Starting over how to rid my tank of aiptasia?

[drawman]

I have a 60 gallon rimless cube that is starting to develop an aiptasia problem. The tank has been up for about a year with only two corals in it. I've been debating starting over as I really hate the idea of spending every weekend trying to inject the little guys (been there with other tanks). Also I like SPS and wrasses so biological controls will be difficult.

So my thought is how to rid the tank of aiptasia (again it's not a terrible infestation yet but it is progressing quickly) by starting over. I want to keep the rock because I like the look but don't really care about starting over with my biological filtration.

If I sell my two corals and all inverts that aiptasia could hitch hike onto, move fish to a quarantine tank, dump all the sand, and run the system (with the rock in it) with RO water for a week would that completely kill all the aiptasia? I've heard of them surviving periods of drying out so I don't want to do anything that's not aggressive enough.

[scar79]

Your only option to ensure they don't spring back up really is to kill the rock. You could do an acid bath on your rock or bleach it. Carefully inspect every piece of coral you wish to keep (or sell, for that matter) and don't take an chances on pieces with big bases that could be hiding something. That said, I'd take an aiptasia infestation over a majano infestation any day.

[Flippers4pups]

True peppermint shrimp will eat them.

[wildman926]

Matted filefish. IME, Keep it fed well after all are gone, and it will not bother your corals.

[bice0004]

Originally Posted by Flippers4pups

True peppermint shrimp will eat them.

+++ on this. When you find a true peppermint they will completely eradicate the aphasia in short order. The harder part is finding one, but they are cheap enough to try a few.

[drawman]

Originally Posted by scar79

Your only option to ensure they don't spring back up really is to kill the rock. You could do an acid bath on your rock or bleach it. Carefully inspect every piece of coral you wish to keep (or sell, for that matter) and don't take an chances on pieces with big bases that could be hiding something. That said, I'd take an aiptasia infestation over a majano infestation any day.

I would be fine doing an acid bath but I may wait until it gets a little warmer out then. Would you recommend bleaching the entire tank then to remove any that are on the walls/overflow/plumbing/sump/etc?

I got lazy with my coral additions and let one slip by. When I saw him I cut him off the base but damn did they spread quickly! If I do this all coral in the future will be removed from the bases and I will probably forget about LPS altogether.

Originally Posted by Flippers4pups

True peppermint shrimp will eat them.

Originally Posted by wildman926

Matted filefish. IME, Keep it fed well after all are gone, and it will not bother your corals.

I've thought about going biological. Not sure if my Melanurus Wrasse will let the peppermint shrimp last long. Same goes for Berghia.

I've also thought about a Matted filefish. End goal of this tank is Acropora dominant so I can't have an Acro eater. I know LiveAquaria used to sell aquacultured ones from Biota in their Diver's Den but I'm not sure if they do anymore.

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by wildman926

Matted filefish. IME, Keep it fed well after all are gone, and it will not bother your corals.

I agree completely. Get a Matted File Fish and don't feed it very much if at all after you acclimate it to your tank. There is enough "stuff" for it to eat on the rocks as well as the aiptasia. If you start feeding it lots of frozen mix or mysis it is likely not to eat as many aiptasia if any at all. Most of them are very well behaved citizens and won't touch corals. Mine is a great fish to have even outside of the aiptasia eating. LOL they look like they're very slow fish because of how they hover all over the tank and around the rocks checking everything out closely, but they can swim just as fast as any other fish.

So once you get one feed it very little so it will be more prone to start eating the aiptasia.

[drawman]

Originally Posted by bice0004

+++ on this. When you find a true peppermint they will completely eradicate the aphasia in short order. The harder part is finding one, but they are cheap enough to try a few.

Have any sources in Minnesota?

Originally Posted by Dkuhlmann

I agree completely. Get a Matted File Fish and don't feed it very much if at all after you acclimate it to your tank. There is enough "stuff" for it to eat on the rocks as well as the aiptasia. If you start feeding it lots of frozen mix or mysis it is likely not to eat as many aiptasia if any at all. Most of them are very well behaved citizens and won't touch corals. Mine is a great fish to have even outside of the aiptasia eating. LOL they look like they're very slow fish because of how they hover all over the tank and around the rocks checking everything out closely, but they can swim just as fast as any other fish.

So once you get one feed it very little so it will be more prone to start eating the aiptasia.

Do you have SPS? Do they leave them be? I know it can be hit or miss.

[bice0004]

I don't recall exactly where I got the true peppermint, as it was probably 5-6 yrs ago. I think it might have been atlas pets in elk river, but i don't recall. If I had an aptaisa problem again, I would try to buy some peppermint shrimp from different spots, with the thinking that each store probably sources from their same place and there would be a better chance of getting one that eats aiptaisa if bought from different sources. Also if I remember right the true peppermint are not as colorful and usually duller and darker red/ blackish with dark tail.

I had an aiptaisa problem a long time ago and and the previous peppermint shrimp I had didn't eat it. So I gave up on getting rid of the aiptaisa. Then one day I bought a couple more shrimp because I needed a refresh on my CUC and a couple weeks later all aiptaisa was gone. They do eat if you can find the right ones.

[Dkuhlmann]

Originally Posted by drawman

Have any sources in Minnesota?



Do you have SPS? Do they leave them be? I know it can be hit or miss.

Yes I do have a few SPS and it doesn't touch them. My Cherub Angel will peck at them but not the Matted File Fish.

[moatdaddy]

So I bought rock from keys. Took 5 days and arrived nearly frozen. When I lived in upstate NY. Apastia survived that. Peppermint, filefish, and I think I tried a copperband. Anyway nothing ate it. I bleached the rock. That did it.

Right now building a new setup. No live rock. Only dry rock. No more mantis or apastia or odd algae.

[TimeConsumer]

I can personally vouch for the berghia method. I had a very bad aiptasia problem. I purchased 10 berghia and they were all gone after about 12 weeks.

Here was my thread about it: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2288621

[drawman]

Originally Posted by TimeConsumer

I can personally vouch for the berghia method. I had a very bad aiptasia problem. I purchased 10 berghia and they were all gone after about 12 weeks.

Here was my thread about it: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2288621

Yeah I love berghia. I had them wipe out my aiptasia population in my 30 gallon. Didn't see any for a solid 4-6 months but they did come back. I have a wrasse in this tank so I don't think they'll fare well unfortunately.

[TimeConsumer]

Ah, yes wrasses will not play nicely with bergs.

You could always trap him and move him to a QT setup for a couple of months.

[Flippers4pups]

Originally Posted by TimeConsumer

Ah, yes wrasses will not play nicely with bergs.

You could always trap him and move him to a QT setup for a couple of months.

This^. Trap him and treat the tank to get rid of the problem. Beware, people that say that peppermint shrimp didn't work, were most likely sold camel shrimp, not peppermint shrimp. Berghia will work, but will take a long time and the wrasse will destroy them. Enough peppermints will make quick work of apastia.

[drawman]

Originally Posted by TimeConsumer

Ah, yes wrasses will not play nicely with bergs.

You could always trap him and move him to a QT setup for a couple of months.

Originally Posted by Flippers4pups

This^. Trap him and treat the tank to get rid of the problem. Beware, people that say that peppermint shrimp didn't work, were most likely sold camel shrimp, not peppermint shrimp. Berghia will work, but will take a long time and the wrasse will destroy them. Enough peppermints will make quick work of apastia.

Well my fiance gave me approval to set up a culture tank so I may just end up going with the Berghia.

[Fury165]

I noticed that my overflow has quite a few, while the display has none. I decided to see if my Copperband was keeping them in check, so I put some frags that had the buggers growing on them into the DT. Not only did the Copperband go after them as soon as the plugs were placed into the display, my Tinkeri Butterfly made short work of them too.

[snorvich]

Originally Posted by Flippers4pups

True peppermint shrimp will eat them.

Some times.

[wildman926]

Originally Posted by drawman

my fiance gave me approval

[merlinpi]

found one aptasia last week, tried 0.1 ml of kalk paste, it did it, hit by accident also a zoa head right next to it, the zoa didn't like that at all, but overall, i was quite happy with the result, and the amount of kalk is negligible.

[Drewl117]

I had a few aptasia pop up and got some peppermint shrimp. About 4 or 5 days later I couldn't see any and haven seen any since.

[acebigalowe]

A handful of pepps is the easiest route on this one.

[Drae]

Easiest and best way is to start over if you only have 2 coral right now. There's no sure fire way to deal wit aptasia. I've had file fish, nudi's peppermint etc. Kalk, lemon juice, aptasia x etc, etc, ETC! Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's impossible I'm just saying if you only have 2 coral I'd start over. I'd personally get some new nice dry rock or if you like live some nice TB saltwater rock and put it in a 32 gallon brute and let it cycle and then I'd swap out rock AND sand in your cube and call it a day. Jmo

[PinkPunisher]

Originally Posted by snorvich

Some times.

Couldn't agree more!! I've watched Peppermint Shrimp both ignore and eat aiptasia from a hobbyist perspective and a reef shop employee's perspective. I can honestly say the people who simply state "Oh you must have gotten a Camel Shrimp" clearly A) Can't tell the difference between the two as its pretty pronounced and B) Not all peppermints eat aiptasia! Blame it on size, collection point, sub species, it doesn't matter, its just one of the many gambles in regards to this hobby.

The only thing I personally trust with aiptasia in my reef tanks are CopperBand Butterflies. If you can find one who is eating well scoop him up. He might not eat them for his first couple months but one day you'll look in your tank and notice that all the anemones have disappeared! Never had one touch any of my corals, granted I've never tried them with clams or nicer anemones.

I've tried zappers, kalk, joes juice, and aiptasia x. With the zapper being the worst of all, I found all it did was kill the mother aiptasia and then 50 more babies would spring up for each you kill. (Seeing as they spread by shooting spores out their mouths when spooked that makes sense to me as well)

[drawman]

Originally Posted by wildman926

Ha I knew I would get crap for that but it's her apartment so first the tank, then the aquaculture facility

Originally Posted by Drae

Easiest and best way is to start over if you only have 2 coral right now. There's no sure fire way to deal wit aptasia. I've had file fish, nudi's peppermint etc. Kalk, lemon juice, aptasia x etc, etc, ETC! Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's impossible I'm just saying if you only have 2 coral I'd start over. I'd personally get some new nice dry rock or if you like live some nice TB saltwater rock and put it in a 32 gallon brute and let it cycle and then I'd swap out rock AND sand in your cube and call it a day. Jmo

Yeah that's been my thought. I'll try to document everything here and if biological methods don't work then good old nuking is the backup.