how to transfer rocks with aiptasia

[keithhays]

ya. i think so too. but the problem is i couldnt get the fresh dry rocks either. in that case, i need to make diy base rocks using cement and it took me 3 months to cure them the last time i made those. thank u for ur advice though. i just happen to live in a country where the reef keeping hobby doesnt suit very well.

Wow, I just now saw which country. Boiling for several hours outdoors away from people is the simplest. Just don't forget that everything in the tank needs some sort of treatment or you will put the cleaned rocks back in and suddenly you will have aiptasia growing on them again.
Namaste.

 

[bla403]

I used mostly new dry rock for my tank but here is how I treated any pieces that had pests on them before. (Blue Clove Polyps and Bryopsis)
- Removed rock from old tank
- Manually Removed as much of the stuff as possible (Wouldnt do this for Aiptasia)
- Used a Turkey baster to hit them really well with Boiling Water (Fresh off the stove, suck it into the baster and hit the rock quickly)
- Repeat the boiling water
- Cover the spot with Superglue
- Rinse the whole rock with fresh saltwater
- Place in the new tank

Aiptasia is a different animal (harder to deal with) but thats my 2cents. Anything new should be QT'd if you have one or very thoroughly inspected and dipped if you dont.

 

[Steveb]

thanks a lot! i believe cyanoacrylate means super glue. i've used super glue to kill the majanos in the middle of zoa colony and i haven't seen them since. but in this aiptasia case, i think i'll need to cover the whole rock with super glue. i've used the aquarium epoxy method but they always come back out from the next hole/crack of the liverock the next day. burying alive. cool!

Pull the whole rock and put in a five gallon bucket with bleach and freshwater. Let it soak a couple of days then let it dry out in the sun for a week. Put it in some more freshwater and give it a sniff test to make sure no residual chlorine/bleach smell remains.

I realize the suggestion is to hit it with a turkey baster full of boiling water but I would be very careful with boiling water period. There is some bad stuff on live rock that you do NOT want to aerosolize.

 

[Fishy 1]

Your trying to murder an inocent creature!!!!!!!. Hahahaha sorry couldn't resist :thumbup:

 

[pyithar]

thanks for all your great advices! now basically i've got two choices:
1. soak every rock in bleach, clean them off bleach , sun dry them, and start from scratch. it may take a while. aiptasia problem solved for a few months.

2. just transfer rocks to new tank while checking every rock and kalk pasting all aiptasia. get a copperband. cycling process will be faster. aiptasia will show up in new tank. if copperband doesnt eat them, and i couldnt find matted filefish, pepperment shrimp, etc, i'm back to where i'm at now.

now i've got to make a decision. i like the option no.2 more to be honest. starting from scratch is too much for me. i also plan to upgrade to 180 gal or 220 gal in a couple of years. so i'm getting base rocks from now on little by little. so i could start a new with that 180 gal or 220 gal.

 

[pyithar]

Your trying to murder an inocent creature!!!!!!!. Hahahaha sorry couldn't resist :thumbup:

hehe. i couldn't resist either.. to kill aiptasia . now that u've mentioned "innocent", is aiptasia really that bad? what would happen if they're left alone? kill all fish and corals? take over the tank? will they be able to take over the tank full of elegance corals?

 

[jynx1693]

I had the same problem with aiptasia. got an aiptasia eating filefish and they are almost gone. My tank was full of them. The only coral coral that the filefish has bothered was some waving hand coral that he nipped at. The filefish is so ugly that you almost feel sorry for it but it was well worth it since it has some great manners. loks like a cross between a fish and a seahorse.

 

[Fishy 1]

hehe. i couldn't resist either.. to kill aiptasia . now that u've mentioned "innocent", is aiptasia really that bad? what would happen if they're left alone? kill all fish and corals? take over the tank? will they be able to take over the tank full of elegance corals?

I'm keen to hear if anyone has just let them grow? But all you hear is GET RID OF THE AIPTASIA. So I "humanly" put them to sleep haha

 

[Texanjordan]

I would go with berghia nudibranches, my cousin had a badly infesed tank and I recommended the nudibranches to him. He bought 8 I believe, and 4 months later he had a few dozen and all his aptaisa was gone, he was then able to sell all the nudibranches for 10 dollars a pop.