rock completely covered in xenia... how do i get it off?

[jck9]

i have a large rock that is completely covered in xenia or anthelia or somthing like it. its pretty small but completely covers the rock. could i power wash the rock then rinse it off in ro/di water or will that cause too much die off? would that even work? i want to put the rock back in but this stuff is out of controll.

[dcombs44]

I had a tank that was taken over by anthelia. I took the rock out piece by piece and used a razor blade to peel up the matting of the anthelia. If you can get under the edge of the mat, it's pretty easy to peel up. I will warn you, it took 4 hours to rid my 55 gallon of the stuff, and it smells real bad.

[jeffbrig]

I recommend using a wide screwdriver to get under the xenia polyps. Just take off a little rock and coralline with it.

[coseal]

the stench will make you gag.........and i use jeffbrig technique with much success

[jab502]

I am sure the other ideas would work as well. But, I would at least try to get something for the Xenia. My local LFS would give me store credit for the Xenia and give me an equal size rock from their system to replace the Xenia covered one. You may want to try the same thing and at least get something for your coral.

[TammyLiz]

There was a ton of anthelia in the frag tank at my LFS last time I went there, listed for sale at $15 for two or three stalks. I saw it and thought "Man I bet someone got a lot of store credit for cleaning out their tank". I agree you ought to try and do the same!

[jck9]

im still not completly sure what is is. its very small looks like xenia or anthelia but all the pics ive seen are alot bigger than what i have. from the pics ive seen it looks just like waving hand xenia but smaller. it has completely covered the large rock and spread onto two smaller rocks that touch it. i am gooing to ask my lfs if they would do a trade. as for the screw driver method when i take it out of the water i can barely tell where they are thats why i just wanted to use a pressure washer to get in all the nooks and crannies. if i cant trade is the pressure washer a possibility?

[Frick-n-Frags]

yes, swap/sell them, otherwise you are throwing FREE SALT away.

that's the way I think before killing off some coral.

[TammyLiz]

Originally posted by jck9
im still not completly sure what is is. its very small looks like xenia or anthelia but all the pics ive seen are alot bigger than what i have. from the pics ive seen it looks just like waving hand xenia but smaller. it has completely covered the large rock and spread onto two smaller rocks that touch it. i am gooing to ask my lfs if they would do a trade. as for the screw driver method when i take it out of the water i can barely tell where they are thats why i just wanted to use a pressure washer to get in all the nooks and crannies. if i cant trade is the pressure washer a possibility?

Hmm...I'd like to know an ID on that! Do you have pictures?

[scarter]

yeah, doesent sound like xenia to me

[superfirefly]

Maybe star polyps or clove polyps?