Aiptasia in refugium -- Please Help!!

[Feegler]

Hi! I have a 90 gal DT with 30gal sump with fuge, skimmer, and return section.

About 3 weeks ago, I got a 1000 pods from live aquaria and put them directly in my fuge with the sponges they came with. I just looked yesterday in my fuge and see Aiptasa are all over the place!

Is there any chance they came with the pods from live aquaria?

Regardless, I'm hoping someone can help me with the best way to proceed from here? Im about to just take everything out and restart my fuge from scratch, but would love to prevent killing the pods.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to be sure I kill all the Aiptasa without disrubting the pod colonyies to much?

RIght now I have about 2 inches of live sand, a bunch of rubble, 5-10lbs of live rock, and cheato in the fuge. Have light running 12hrs a day at night 9pm-9am.

Any help would sure be appreciated!!!:beer:

 

[mcgyvr]

It would be quite uncommon to all of a sudden have Aiptasia "all over the place"..
Are you sure its not something else like hydroids,etc..?
Got a picture to get a positive ID?

If it is aiptasia you could use any of the commonly recommended methods of attack..
All of those methods are fairly "pod safe" for the most part..

 

[D-Nak]

What kinds of fish do you have in your DT? If compatible, just get an aiptasia eating filefish or copperband butterfly. If any aips make it into the DT, the fish will take care of them. That way you can just leave them in the fuge. I have tons in my sump and fuge but none in the DT due to my filefish.

 

[pfan151]

I’d throw a couple peppermint shrimp in the sump. They do a good job at eliminating them.

 

[ThRoewer]

Pictures would definitely be helpful to determine if it are indeed Aptasia, hydroid polyps, or something else.
In case it are Aptasia, since it is a fuge I would rather empty it and sterilize it than take the risks of having Aptasia spread to the display tank. This doesn't mean that you have to kill off the pods as well. They are mobile and therefore it should not be too hard to separate them from the substrate. In the end only a few need to make it into the display to later repopulate the refugium.

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[caliMako]

What pfan said


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[Crooked Reef]

I'd throw a couple peppermint shrimp in the sump. They do a good job at eliminating them.

This is what I would do as well.

 

[wildman926]

Why worry about them being in the refugium? They are filter feeders, so they are helping out.