# What's growing on my LR?



## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Hi guys, I'm in the process of cycling my 55G tank. Most of the LR I have received was fully cured from an established tank and about 8 lbs came from a fish store. 
My question is what's this growing on my rock? I have a few of these but this one is by far the biggest being about an inch across. Is this harmful? 
Thanks!








This is a zoomed in pic from my phone so sry for the crappy quality.


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## BaRoK (Sep 10, 2009)

IMHO, looks like aiptasia. Perhaps someone can confirm it, also just new to saltwater world. Mine's about 7 month old.


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

looks like aiptasia to me. take rock out and burn surface so it does not grow/spread


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

PACMAN said:


> looks like aiptasia to me. take rock out and burn surface so it does not grow/spread


Can I just kill it? Won't burning the rock kill healthy life forms? :-(


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I've read that peppermint shrimps eat those. I have a few of those too from the LR I bought from Big Al's.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

solarz said:


> I've read that peppermint shrimps eat those. I have a few of those too from the LR I bought from Big Al's.


I've read that also, but I'm not sure if my tank is cycled yet. I threw in some cocktail shrimps and they have been decomposing for just under a week. My ammonia has hit a high of 0.75ppm over the week and now it's back to 0. I haven't registered any Nitrite or Nitrate readings though. 
I have A LOT of the amiphods sp? And a lot of purple algae. Could it have cycled that quickly? Also how come I never registered any readings of Nitrite or Nitrate?


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## shiver905 (Nov 2, 2010)

Spot Burn it, Take a lighter and burn it off.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Ok I burned it off  
Any idea on the cycling question?


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

IMHO, go with Peppermint shrimp- I once got a bunch of frags that were loaded with that pesky aiptasia. They were gone the next day. Om nom nom... 

Aphipods are good... 

Sometimes depending on the condition of the LR, it may not have too much die off, therefore you might not even register the Nitrites. But if you have no Ammonia or Nitrites for 1 week steady, I'd say you are fully cycled.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Seems weird, I never had a tank cycled that fast. Then again I always started from scratch and never had anything from an established tank before. 
Guess I'll wait a week and see if everything remains at 0 

Here is a picture of the rocks. Sry no close ups. I'm at work.


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

i bought a peppermint shrimp. he ate my aiptasia within 2 nights.

problem now is, aiptasia came back. 

whenever i try and feed my yellow watchman goby, the shrimp gets to the pellets and eats first. so he doesnt need to feed on my aiptasia anymore. (that little b*stard)


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

PACMAN said:


> i bought a peppermint shrimp. he ate my aiptasia within 2 nights.
> 
> problem now is, aiptasia came back.
> 
> whenever i try and feed my yellow watchman goby, the shrimp gets to the pellets and eats first. so he doesnt need to feed on my aiptasia anymore. (that little b*stard)


maybe a few days of fasting is in order?


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

solarz said:


> maybe a few days of fasting is in order?


mwahahaha today is day 2 of starvation. only problem is that this means i cant feed my ywg. he should eat pods and sift gravel right?


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

People give crabs a hard time... but I hate shrimp alot more then my crabs (for the reasons mentioned above)

Everytime someone comes to my house and see's my shrimp they make a joke about eating them..... I laugh, but deep down inside want to put them in a hot skillet... not to eat... but to put them through the same pain they put me through


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## ajdelosr (Jul 11, 2010)

That's strange. I haven't seen that since I found one when I first bought the LR I sold you. I had a bottle of joe's juice and that finished the one I had, it was never that big. Strange that it's only appeared now. Maybe it feared me and the juice.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

may have been hiding outside of your view, and new owner repositioned rocks in a way that its "burrow" was now outside


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

ajdelosr said:


> That's strange. I haven't seen that since I found one when I first bought the LR I sold you. I had a bottle of joe's juice and that finished the one I had, it was never that big. Strange that it's only appeared now. Maybe it feared me and the juice.


Your rock was/is perfect  the culprit came from the store bought LR.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

So I finally added a small CUC which are only 8 hermit carbs atm, if everything stays good I'll add sone more. And maybe 2 clown fish since they go on sale next week at BA


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Get some astrea snails, they clean alot better then hermits.... and they clean parts hermits cannot (walls, etc..)


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Thanks for the tip, how many you think I should get? About 4-5?


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

I have 8 in my 34G, and i think I have a few too many..

You have a 55G so maybe 8 for now?

I only have 8 snails and 2 hermits and my tank is 'clean'


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Great, I'll pick some up tomorrow. Hopefully BA Mississauga has them. Don't feel like driving anywhere far :-( 

Just finished building my sump today. Just waiting on the silicone to dry


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Ug, hermits can be a PITA knocking corals over. Astrea snails are the best IMHO and if you run out of algae, simply put a veggie clip with nori in your tank.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Tabatha said:


> Ug, hermits can be a PITA knocking corals over. Astrea snails are the best IMHO and if you run out of algae, simply put a veggie clip with nori in your tank.


Really? I would have never thought so. These things a so freakin tiny I lost half of them in my rockscape lol. 
Corals are in the plans but very late in the works once I get used to having a saltwater tank and make upgrades in equipment.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Hermits grow EXTREMELY fast..

If you dont have replacement shells (bigger) then you should ask the fish store for some (most times they are free)

Within 1 month they are twice the size


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Kweli said:


> Hermits grow EXTREMELY fast..
> 
> If you dont have replacement shells (bigger) then you should ask the fish store for some (most times they are free)
> 
> Within 1 month they are twice the size


Ohh, I asked the guy at the LFS store and he said they don't grow fast at all!! But he did throw in a few empty shells


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Astrea snails are in  
These guys are funny. All stuck to each other and eating off of their shells lol. 

Can't wait till I finally have fish in there :-D


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

btw, if they fall on their back they cannot get back up, so make sure you manually turn them over.


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Kweli said:


> btw, if they fall on their back they cannot get back up, so make sure you manually turn them over.


Yup read about that and had to flip a couple over already. I do have a question though. They all moved up the glass to the top of the tank. A couple are just borderline above the water level. Is that normal?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

If you're going to get hermits stick to two specific species:
Blue leg hermits
Scarlet (red) leg hermits

Any others can be a detriment to your reef as they will grow large or predate on other inverts/fish. I have found that the above species don't get large enough to knock anything over, and are invert and fish safe. The blue and red legs are detrivores and herbivores so they do a pretty good job of keeping things clean. I have about 15 little blue legs in my tank crawling around.

As for snails, I like to avoid astreas now - they're stupid in that they can't right them selves unlike trochus snails can. So I stick with trochus snails now - it's pretty entertaining to watch them flip themselves over


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

ameekplec. said:


> If you're going to get hermits stick to two specific species:
> Blue leg hermits
> Scarlet (red) leg hermits
> 
> ...


Thanks. I can see how annoying these things can be. Already had to flip a couple after they fell off the glass! As for the hermits I'm only sticking to the few blue ones I have. Not a huge fan of inverts. But I don't mind a few if it'll involve me less in cleaning the tank


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

///PY_M3 said:


> Yup read about that and had to flip a couple over already. I do have a question though. They all moved up the glass to the top of the tank. A couple are just borderline above the water level. Is that normal?


None of my astreas have ever left the water, though they get close... Alot of times half their shell will be out of the water but ive never had any of them leave the water....

As for turning them over, In 8 months (and 8 snails) ive only ever had to do it once... .and it was my fault that he fell over. So its not as if its a common occurrence


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## ///PY_M3 (Dec 15, 2010)

Ok so it's normal. They do stick out just a lil so it freaked me out a little ( like they hate their new home and wanna run away! Lol) 
I don't really have any algae so I stuck a piece of nori in there incase they need it


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

My trochus occaisionally crawl up and out of the water and over to the other side of my trimless tank (one just did it....).


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

Yah, thats the reason i like the astreas.... Sure you have to flip them over once in a blue moon.... but they stay in the tank!


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Astreas will crawl out too


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

That's why I'm a bit fan of lids, LOL! If I put it in the tank, I want it to stay there.


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