Hi All, Ive had my reefjar up for 3.5 months now. I started it with rock from TBS and while it had alot of very cool hitchikers, I have recently found at least 5 Eunicid worms, which has me quite freaked out. I am now wanting to swap out almost all of the live rock for Caribsea life rock, and a bit of the live rock that I know is worm free. What is the safest way to do this? I was hoping to pull the live out into a batch of mixed water and just put the life rock in, this sound ok? Its a small, 2ish gallon, tank with coral and inverts only. Current pic below.
Replace live rock with life rock
- Thread starter ragreefer
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Your tank is maturing. If you pull all that out and switch with dry rock your going to go through the uglies. Part of the live rock was to quick stability and all kinds of cool critters.
You will start all over from square one.
You will start all over from square one.
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The majority of the hundred fifty plus Euncid worm species (and perhaps hundreds of similar cousin species) are not corallivores, but can be carnivores, omnivores, detritivores and even herbivores. If you haven't had any corals munched on by now, then you are probably just fine. I have a few in a nearly 15 year old system, both in the sand bed and in the live rock and I think they are pretty strange, but cool, actually. I can understand why people have nightmares due to the infamous 'Bobbit Worm' image messing with their heads
I personally wouldn't remove established live rock with it's mature microbiome from a successfully functioning reef aquarium. You can buy or make some traps and over time remove them that way.
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Life rock is dry... is it not?
You can not pull out all the live rock and switch it with painted dry rock. You will remove all the biological filter and possibly kill all your corals/inverts in the process. You would need to mature the life rock separately first.
I personally would not trade worms for the problems dry rock can bring. Majority of worms are beneficial and dry rock is not.
You can not pull out all the live rock and switch it with painted dry rock. You will remove all the biological filter and possibly kill all your corals/inverts in the process. You would need to mature the life rock separately first.
I personally would not trade worms for the problems dry rock can bring. Majority of worms are beneficial and dry rock is not.
Thanks for the replies, something has definitely snacked on my acan. I initially thought it was a pair of gorilla crabs that I have since removed, but it has another chunk out of it since then. I now suspect a blue leg hermit, or eunicid, since I saw a hermit hanging out on it and one eunicid hole is right under it. Blue legs have never given me issues in the past. I guess i need to wait a bit more and see if its the hermit or a eunicid, I would love to keep the live rock. Video below of one of the eunicids I took this morning
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