Hydroids!!!!

[Alfredo De La Fe]

I am having a real hard time with a hydroid bloom. They are taking over my rocks, fortunately they do not seem to be stinging any corals but sure are unsightly.

We have scrubbed the rock clean and they came back within a week. I even covered them in a paste of aptasia killing goop, again, back in about a week! Anyone know of anything that goes after hydroids or can suggest a method of erradicating them, short of tearing down the tank and nuking everything?

Thanks,

Alfred

 

[jackson6745]

Alfred, I have them too. Good news is that they don't seem to harm my corals. My acros actually encrust over them and choke them out. I tried Kalk paste and it does kill them, but you can still see the dead stalks sticking out. I guess the best way would be to removed the rock and wire brush them off.

 

[ScottK]

I had a few patches of them, and I just covered them up with underwater epoxy. It's not the best looking solution, but they don't come back. Although, if you have a ton of them, this might not really be feasible...

 

[digitalreefer]

I tried scraping them off with a razor blade with very little success... let me know if you find a good way to get rid of em. There is a nudi that eats them, but I looked everywhere and couldn't find one.

 

[inline6]

I had good luck with a pencil urchin, the urchin eats where there is coraline algae very indiscriminately and grazes right over the hydroids.
Works only if you have alot of coraline to begin with.

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Wouldnt a pencil urchin go after some corals? I have heard about a nudi that ate them, but have had no luck finding them.

-Alfred

 

[inline6]

Wouldnt a pencil urchin go after some corals? I have heard about a nudi that ate them, but have had no luck finding them.

-Alfred

Mine never touched corals, except it did like to knock them over, so be aware.

 

[regal]

I have tried different ways to remove them but they always come back. Now I just let them grow and siphon them out during water change with my python with a small suction tip attached.