Aiptasia Anemones

[vincewon]

I just got a 75 gallon Fish only with live rock set up for free from someone .About 75 lbs of live rock but one big poblem everything is covered with Aiptasia.The previous owners thout they could just scrub them off well of course this just made the problem worse.I'm trying to keep the rock Live and would like to use hyposalinity method to remove. I no longer have the fish, gave them away.I would rather not spend the money for Berghia,peppermint shrimp or butterfly fish.I just want to clean the live rock of the anenomes and keep the rock "Live".I have used Joes Juice with good succes in the past but there are just to many and I don't think I'll be able to get them all.I eventually want to use this rock for a SPS/Clam specific tank.Has anyone tried this method before to rid rock of these pests?Or should I try the cooking method and just resead the rock with new coraline algae.Thanks

 

[mike_cmu04]

I would dry the liverock or clean it in bleach then rinse it well and seed it to become live again. If the problem is bad you will likely never get rid of it.

 

[overklok]

Soak it in vinegar, rinse well. nothing will survive.

 

[LoyalConvict]

Soak it in vinegar, rinse well. nothing will survive.

+1...i had a bad apt. peoblem i did the vinegar bath, but i used a pressure washer to "rinse" it...then a few dif fresh water soaks and another rinse after that...kinda over board (maybe) but i didnt want any extra vinegar getting back to the tank

 

[goobe]

I boiled my rocks...... for about 2 hours

 

[lalav02]

Vinegar or muratic acid(rinse well on both). Best to kill off everything and then reseed from clean known sources if the infestation is that bad.

 

[Jeff000]

A couple shrimp really wouldn't cost much when you factor in the time cost on you for doing other methods.

 

[fstar25]

Peppermint shrimp worked great for me but from everything I've read they usually wont take care of an infestation. And they tend to leave the bigger ones.

~Frank

 

[steelhead77]

Wow! Your going to kill off all life on some rock beecause you don't want to spend $20.00 on a couple peppermint shrimp. OK. Let it dry out for a week or two or three. Nothing will be alive, then you can start over.

 

[strike2867]

Peppermint shrimp worked great for me but from everything I've read they usually wont take care of an infestation. And they tend to leave the bigger ones.

~Frank

The trick is you have to kill the bigger ones yourself, and let them take care of the babies. Simply using a Kalk injection on the bigger ones did the trick for me. I now have a Copperband Butterfly and look for people trying to get rid of Aiptasia Liverfock, so I could get some free fish food.

 

[twiggyb]

Since there's no fish, I'd buy a few peps and leave the lights off so they'll come out and eat all of the aiptasia. I say since there's no fish because you don't have to feed the tank and they won't scavage for leftovers, instead they'll go for the aiptasia. That's what I did when I first set up my tank

 

[OwenInAZ]

Short of biological control, those suckers are in there for good. Even with shrimp/fish, they'll come back eventually. Really the only way to get rid of them permanently is to drain the tank and kill the rock. Winter's coming in PA so you could leave them on your porch to freeze solid for a few months. Here in Phoenix people will leave rocks outside for the summer months to bake it to death.

Remember, when dealing with aiptasia,

 

[strike2867]

Short of biological control, those suckers are in there for good. Even with shrimp/fish, they'll come back eventually. Really the only way to get rid of them permanently is to drain the tank and kill the rock. Winter's coming in PA so you could leave them on your porch to freeze solid for a few months. Here in Phoenix people will leave rocks outside for the summer months to bake it to death.

Remember, when dealing with aiptasia,

Wow thats a bold statement. With my combination of fish and shrimp I haven't seen any in about 8 months. I'm actually looking for some Aiptasia I can buy to feed my Butterfly. I'd love an Aiptasia infestation right now, it would mean I would only have to touch the tank on the weekends.

 

[Christoph]

Just got rid of about 25 or so Aips on roughly 50 lbs of rock. I took a good look at where they were on the rock while still in the tank, took the rock out to my garage, and chopped that portion of rock off with a hammer and hatchet. I lost about 6-8 lbs of rock in the end. I was left with one Aip that I missed. Totally worth it if the situation is right, like no fish or corals in the tank, sound like it is for you too.:hammer:

 

[vincewon]

Thanks for the input

Thanks for the input

Today I used Joes Juice that I had laying around on some big ones.I also lowered the Salinity to 1.020 for now.I have the rock split into two 20 gallon rubbermaid trash cans with 1 powerhead in each and 1 skimmer in each.No light .I may just dry the rock out and reseed it that seems to be my safest bet.I really don't want this crap coming back especially on SPS and Clams.I've had reef tanks since 1996 and have never seen this many anywhere.What do you want for free.It looks like a yellow polyp mat rock that I've had in my 65 gallon for 6 yrs. Thanks again for the info