jnowell
New member
Here's the deal, I have a 100g reef in my living room, I got a 125 and am finishing up the woodwork and will transfer everything soon.
Problem, the 100 and sump (55g) are COVERED in aptasia, upwards of 75, many of them full grown. I am raising berghia's so I needed an aptasia farm, and as long as I keep them away from everything else, they really don't do any harm.
Problem is, I now have an old 30g set up as my aptasia farm, and I want to COMPLETELY rid the reef of them at the time of transfer....without killing the biofilter bacteria of course I've had some luck with the combination of hypersalinity coupled with a heavy formalin dose...the bacteria survives, but I got a sizeable diatom bloom, so a good portion of it got nuked with the aptasia.
Anyone have any ideas? Methyline blue also worked, but it took weeks to kill the aptasia, and stained the rocks blue. I have a perfect lab for trying any ideas, a 55g with nothing in it, cycled and ready...not to mention plenty of "test subjects" muhahaha.
Even if I kill some of the bacteria, I can live with that, I just don't want to kill off all the anaerobes and destroy the natural denitrification within the rocks. I have places to hold the fish and corals, but i seriously don't want ANY aptasia making it into the 125. I have (and have used) all of the "standard" aptasia killing products and animals, but none of them will for sure give me a tank free of the little pests. I'm thinking something along the lines of a bath that I can run all the rock through that will send the aptasia to it's death without destroying the bacteria in the rock.
Any Ideas? Was that long winded enough?
Jason
Problem, the 100 and sump (55g) are COVERED in aptasia, upwards of 75, many of them full grown. I am raising berghia's so I needed an aptasia farm, and as long as I keep them away from everything else, they really don't do any harm.
Problem is, I now have an old 30g set up as my aptasia farm, and I want to COMPLETELY rid the reef of them at the time of transfer....without killing the biofilter bacteria of course I've had some luck with the combination of hypersalinity coupled with a heavy formalin dose...the bacteria survives, but I got a sizeable diatom bloom, so a good portion of it got nuked with the aptasia.
Anyone have any ideas? Methyline blue also worked, but it took weeks to kill the aptasia, and stained the rocks blue. I have a perfect lab for trying any ideas, a 55g with nothing in it, cycled and ready...not to mention plenty of "test subjects" muhahaha.
Even if I kill some of the bacteria, I can live with that, I just don't want to kill off all the anaerobes and destroy the natural denitrification within the rocks. I have places to hold the fish and corals, but i seriously don't want ANY aptasia making it into the 125. I have (and have used) all of the "standard" aptasia killing products and animals, but none of them will for sure give me a tank free of the little pests. I'm thinking something along the lines of a bath that I can run all the rock through that will send the aptasia to it's death without destroying the bacteria in the rock.
Any Ideas? Was that long winded enough?
Jason