How do I kill Zoas??
 

Like it says.... Any good ideas on how to do it? Some are growing on my main rock and it has to stop. The texture of the rock is a bit ruff so I cant really frag them with a razor blade.

Please help?

Thanks!

I have zero experience, but to further your conversation I'll ask. Would kalk paste or boiling water work? I've seen both of those mentioned elsewhere for different things.

I took my rock out of the tank. Pulled as much as I could off with tweezers. Then scrubbed with a toothbrush. A few babies have come back but I pull them off as soon as I see them. Just make sure to wear gloves and protective eye wear. Not sure why you would use hot water, but if you do make sure it is well ventalated and wear a mask. Lots of documented poising from palys.

No need to kill perfectly healthy zoanthids ever. What else is on the main rock that you are trying to save?

There are options.

1. Remove the rock and take it to you LFS for credit, trade etc.

2. Photograph it and sell it.

3. You can frag them off, a rough rock is perfect for fragging them off polyp by polyp or in sections. You will need to remove the rock to a concrete floor, take a hammer and dedicated chissel and remove them.


Please don't kill healthy polyps.

you dont... you frag them to either give away or sell to someone. please dont tell me you cant because i know it can be done if you really tried. you might have to cut a small piece of the rock, but it can be done if you really try.

now if you really decide not to and dont care then you can use kalk paste, aiptasia remover works as well or just plain and simply remove them manually with tweezers and a tooth brush like mentioned above.

My healthy polyps killed everything in their path and they were ugly. Why is it the zoas/palys you want to grow slow take over everything? There was no way to get them off without killing them or destroying the skeleton they were on. It was on a beautiful, very large stag coral skeleton that my dad had in his tank for over 30 years, no way was I breaking that apart. I do feel bad killing anything that is healthy, but they were killing healthy zoas themselves.

Take them out of the water for a few days. I assure you, they will die...

The rock is a supporting piece with multiple SPS on it. I cannot take it out.

Understood, but you can still remove them, here's how. Ditch the hammer and chisel and grab a dedicated pair of needle nose pliars or long nose tin snips. Make sure there's no rust on them and you may have to disassmeble them and wash any and all oil/lubricant/dirt, residue etc off the pivet/nose/handle etc. Grab one or the other and place a half inch away from the base of the polyps. At a 45 degree angle, cut into the rock and work your way around the polyps. Rock residue will be released, which is normal and it will dissapate via the current. Remove the polyps and reattached on other rocks, sell, trade, auction, donate or take to your LFS for credit. Good luck man and I hope this helps.


Mucho Reef


PS. Caution, do not bare down, or is it bear down, on the rock. Let the cutters do the work. You don't want added forces on the glass bottom of your tank.

put the rock in my tank for a while. I manage to kill everything it seems!!:wave:

Thank you for the advice. I will give it a try. One more question....the rock is Texas Holy rock. It's very hard and dense. Do you think your plan would still work?

I do not want to kill them they are just spreading like fire and getting way to close to some SPS.

Thank you for the advice. I will give it a try. One more question....the rock is Texas Holy rock. It's very hard and dense. Do you think your plan would still work?

I do not want to kill them they are just spreading like fire and getting way to close to some SPS.


Ahhhhh...the dreaded Texas Holy Rock. I have absolutely no idea what it is LOL. Ok, Plan B, do you own any hydraulic tools with a chisel bit you can use underwater? Ok, I'm just kidding. If the rock is that dense/hard, your going to have to remove the polyps or the SPS.

Question - how many a polyps are on the rock? Are they tight formation or sporatic?

What kind of SPS is on this rock?

Are you willing to cut the sps at the base and relocate it?

Are you willing to remove the rock and chisel one or the other away?

I hope you make killing those polyps your very last resort though.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Mooch

something that can be done is this... go out and buy a nice xacto set with all the different blades. then you can go on ebay and buy some dental picks. these are all fairly cheap BTW and they will be needed later on if you ever decide to frag and for a great many uses, i promise you will use them if you had them.

with these tools you will be able to get the zoas off a polyp at a time if need be.

They are in a pretty tight formation. There's probably 100 polyps.

I have 4 acros and a milli on the rock, cutting them, to me, is not an option.

Moving the rock to me would be my last resort. I am afraid if I move it it will cause an ammonia spike due to me LS.

I'm going to work on it this weekend, I also have a friend coming over...maybe he will have some ideas. I've tried Aptasia X, but they continue to come back. I'm scared of being to ruff with them though.

I hate it Mucho. Any more ideas are welcomed

Thank you all.

Jonathan

If your not concerned with saving any of them I would suggest picking off as much as you can and putty it over. After some time pop the putty off. We have done this to kill off some stuff on our live rock.

I would attempt injection with hydrogen peroxide, kalk paste, and/or magnesium paste. Even if you are successful at eliminating the pest; there will be an oxygen demand from the decomposition. Removing what you can initially may help to reduce that.

Here is a method that has worked for me to kill off batches of nuisance algae that should work for you as well....take some marine putty and form it like a flat pancake and then shape so it will fit over the zoas. Leave it there until they are gone as this blocks all the light....you can take it out once you think it has all died, but keep it as it will keep the shape and you can reuse it if they come back......good luck

+1 on the Kalk. I was trying to nuke some aiptasia and by accident a poly gobbled up a big blob. Didn't last too long after that.

This is great, I'm going to try it this weekend :D