ALWAYS rinse the pieces well (in tank water) before placing them back in the reef. These hydroids are VERY prolific and will come back from floating fragments to spread around the tank.

Just to be clear, the hydroids I'm speaking of look like those in the picture below (not the jellyfish farms above).

http://www.densityman.com/images/reef_tank_new/feather_duster_algae.jpg
http://www.densityman.com/images/reef_tank_new/zoanthids/060322_blue_orng.jpg

Good luck.

[DarthBaiter]

Here's a shot of a nudi eating em...

http://www.divernet.com/biolog/pics/0800colour7.jpg

I wouldn't mind having a few of those nudis...nice colors.

[EvilMel]

I swear I could keep several nudibranchs happy with all the hydroids in my tank. I need to try the torch method.

[Runner]

Heh. DensityMan, the hydriods you have look downright cute compared to the hydriod jellyfish I have. Mine like to cluster out of one location with 8~10 stalks and spread over rocks and blot out the sun... There must be a predator for these things in the wild because otherwise they would have conquered the earth by now. BTW, nice pics...

Torch method works great, but I am sure it kills everything else on the rock, too. :) My favorite part is the satisfying POPs and explosions as the evil critters fry to a crisp in milliseconds...

[DensityMan]

I have those clump-hydroids as well, they've just never been a problem in my systems (I tend to pick them out with needle-nosed pliers or cover them with other rocks if they get too close to something I like).

I've been transferring many of them into Tim's tank recently. His tank has become a sanctuary for unwanted reef pests again. :D

[Reef Junkie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7149968#post7149968 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DarthBaiter
Here's a shot of a nudi eating em...

http://www.divernet.com/biolog/pics/0800colour7.jpg

I wouldn't mind having a few of those nudis...nice colors.

Now that's what I'm interested in!

[jgsensor]

I ended up removing all the rock that was infested in my tank, placed it in ro water for a week, blasted it with a hose, and then placed the rock in a covered garbage can with salt water for a month. Finally the demon seeds are gone.