Calcium as lethal injection.

[Phentoal]

I spent the weekend injecting calcium into aptasia in my 55. There were a lot of them. I tested my water today and was surprised to find that my calcium had not spiked. Still pretty stable. Thoughts?

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Thoughts about what? Most likely you didn't use enough calcium to do anything. I wouldn't worry about it,

 

[onereefnotenuf]

if you are using b-ionic, the alkalinity stuff is much more potent than the calcium plus it turns white when it hits water so you can see if you are in the aptasia right away.

 

[SunnyX]

Phentoal, save yourself the time and headache and simply add a copperband butterfly. The fish cleared my tank of aptasia within 2 days. Make sure you find one that is healthy and eating properly.

 

[Phentoal]

Yeah
It might come to that.
I would rahter not though.
I watched one destroy a Green Elegance before.

 

[reefdood]

I like using Joe's Juice or kalk slurry and watching the little xxxxers eat it like candy. I found they seem to die "better" if they injest it. They always come back when I directly injected it into them with a syringe, rather than them eating it..

 

[prairie_girl]

Hating aiptasia

Hating aiptasia

Hi there,

I wanted to know how it was going with the calcium and getting rid of the aiptasia. My tank is suffering from the buggers...they are taking over.

I have tried Joe's juice and although it worked temporarily, I found that they came back even stronger! Not exactly the magic solution I was hoping for. It could however be that my water quailty isn't great due to over feeding and/or too much organic material floating around to support them.

I am trying to figure out what is the root of my problem...rather than trying to kill them off only to have them return. Do you know if it linked to poor water quality, lighting or overfeeding?

I have in the past had a very stable tank with no "unwanteds", however I had peppermint shrimp at the time and I think they helped by munching on any of them before they got big. Unfortunately, I now am the "proud" owner of a 7 year old tomatoe clown fish that is ENORMOUS and will pretty much eat anything alive in the tank (of course...except for the aiptasia) Sigh* I have tried to catch him and have him re-homed with other fish more his size (like sharks for example!), however I found the only way to capture him was to remove all the rocks from my tank.

It is beginning to seem like an unwinnable war.

Anyway, I guess I will likely end up spending my weekend removing all my rocks and scubbing them one-by-one to try to get rid of most of the aiptasias. Hopefully at the same time I can catch the evil clown, find him a new home and restore peace to my hostile and rather ugly reef tank. Then, and only then - would I even attempt to bring any other living creature into the tank.

Any advice is appreciated...I just mainly wanted to send out my story in case anyone out there can sympathize with me.

Wishing you an aiptasia free tank,

Jen