Hydroids - How do I eliminate- They have taken over my tank

[Florida Sunshine]

So I have this stuff that has pretty much taken over my tank and I can't get rid of it.
I'm looking for an ID and an eradication plan that is anything short of a total teardown.

 

[KJ]

Hydroids.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

That's what I was afraid of. Any ideas on how to get rid of them?

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Bump

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Anybody have any ideas for me? Apparently there are a number of different types of hydroids and I don't know which I have or what is the best treatment. I have tried Aiptasia X and smothering them with super glue gel and neither worked. They are on pretty much all of my rocks. Some are easy to get to and some would be impossible to reach.

 

[Heibel]

They suck, I have taken rock out of the tank and used a dremel on it or chisel as much off as I could, did not get them all, but there are a heck of a lot less now. I have had the rock since 2000, so did not want to destroy it or leave it out in the sun to kill everything. I do not know of anything that will remove them, if there is I would love to hear it.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I would try to replace the rock slowly, and the rock you cant replace I would try using kalk paste on hydroids.Thre are other things you can do like add some filter socks, feed the tank less, don't broadcast feed corals or fish, feed you fish only pellets or wash the frozen mysis shrimp before feeding your tank. there are also these limpets that eat hydroids, but I think they are pretty difficult to find.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Anybody have any ideas for me? Apparently there are a number of different types of hydroids and I don't know which I have or what is the best treatment. I have tried Aiptasia X and smothering them with super glue gel and neither worked. They are on pretty much all of my rocks. Some are easy to get to and some would be impossible to reach.

Hang on. I have info.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

This is the go to cure /poison for hydroids. In this case it was used for clove polyps(who knew). Do a bit of googling Esp here on R2r there's a long thread on hydroid treatment with this medication.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/e...polyps-with-fenbendazole.308994/#post-3796949

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I read through a couple of those threads but couldn't find any that had pictures that looked like what I have.
Guess I need to find a new home for my starfish and conch for a while. That stinks because my starfish is my oldest inhabitant.
Thanks for the info. Now I know that will treat what I have.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I read through a couple of those threads but couldn't find any that had pictures that looked like what I have.
Guess I need to find a new home for my starfish and conch for a while. That stinks because my starfish is my oldest inhabitant.
Thanks for the info. Now I know that will treat what I have.

Not sure what that stuff costs, but you could test in a bucket if you have a small rock infested with it.

Def chime in on that thread if you haven't read all the way through it and see what the casualties may have been. I was surprised at his results. I had always considered the treatment a tank nuke. Maybe not.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Well it seems that it nukes Xenia and GSP as well. I have both but they are easy to replace. I just need to set up a tank for my star and conch and as many snails as I can rescue. I guess now is as good of a time as ever to get it over with. I also have an aiptasia infestation but was going to hit that with Berghia. I tried them once but I think the wrasse I had ate them all. Now the wrasse jumped out of the tank so if I can get this taken care of I may be back in business and have a pretty tank once again.

 

[Greybeard]

Fenbendazole (Panacure) works great... but.

It will kill all worms, many forms of coral, and likely other critters you don't want it to, and, it can absorb into live rock, seeping back out for a long, long time.

Great for dwarf seahorse tanks, but I'd give it some real thought before dosing it in a reef!

Consider it a complement... you've got a healthy tank, or they wouldn't be growing

I've found that cutting off their food supply can help. Get a leopard wrasse, something that will have a major impact on micro crustaceans.. Hydroids consume copepods and other micro crustaceans. Cut back on feeding, and knock the population of 'pods down, and they'll start to fade. I've also noticed they don't seem to care for high flow areas...

 

[Florida Sunshine]

Maybe I just need to replace all of my live rock. That would be pretty tough though not to mention expensive and if even one of these things got through with one of my corals I would be back at the start again.
Does anybody know anything about how they move? They obviously do because I have patches of them on widely separated rocks. I'm trying to think of something working with they don't like high flow. I could point my Vortechs at one of the areas and see what happens.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Maybe I just need to replace all of my live rock. That would be pretty tough though not to mention expensive and if even one of these things got through with one of my corals I would be back at the start again.
Does anybody know anything about how they move? They obviously do because I have patches of them on widely separated rocks. I'm trying to think of something working with they don't like high flow. I could point my Vortechs at one of the areas and see what happens.

How bad is the infestation?
They spawn btw.
You could try starving them. If you don't have a lot of filter feeders like I do , cut out aminos , coral food , planktons etc etc and consider a product like KZ coral snow. It's basily a binder clarifier. That in addition to perhaps a better mechanical filter. Reactor or canister with fine particulate media.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

The infestation is pretty bad. I also have a ton of aiptasia so obviously I am overfeeding. I don't have a lot of filter feeders, just some soft corals, a gorgonian, a RBTA and a couple of fish and I only feed frozen fish food nothing else. Usually Rods food or frozen Mysis.
My only mechanical filtration is my filter socks in my sump with my skimmer. I do think I need to replace my filters in my RO/DI so that could certainly be feeding the problem as well. Would adding GFO or Carbon help by any chance? I know that is not the ultimate answer but would it be useful?
Ok looks like we are going to have some mad fish for a while. The little liars are always telling me they haven't eaten in days.
Will starving them out actually get rid of them or am I going to starve my fish before they are eliminated?
I was going to take out some of the rocks and try to chisel them off this weekend but that will only take care of a relatively small portion of them.

 

[Greybeard]

Hydroids are 'the universal hitchhiker'. They're in virtually every mature marine system, come in on virtually _anything_ that came from the ocean, or someone else's tank. There are endless varieties of them, and their lifecycle is widely variant... Interesting critters, really. Most everyone has them in some form... but as long as they're not taking over, it's no big deal. Problem is, when they find a tank they really like, they're very hard to control.

If you really don't have much in the way of corals, you might look into Panacure. It'll take out your RBTA for certain, along with the Aptasia. Don't know about the gorgonian, but most soft corals will survive it. It'll kill star fish, worms, some species of snails, it's a fairly long list, really... do a search. There's lots online about it, normally in relation to dwarf seahorses. A healthy dwarf seahorse tank is ideal for hydroids. Low flow, lots of micro crustaceans, the right temperature... They love brine nauplii, which is what most people feed dwarf seahorses. Virtually everyone that keeps dwarf horses has to deal with them at some point. Panacure is the usual answer.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hydroids are 'the universal hitchhiker'. They're in virtually every mature marine system, come in on virtually _anything_ that came from the ocean, or someone else's tank. There are endless varieties of them, and their lifecycle is widely variant... Interesting critters, really. Most everyone has them in some form... but as long as they're not taking over, it's no big deal. Problem is, when they find a tank they really like, they're very hard to control.

If you really don't have much in the way of corals, you might look into Panacure. It'll take out your RBTA for certain, along with the Aptasia. Don't know about the gorgonian, but most soft corals will survive it. It'll kill star fish, worms, some species of snails, it's a fairly long list, really... do a search. There's lots online about it, normally in relation to dwarf seahorses. A healthy dwarf seahorse tank is ideal for hydroids. Low flow, lots of micro crustaceans, the right temperature... They love brine nauplii, which is what most people feed dwarf seahorses. Virtually everyone that keeps dwarf horses has to deal with them at some point. Panacure is the usual answer.

Have you done this?
I was surprised by the results in the clove polyp thread. There are some casualties.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I would love for it to take out the aiptasia but not my rbta or starfish. I wonder if I can set up something temporary for them and treat the hydroids and aiptasia with the panacure. Hmm actually petco is having their dollar a gallon sale. I could pick up a tank there to temporarily hold what it would kill. Take the rock out of my sump for filtration on the temp set up. Just might work.

 

[Scubabum]

I had the same colonial hydroids as shown in your picture. The Fish Fenbendazole and method posted by @twilliard worked perfect for me. I struggled with these for years and this method worked 100%. I did have to dose twice as my infestation was really bad.