aiptasia on rocks!
 

hi i have failed to rid my tank of aiptasia and am getting ready to move my rocks from a 300 gal to a 800gal.

if i leave my rocks in plastic trash cans with no water will the aiptasia finally die off? how long will this process take?

i know it will kill all beneficial bacteria also.

how long will it take for the cycle to create new life on the rocks?

Have you tried joe's juice? If that does not work take the peices out and give them a freshwater dip in ro water for about 5-10 min. I did that and it worked however it will kill some bacteria and any inverts that come into contact will also die off.

well, what have you done in an attempt to rid them? Have you tried joes juice? It's only 10 bucks and it works. The probable causeof your failure is that your tank is quite large and you probably couldn't see them all. Try a peppermint shrimp in addition to joes juice so that it may help you get the ones you miss

i have tried joes juice numerous times and has not worked that well for me. they just have to much room to multiply in my large tank. and i dont want it to happen in my even larger tank.

and my pepermint shrimp just cant handle the numbers of aiptasia either.

so should i just leave the rock out with no water outside?

If you leave a live rock out of water ...Im not sure if it kill all aiptasia. My rock did get to me by mail, I had to cure it as enybody else and aiptasia show up strong. Maybe if you want to kill it this way, you have to leave the rock out of water for long time which will kill probably everything in and on the rock. I would try more pepermints. Good luck.

I wouldn't give up that easily. What are you gonna do if you get them in your 800? Add more pepermint shrimp, some red legged hermits and keep up with the joes juice. you can also throw i a copper band. And keep in mind that you can take all these fish/hermit/fish out when you switch

Try mixing up some kalk paste. I have done this with success. Mix some kalk (Mrs. Wages pickling lime) with some water. Get a good thick milky substance. Use a syringe and extract the paste water onto the aiptasia one by one. Takes a while but it will work. Dont touch them, but squeeze the paste onto the head. The aiptasia will suck the paste in and then explode. Actually kind of cool looking.

kalk works well. But to be pro-active, I added some pepermint shrimp and haven't seen another aiptasia

woah, first post
Welcome!

but does any one know how to get rid of them while the rocks are outside of the tank?

are they photosynthetic? maybe i can leave them in a large containter with no light and they will die off in a coulpe months?

amd check the other invertebrates section and do some reading about Berghia Nudibranchs, many people and I also love them these little guys eat only aptasia, it may take several weeks but in time your tank will be 100% apttasia free, aint natures little slugs great!!

where did you get these nudibranchs from? i have heard of them, but havent seen what they look like at all and have no idea where to get them and hear they are bad shippers.?

Interesting comment Thomas. Never heard of that method.

Will definitely have to look into that for the future.

try Berghia.net good web sight with all the info you need on them you may need to look around their web sight but the explanations of how many they suggest for your size tank and guarentee on live arrival even how to add them to your tank good luck!!

Excellent!

I'll have to see if anyone in my club has used these before. If not, could be a good group order!

I put them in my 150 and results were slow at first but after 4-6 weeks 50 % of aptasia was all gone with no regrowth in the areas that have been cleaned, it sure beats the old chemical treatments, and they have a bitter taste according to the web site none of my fish have bothered them, and I have a mandrin goby in there I was afraid he would eat em cause they are real tiny at first but he dont like em either all is well so far.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11332052#post11332052 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AMD30 [/i]
[B]but does any one know how to get rid of them while the rocks are outside of the tank?

are they photosynthetic? maybe i can leave them in a large containter with no light and they will die off in a coulpe months? [/B][/QUOTE]

If you really want to kill them with the rock out of the water, I've heard of a couple folks literally burning them with a lighter. You kill that portion of the rock biologically, but hey thats nothing to cry over IMO.

Squirt some Kalkwasser on it, does the job, all remnants of the aptasia will be vaporized.

how do you prepare the kalkwasser? get the powder and just mix with some water?

When I first recieved my tank I was overjoyed at the almost immediate life that sprung from the LR. OF course, being a newb to reef, I didn't know that what I was watching, slowly taking over my tank, was aiptasia. By the time that I found out was I had they had grown to a few hundred.
I squirted as many as I could get to with Joe's Juice and managed to kill ALOT! After two separate treatments, I added a couple of Peppermint shrimp and they removed the rest.
GL

Copperbanded butterfly....it will not take long with one in your tank, my 180 was infested.....probally 200 or so, one month copperband cleaned my tank....and any that just happen to pop back up are swiftly taken care of.

does anyone have photos of aiptasia??

Here you go rick12!

Larry O

Aiptasia for days:
[IMG]http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd151/alittlephishy_reef/PicoCubeCritterssmall.jpg[/IMG]

i got a threadfin butterfly that took care of the aiptasia in my tank inside of a week

But be careful with the butterfly fish to rid the aiptasia. Once the aiptasia is gone they could begin to nip at SPS corals among other things.
IMO squirt kalk paste (or Joes Juice) directly on the aiptasia. They will be killed that way. It will take several treatments to get them all if you have a lot. Yes this consists of just adding a little bit of water to the lime. Just get a good thick milky mixture. You dont have to be real exact with proportions but when you squirt it on you want it to be thick.
Then, add several peppermint shrimp if your tank is compatable with them (depending on the other items you have in your tank). The shrimp are hit or miss but if your tank will work with them, they wont hurt.