Something on Live Rocks

[TranZ]

i help my cousin score a 125lbs premium LR for $2/lbs which the guy throw in a yellow tang and a tomato clown for $10. the rocks has been on his tank for 2 years so its fully cured. we added the rock directly to his tank last night which has been running for 7 months. we also added the 2 fish after doing our aquascape. the tank is been running for 3 weeks with out any fish due to the tank crash......all the fish die except for one. we tested the water last nite and all param are fine. my question is after the water clear up from the cloudiness due to the sand shifting and rocks moving we saw some kind a stuff from the rocks. i'm not really sure what they are but i suspect maybe aiptasia. for his sake i hope not cause it all over the rocks and its everywhere. it has a white tube and the feather duster in appearance but color orange. does anyone has any pics or link of all aiptasia? also we found some worm in the rocks i'm guessing it a bristle worm. i need a link for that too.

thanks in advance

[TranZ]

can someone delete the other thread...my comp froze and i resubmited.

[Doctor_Reef]

Here is what bristle worms look like...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/RLeversee/BW030505a.jpg

Here is what aptasia looks like... From your discription it doesn't sound like aptasia... :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/RLeversee/APT060605.jpg

[gman0526]

What I would've done is the new rock keep it on covered tubs for a couple of weeks doing 10% water changes every 3-4 days so it can shed the most waste possible out of the main tank. You don't know what kind of stuff might be on that rock to begin with. The case might be that the previous owner overfed and the rock is loaded with nutrients just waiting to be released in to the water column, thus leading to all kinds of algae problems. Also he might have medicated with a chemical that embedded into the rock like copper. Or as the case might be, it might have undisired hitchikers like aptasia. These are some of the precautions/risks that we take when getting rock from another hobbyist so we need to play the prevention game b4 we have to play the correction game.

[TranZ]

Thanks Doc..after reading a few articles i concluded that its not aiptasia its some kind of feather duster called Smalcina tribranciata. Is the bristle worm bad or good? thats the one i found on the rocks last night.

Gman I agree that there might be extra nutrients embeded in the LR. it would be a little too late now. all the rocks are already in the tank. in terms of copper being use i can assure you that he didn't due to the fact that there are snails hitchhike from this rocks.
it might have undisired hitchikers like aptasia
how can you prevent aiptasia? from what i have read they will spread if you remove them manually.

[DKWICK]

Congrats on the good buy. It sounds like you have a good buy with feather dusters and sails hitchhiking on it. Lemon juice helps to remove it. I am sure you will get more answers but I wanted to congratulate you on the good buy.

[TranZ]

Thanks DKWICK...most of the rocks are covered with coralline algae.

[Doctor_Reef]

Is the bristle worm bad or good? thats the one i found on the rocks last night.
How can you prevent aiptasia? from what i have read they will spread if you remove them manually.

Bristle worms are generally good.... I have lots of them in my refugium and in my main tank...they help keep it clean....

There are several threads here about how to stay on top of the aptasia problems... and lots of information on aptasia.....

[Brock Fluharty]

I had some mini dusters on my LR once.