Aiptasia Issues

S

skippyreef

New member
Well I let this go for months due to time contraints and now I have a full blown infestation going on. I have thought about Bergia Nudi's but the cost and the time they would take to eat all these makes me rethink it.

Other options are a fresh water dip of all my ive rock and siphoning them out of the sand bed and then adding peppermints and some butterflies to keep them at bay. The other option is a massive nuke attack on the rocks with a super concentrated Kalk Mix to kill them dead. Basically dropping the rock in it for a few minutes and then scrubbing it and rinsing it. I know when we feed them kalk it kills them and I guess I am wondering if the high PH in a bucket of Kalk will kill them without them eating it directly.
 
probably not- they are very hardy..

I think the best way to deal with them is boiling RO/DI w/ Kalk & then slowly smothering them in the paste- That's the only thing thats ever worked for me.
 
i had the same problem.... i tried every thing and nothing worked... then i bought 10 berghia off line... i set up a area for them to breed(some plastic cups) now i have tons.. .ive sold over 50 to lfs and made my money back... they eat them pretty quick to.
 
Best thing I did was buy a "group" of peppermint shrimp. They made short work of the aips, large and small. However, after the all the pest were devoured the pep's munched on a couple of my prized lps. Started spot feeding them and they no longer bother corals, YMMV.
 
Good ideas and thanks. I am going to get some 18 gauge needles for the larger ones today and start nuking them With Kalk. Does the boiling water also help with killing them?
 
I have read that the Red Sea stuff works well. I have also read that peppermint shrimp are hit or miss. I bought a Copper Band Butterfly -- and he cleaned my entire 110g in no time. I realize that there are no guarantees with a CBB either, but I wanted the fish anyway and thought I would give it a try. For me it worked. I had some Aiptasia in my fuge and decided to try fresh squeezed lemon juice. I watched the Aiptasia disintegrate before my eyes. Lemon juice, Joe's Juice, and Red Sea are effective (Joe's Juice never really worked for me) only to the extent you can squirt the aiptasia. If the aiptasia are under rocks, hidden, etc., good luck . . . That's why I employed the CBB. I have 0 aiptasia now. Keep in mind that boiling your rocks will work, but you will end up with dead base rock. Just a thought.
 
We inherited a tank with a huge aiptasia problem and eventually resorted to squirting them all with kalk past throught a large bore needle. I actually injected it right into the trunk of the larger ones. The smaller ones just got smothered under little piles of paste. We didn't boil the kalk, just mixed it into a thin paste. It helps to shake the syringe before injecting/squirting.

Be careful to monitor your PH as you are executing this warefare. Too much kalk all at once can screw it up.
 
I saw that Joes juice is just kalk and saltwater. Save yourself some money and get Mrs.Wages pickling lime. It is the same thing for a lot less money. Mix it yourself. The only way to really get rid of it is to get predators for aptesia. I have a copperband for mine but they are a hard fish to keep.
 
We also got two peppermint shrimp to take care of any new aiptasia as they started to grow before I had a chance to nuke them.

The combination of a ruthless nuking campaign and a couple of peppermint shrimp permanently took care of the problem in just a few weeks.
 
I have taken some ofthe rock out and scrubbed it and then diped it in A bucket of kalk water. Aiptasia are all dead on these rocks. the rocks with things on them (corals) I am taking the syringe to.
 
I suspect the Kalk dip takes care of this, but scrubbing aiptasia off is usually to be avoided as it will generate many new aiptasia by creating small bits that become full blown evil aiptasia themselves.
 
I scrubbed them of outside of the tank and in a bucket of 3 gallons of water to 3 cups of kalk :D there was nothing left on the rock when I took it out and then gave it a good rinse off in freshwater. I agree that if you do this in the tank you are asking for trouble because they will proliferate 10:1 for every aptasia you do this too.

I am going to go back over the tank today and hit the stragglers on a few zooanthids I have in there and the few that are on the bottom of the tank and that should take care of it on the large scale. I am adding some peppermints to keep them returning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
1 aiptasia
Replies
3
Views
574
Scotty333!!!
S
OrionN
Anemone Show-off
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
Cjs305510
C
S
Tank is not cycling
2 3
Replies
44
Views
823
wvned
wvned
slathrum
Where to buy a reef ready aquarium these days
Replies
8
Views
318
wvned
wvned
R
Sandbed depth question
Replies
9
Views
302
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
Back
Top