Aiptasia Rock question

Runner

Active member
For the few years I have been in the hobby, I have never had much of a problem with aiptasia. I've seen a few come in on a small rock now and then, but have always been able to kill them pretty quick with kalk paste.

But last night, I noticed a larger rock at the top of the pile had about a dozen small to medium aiptasia growing out of it. They were nowhere else in my tank that I could see. This ~3 pound rock had recently been acquired from somebody else, so I assume that the aiptasia were there to begin with. I did not want to deal with trying to kalk all of them, so I took the rock out this morning (after pulling off my best zoa/paly and glueing it to something else) and put it on a table in my driveway to dry out.

My question is: How can I treat the rock now that will kill these things? Is drying out and sitting in the sun a few days good enough? Or do I need to boil it? This was a nice-looking rock with a thick layer of coraline, so I am loathe to do something to bleach it out.

Thanks.
 
If you left it outside in the sun for a coule days I would think it would kill everything on and in the rock.
 
I've had success by soaking the rock in strong calk water and the rinsing before putting back in the tank, but then my tank is large enough to handle any potential swing.:)
 
I think I'll take you up on that suggestion, Art, and nuke it with kalk. I can soak it in RO to suck out enough stuff to keep my little tank from being wasted. I think the rock is small enough that any die-off cycle will be minimized, too.
 
Scott, The way I do it is mix kalk into a bucket of salt water and soat the rock for 30 minutes, I then rinse it off in another bucket of salt water without any kalk and place back into the tank. I only want to kill what's on the outside of the rock, if you soak it in ro water it will kill off what lives deeper in the rock.
 
Okay. Heh. I think it is a little moot now, though. I fell asleep while soaking the rock last night and didn't take it out until this morning. The deep purple coraline has been eaten away and is now a light green color. I bet the aiptasia died, though :)

I'll plan things a little better if I have to do this again.
 
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