Advice to eliminate mushrooms?

[NewFishGirl]

I'm facing a bit of dilemma here that I was hoping you all could help me with...

When we first got our life rock (about three or so years ago), we had some hitchhiking brown mushrooms. They are not (in my opinion) an attractive coral. They grew, but never got out of control. However, when we moved the tank last year, we rearranged the rocks and I guess a bunch of them ended up in one corner of the tank. They must REALLY like that corner because they have split and split and split and now they are taking over the tank (that corner at least).

I really want to be rid of them, but there are SO many and they are on multiple pieces of rock. I have asked about this here before and the suggestion was to take the rocks out, slice off the shrooms and cover the spot where they had adhered with epoxy or kalk paste. I was all set on doing that until I realized how many mushrooms there were. It would take me days... weeks... to slice and paste.

So, my new question is, can I take out each mushroom-infested rock, then slowly add new live rock to replace what was removed. I'd get once piece of cured rock at a time (say once every two weeks) and transport it from the LFS covered in water to reduce die off. I'd take two months or so to replenish the rock I took out.

I am just worried because I once added a piece of "cured" rock to my tank and something went wrong. The die off killed most of my fish.

Here's a pic of the infestation. This doesn't even show how many there are in that corner of the tank.

[toddmh]

one persons trash is an others treasure,I would take the rocks to LFS's and see if they will give you store credit..

[ibanez2k]

That's totally true! Harvest them outta there and take them to the LFS. You can usually get store credit for stuff like that, expecially with that many.

[NewFishGirl]

Thank you so much for that suggestion! I called my LFS and they will take the mushroom rocks for store credit, whoo hoo!! I will be bringing them in next weekend.

So, once the rocks are out, do you think I will be safe adding new live (cured) rock if I do it just a little bit at a time?

[ibanez2k]

if it's cured already it should be fine to add to your tank. try to keep the time out of the water during transfer to your tank as little as possible to minimize dieoff but you shouldn't have a problem at all with already cured rock. I would keep an eye out for ammonia spikes just in case though.