Aiptasia control in non-photosynthetic tanks?

[dendro982]

With a good feeding, aiptasia is flourishing in non-photosynthetic tanks.
Share your ways to solve this problem.
What worked, what not, and if this is fish, what is the minimal tank size for it.

Thanks.

I tried:
Kalkwasser paste, hot water, Joice Juice, peppermint shrimp - neither helped for more than few weeks.
Thinking of bergnia nudibranch for 90g and 20g tanks.

 

[Jk5]

Grotech aiptasia controll is better than Joice Juice...
it kill them in minutes and dont return.

 

[Stottlemire]

copperband butterfly works great in my tank

 

[Jk5]

Nice to meet you Mr Stottlemire...

A link with the product I said...
It works very good...

http://www.reefdreams.co.uk/acatalog/Miscellaneous.html

 

[airinhere]

Crazy Glue Gel over the little buggers.

In a month or two the glue is crusted over and invisible.

 

[dendro982]

airinhere:
They are not little and too many of them for a one time treatment, and the back of the rock couldn't be reached.
Anyway, were to place super glue: on mouth or the base? How to do that: last time I tried to apply Loctite SuperGlue Gel under water, it set/cured immediately inside the tube and I had to throw it in a garbage.

Unfortunately, no Grotech here, only Joe's and Blue Line.

What is the minimal size of tank for copperband butterfly, anything particular about it that I should know before acquiring it? Do they have to be kept in groups, incompatibility with other fish, Christmas tree worms, or anything else?

Thank you all! Please add more.

 

[khrios]

peppermint shrimp have worked well for me. I have heard that Copperband butterflys work well too

 

[airinhere]

I poke the aptasia with the pointy tip of the crazy glue dispenser. This makes the aptasia retreat into the hole they are anchored in. Then I completely entomb them inside a glob of crazy glue gel. No way to escape unless aptasia can burrow through rock. I buy all my crazy glue gel at the dollar store, and use it with reckless abandon.

I have never had much of an aptasia problem though.

I do have curlycue anemones (think giant aptasia) about an inch across that I am intentionally raising in my gorgonian tank.

Eventually the curlycue anemones can get bigger than my hand!

 

[Qckwzrd]

I used peppermint shrimp and they worked out fine! the only problem you will run into is that if your feeding your tank alot (which you might be doing since they are noophoto) the shrimp will eat whatever your feeding and leave the aiptasia alone. If some way you can go a week or 2 without feeding your tank the shrimp will eat the aiptasia. Also make sure you are getting the right shrimp because they have two types of "peppermint" shrimp.

 

[Jens Kallmeyer]

Hi

5 peppermint shrimps (I don't know how many are still alive) a copperband and a kleinii angel, all together in my 500 L (130 gal) tank. No Aiptasia whatsoever.


Jens

 

[dendro982]

Thank you all, very informative!
I could only wish to know more about limitations of use for these animals, and kind of food the tank receives.

For example:
1. Do you have Christmas tree worms or coco worms in your tank?
I had read that long-nosed fish and some shrimp may be able to reach worms.

2. Do you feed mainly fine filter feeders food, not a chunks of seafood of the size bigger than mysis shrimp?
In other words, is big colony of tubastrea or dendrophyllia in your tank?

3. Shape of LR in the tank.
I assume, that the fish should have place to swim to the aiptasia, so rockwork should be accessible from the all sides. What kind ith aquascape you have:
a) walls and central mass of the rock, accessible from all sides,
b) central ridge, again accessible from all sides,
c) open rockwork (arches, plates or branches, in other words, bridges, pagodas or bonsai?)
d) free standing island and/or walls.
Add what I missed, please.

4. Compatibility.
Should copperbands live in groups, or solitary fish is doing good too? Same for angels. Butterflies are for some reason lister as for fish only tanks, not reefs. Shrimps: are they compatible with fire shrimp (= blood shrimp)?

5. Total amount of food, the system receives daily, without amount of water, used for dilution. Rough estimate is OK.

 

[dendro982]

And, if you will be so kind:

1. Amount of the flow in the tank,
roughly turnover of the tank volume per hour, what part goes through the sump, wavemaker or permanent flow direction?

2. Direction of the flow,
a)around rockwork,
b) along front and back of the tank,
c) directed to the front glass from back corners.
Picture or diagram of the tank will be particularly helpful.

3. Do you have hermits of snails?
Which ones, if not - who cleans the nooks and crannies in the LR, flow?

4. Do you have brightly lit tank?
If so, do you have algae problems?
One of my scleronephthya rocks is covered by green hair algae, removing doesn't help.

5. Are you using probiotics or other means of bacterial export of nutrients?
Which kind?

6. How do you increase the biodiversity in your tank?
a) upstream or built-in refugium,
b) introducing new pieces of LR time from time,
c) anything else?

Praying for an answers

 

[RickM61]

I have a 60 gal display with a 15 gal fuge..it has a rio 2300 for a return pump with a mag 5 and a korilla 2 for power heads in the tank..you can see the water rippling across the surface..i have tons of flow but i wanted to make sure i didnt have any dead spots in the tank..the tank is lit by 256 watts of T5HO lighting on a photo period of 12 hours..i get a few aptasia's but once the pepermints find them ..they are gone..i have a ton of them in the fuge..but i keep them there for biological reasons..this tank has been setup for almost a year and is doing great...for feeding i spot feed with a turkey baster every evening 30 minutes before the lights go out..sometimes ground up mysis or krill..other times just reef chili..hope this helps some..

Rick

 

[Kreeger1]

copper band butterfly keeps my tank clean