Pests multiplying in tank: how serious? how to cure...
Posted 11/16/2015 at 08:47 PM by Sk8r
Can pests run wild in your tank? FYI
Generally one aiptasia is not reason to run in panic or nuke a rock.
Generally, if your tank does not have an oversupply of something a pest likes, it won't multiply that fast. This is important to understand.
Conversely, if something IS multiplying out of all reason, you have a deeper problem than the pest. Your tank is charged with way too much of something. It may be your skimmer is under-performing re your tank size. It may be too much phosphate soaking out of your rockwork. It may be starting without ro/di. It may be too few CUC or too much uneaten food. It may be too little circulation or stuff building up in dead spots nothing ever stirs. There are a lot of ways your tank can accumulate a 'bad' level of nutrient that can encourage a pest 'bloom.'
The best cure is not necessarily to run find something to eat whatever-it-is, but to fix the conditions that are feeding its explosion.
Unhappily there are a few organisms that profit off simple light and water, like algaes, but even those explosions usually depend on something in excess. WIth many algaes it's phosphate. With others you have to take other measures.
Some, like ich and such, you have to screen out and deal with, or deprive IT of its nutrient, namely fish. But in general, when you see something start to multiply alarmingly, ask what it's eating, and why your tank is so well-supplied in that commodity.
Generally one aiptasia is not reason to run in panic or nuke a rock.
Generally, if your tank does not have an oversupply of something a pest likes, it won't multiply that fast. This is important to understand.
Conversely, if something IS multiplying out of all reason, you have a deeper problem than the pest. Your tank is charged with way too much of something. It may be your skimmer is under-performing re your tank size. It may be too much phosphate soaking out of your rockwork. It may be starting without ro/di. It may be too few CUC or too much uneaten food. It may be too little circulation or stuff building up in dead spots nothing ever stirs. There are a lot of ways your tank can accumulate a 'bad' level of nutrient that can encourage a pest 'bloom.'
The best cure is not necessarily to run find something to eat whatever-it-is, but to fix the conditions that are feeding its explosion.
Unhappily there are a few organisms that profit off simple light and water, like algaes, but even those explosions usually depend on something in excess. WIth many algaes it's phosphate. With others you have to take other measures.
Some, like ich and such, you have to screen out and deal with, or deprive IT of its nutrient, namely fish. But in general, when you see something start to multiply alarmingly, ask what it's eating, and why your tank is so well-supplied in that commodity.
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