My 20H Build

[bassman57]

2 peppermint shrimp are fine for a 20. Do feed them, and any cleaners you may add, if they need it. I myself prefer to add cleaners a few at a time. That way you don't over shoot what you actually need. For example: Add the astreas now and 2 nassirius. You may only need 2 nassirius if you get the super tongan ones. For interest go ahead and add the peppermints now too. That way there is something to look at. If algae growth is getting out of hand then add the cerith and maybe a nerite. These inverts should not cause a problem with ammonia or nitrite but if you add more than you need they do pose a problem of being unnecessary money spent!

It's fun to add stuff. Even lame snails. Don't get ahead of yourself and bring home a damsel or a clown fish though! Or a frag for that matter!

Thanks for the info! We definitely won't bring home any fish. We're both excited to see more life, but want to do it properly and not risk anything.

 

[GF3]

I dont think i missed anything in this thread, yet I didnt see a single metion about the pep's being natural Aiptasia eaters. Give them a few days once they are in the tank to get comfortable and see if they have a taste for aiptasia.... No need to waste money on any chemicals or pollute your tank that way.

 

[bassman57]

I dont think i missed anything in this thread, yet I didnt see a single metion about the pep's being natural Aiptasia eaters. Give them a few days once they are in the tank to get comfortable and see if they have a taste for aiptasia.... No need to waste money on any chemicals or pollute your tank that way.

From what I've heard, most peppermint shrimp don't eat big Aiptasia. However, I've done some research about our anemone. I think it might be some kind of Aiptasia, but not the one that spreads like crazy. I've come across several anemones that look exactly like mine that all came from Gulf of Mexico live rock. They have been calling them "Light Bulb Anemones" or "Curley Cue Anemones". Apparently the Aiptasia that spread like crazy come from the indo-pacific region. We still might try to remove it. We'll see if the peppermint shrimp does anything to it. There are a few other smaller anemones; we'll see if the shrimp does anything to those, too.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

You have an aiptasia? Pull out the rock with the aiptasia and put it in a small container. Hit the aiptasia with Red Sea Aiptasia X. After the anemone implodes wash the rock with a little saltwater and put it back. No chemicals introduced to the tank, aiptasia is dead, peppermint shrimp not responsible for eating something they may not want.

FYI many peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia but they are VERY inconsiderate about how they go about it. The anemones plenum is not eaten and therefore spreads and new anemones grow. There are very few animals that aiptasia, including their reproductive plenum. Most notably the Berghia nudibranch. A VERY expensive and very small animal. However, they do eat all of the aiptasia. Chances are, if you kill the aiptasia with Aiptasia X you will not ever need Berghia. If you start blasting aiptasia with kalk paste, lemon juice, peroxide and all those other homemade remedies then you might as well start saving up for Berghia because you're gonna need em.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

FYI I just did a price check on 3 adult Berghia shipped. This is for 10 - 14 mm (about half an inch) specimens...

$99.85 or $33.28 each

Aiptasia X 2 oz = $10.99



If you haven't guessed I have been INFESTED before. Started with one. Before I knew what it was it had spread to a blanket. That took about a month. Blasted them with Aiptasia X daily and although they died the babies were still popping up. Kept blasting them... $300 worth of Berghia and a year later I still had them. I gave up, threw away my live rock and sold everything. It started with one.

 

[rachbobach]

Started with one. Before I knew what it was it had spread to a blanket. That took about a month. Blasted them with Aiptasia X daily and although they died the babies were still popping up. Kept blasting them... $300 worth of Berghia and a year later I still had them. I gave up, threw away my live rock and sold everything. It started with one.

saltjohnswharf: Where did you get your live rock? We have seen three little "babies" pop up, but our live rock is from the Gulf of Mexico, where the spreading kind of aiptasia is not native.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

My live rock came from Fiji and Tonga. I bought it uncured and had it air shipped from the islands for a BUTT load of scratch. Not getting into it. I had some of the most awesome live rock you can imagine. The amount of life and the diversity were unheard of in the US. Some of the hard coral that grew in as hitch hikers were illegal for harvest. It survived because it was pulled out, and shipped the same day. The next morning it was in my curing tank.

Anyways no aiptasia came with this rock. I later bought a leather coral that was also from Fiji. I bought it from a LFS and there was an aiptasia on it. Not a Fiji native it came from another rock somewhere in the LFS's system. If you bought live rock from a store there is a chance you will get them and they can be from anywhere. Most stores use those plastic ponds and have a few plumbed together to increase water volume. Some seed them with copepods and amphipods in an attempt to give the rock extra life. I would hope nobody seeds with aiptasia. However, a live rock may have had the plenum from an Aiptasia on it. Once it is in the curing system it will spread, in low density, to all the curing vats plumbed together. Could be just some plenum but that will grow to an Aiptasia. So it really does not matter where the rock was harvested. If it has ever been in a system with a rock that does come from an area where aiptasia are present then it is at risk. Period.

The fact is this is a pest anemone. It needs to be dealt with quickly and painfully now.

This time I bought dry rock from BRS and seeded it myself with bacteria, copepods, amphipods and fan worms. Then I bought some chaeto that was infested with tiny brittle stars and other goodies and have that in the seeding tank. NO AIPTASIA and no possibility of aiptasia. All I buy are frags and I am quarantining every frag to ensure it is free of pests and problems. Same with fish.

 

[r33fbuilder]

To me that looks more like a majano anemone than aiptasia. Aiptasia has pointier arms or whatever you wanna call em... Either way, still a pest and like everyone else said, nuke it.

As for the hermits, i agree with what was said above... even the scarlets arent that great. Wouldnt waste the money on them, as they're not that good of cleaners to begin with. You'd be better off loading up with ceriths and astrea's, and a few nassarius snails like you mentioned.

 

[saltjohnswharf]

Majano anemones have a larger disc and smaller trunk than aiptasia. I went back in time and looked again and I was incorrect in my original assumption of it being an aiptasia. Either way Aiptasia X will kill it and it will spread like an Aiptasia does.

 

[john miller]

...or maybe you can just PM this guy,
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?u=6809
and he can tell you exactly what it is and if it needs to be dealt with.

and he's online now.

 

[bassman57]

We'll probably just go ahead and get rid of it. I've heard multiple people with Gulf of Mexico rock say those Anemone don't spread, but I don't really want to risk a swarm of them. I'll either order Aiptasia-X online, or they even have it at Petco.

Thanks for the info!

 

[saltjohnswharf]

Not to sound cynical but... if they don't spread then how did it get there?

 

[bassman57]

Also, tests are looking good.

Ammonia ~ 0ppm
Nitrite ~ 0.25ppm
Nitrate ~ 10-20ppm

We just did a 20% water change and will check levels again tomorrow. This weekend we'll be setting up the skimmer and trying to catch a few unwanted hitchhikers. Possibly adding a small CUC if Ammonia and Nitrite get to and stay at 0.

 

[bassman57]

Not to sound cynical but... if they don't spread then how did it get there?

From what I've heard, they do spread but not nearly as fast as the indo-pacific Aiptasia species. The more I try to figure out what it is, the more confused I get. :spin2: We'll probably just get rid of it this weekend with some Aiptasia-X

 

[duncantse]

Yah! Your almost finish your cycle.

 

[bassman57]

Progress Today

Progress Today

We made some good progress today. We removed our Aiptasia! We used Aiptasia-X and it seemed to work great. We moved the rock to a bucket with saltwater so we could flush everything out before we put it back into the tank. We also added the skimmer; a CPR Bak-Pak2R. We also did another 15% water change. The levels are as follows:

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0-.25ppm
Nitrate = 0-5ppm
SG = 1.025

Looks like our cycle is nearly done. We won't add the CUC until Ammonia and Nitrite are zero and have been for a few days.

Tonight, we're going to try to catch/hunt some gorilla crabs and a potential mantis shrimp.

 

[bassman57]

The skimmer is producing skimmate! We didn't have any luck with hunting last night. We tried standing up drinking glasses next to the rocks with small pieces of dinner shrimp in the bottom. We're going to try again though. Any other suggestions for trapping gorilla crabs and/or mantis shrimp? Not much has changed visually, but here are a couple of pictures.

 

[bassman57]

Wow, it's been a while since either one of us has posted in here. The tank is doing great. We have a small cleanup crew right now. 6 Astreas, 2 Large Ceriths, and 2 Peppermint Shrimp. We are getting some good growth on the rocks. We're probably going to add a few more snails today to help with some algae.

We tried Aiptasia-X on our Aiptasia. It seemed to work, but after a week, it started poking back out of the hole again. I guess we'll try it again.

We're thinking about adding a Modded AC70 or AC110 as a hang-on refugium.

As for the additional cleanup crew. We're not sure what we want. We want some more sand stirrers. Maybe some smaller Ceriths or Nassarius? We also want a little more in the way of algae cleaners, either some more Astreas or maybe some Margaritas or something else? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ange062]

Ceriths and nassarius are both awesome sand stirrers, just pick up a handful of each and you won't be disappointed.

 

[bassman57]

We ended up getting 2 Tongan Nassarius, 4 Dwarf Ceriths, and 2 Trochus. I think that will be it for our CUC for a while.

Since we are planning on putting coral in this tank? Should we add some coral next, or add fish next? Or does it matter?

Thanks!