Removing soft corals via a vacuum pump?

I have a 23" reef that's doing well, and I love soft corals.

The tank has several varieties of anthelia (common long "pink" and not-as-common blue that grows about 3" long), blue cespit, and white pom-pom xenia.


The two varieties of anthelia grow insanely, which I LIKE since I prefer a tank full of action, but I don't want it overgrowing certain places. The blue cespit grows very well in this tank as well but I'll probably frag and trade it.


Has anyone used something like 1/4" rigid tubing attached to a large pump to strategically "slurp" the stuff away to trim it?

I'm not trying to eradicate it, but I'm looking for something a bit cleaner than using scissors to "slice-n-siphon". I always end up removing far more water than I intend to. I supposed I could use my canister filter and then just change it out if I'm forced to use the scissors method.

 

I sucked up some Xenia using 1/2" ID tubing that I use for water changes (in fact I was doing one at the time. I was siphoning as usual and just forcefully scrape against the rocks the Xenia was on. The reason for me was I moved it to another tank (softy only) and no longer wanted any in my LPS someday SPS tank.

 

The solution: this thing!!!

Bulk Water Blaster Tubes, 26" at DollarTree.com




Before I say another word, just know that using this thing will actually destroy/shred the coral, except that maybe you can use the shredded chunks in it's own dedicated frag tank on some rubble if you are trying to grow out the frags. This is not really an issue for these fast growing weed corals like anthelia, and especially not a problem when it is overgrowing your $100 zoanthid frags.


I bought one of these today for my son--- from the Dollar Tree. Well now I have to apologize to him for hijacking his toy. When I got home, I realized I might have a solution for anthelia overgrowth (I love anthelia but needed a way to control it).

This toy can actually generate a fairly stout vacuum pull, and I gave it a shot. It seriously shreds anthelia (and removes most of the "slurry" caused) if you use a good strong pull on the handle. It grabs the bunches of stalks, tears and shreds much of it, and if you happen to grab a big clump that pulls loose from the rock, just keep pressure on it and lift it out. Spurt the leftover junk into a bucket (BEWARE THE SPLASH, NO KIDS NEARBY).

It has a double-sealed plastic piston in it so no air seems to leak past it.


I just DECIMATED most of the anthelia overgrowth in my tank in around 5 minutes. It will grow back because it doesn't eradicate the stubs from the rocks, but now I can selectively fight back what I don't want an allow me to manipulate the growth patterns of the various corals.


One HUGE word of caution. DO NOT NUKE YOUR TANK. I recently removed some rocks and tore a bunch of anthelia colonies in the process, and think I had some sort of chemical allelopathy because all my fish were dead the next morning except my lawnmower blenny.


He's all I have right now, but here is my recommendation if you do this:

1) Do this ONLY before a large water change.

2) Clean your mechanical filtration so that it's ready and running. Same for skimmer.

3) New activated carbon is a MUST.


Do these and you should be fine.