University coral reef lab building an Aiptasia farm

Cut down on the light to reduce algae. In my experience aiptasia are fine with little to no light if they are fed. I have tons in my sump which has no light over it, just getting ambient light from room windows. Not enough light to grow algae, but full of aiptasia!


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When I volunteered as an aquarist at Long Beach Aquarium I would clean many of the exhibits in my section and many of them had TONS of aptasia in the overflows where there was no light. They were plain white but thriving in there from the constant food source. Some of the largest ones I have ever seen (around 2 inches diameter on the disc mouth) as well.
 
I agree you really should not be using sea water at the risk of contaminating your stock. You should not need to do water changes that often, as they love dirty water. i also agree they do not need light to grow. I do not have any in my display or sump thanks to a file fish and peppermint shrimp, however I have plenty in my unlight overflow. Yes they do prefer light but clearydo not need it. They are about the easiest species to propagate. Use a razor blade to cut them off just above the foot then cut the main piece down the center starting at the mouth. Eat them settle and you will have 3. For food you might try nitrate directly.
 
I've heard the reproductive method changes in different light situations, although don't know if that's true. In dark areas budding is the preferred method which explains why you see so many pop up in a short amount of time in overflows and why they appear more randomly in the display.
So perhaps experiment with areas of light and dark.
 
A large UV sterilizer should also kill any small aptasia ( juveniles) that go through it. I would carefully test any possible UV set up to make sure your not killing unsettled polyps. Probably a smaller UV at fairly high flow.
Jave you considered dosing hydrogen peroxide? It will kill algae and not hurt aptasia from what I have seen.
I would set up some sort of rack with multiple glass or egg crate to increase the surface area substantially.
I would also experiment with the type and amounts of food your feeding, possibly cutting back.


I would just skip the UV. The whole idea of using a colony from a single descendent is to achieve a nearly isogenenic culture or strain. UV works by mutating DNA. So if any polyps run through the UV, even if not killed, you'll accelerate mutations. I say this speaking as a Drosophila geneticist.

FB
 
All reef ecosystem have algae grazers other than fish. Just observer your ocean, I am sure you will find grazer that control your algae problem.
Even just get a Stomatella snails. They will easily reproduce in your tank and control your algae problem. In reef and reef tank Stomatella are easy prey for many fish, crabs and shrimps. In your system, devoid of predator, Stomatella will reproduce until they are control by their food source. These are hitch hiker on rocks and corals I an sure you can find a few from reefers or any LFS
 
it might get an outbreak if your chopping one into pieces and put it in an empty 10 gallon tank
 
Have you tried electrocuting them?

There was a thing a few years back in the hobby called a manjo wand or something like that. Basically it was a stick with a wire on the end that was electrified.

You would put the wire/stick in the nem and it was supposed to kill them.

Problem was a few weeks later reefers would see hundreds of new ones.

It was a great way to turn 5 nems into 100 nems inside 2 weeks IME.

What about carbon dosing? If you have biological filtration and a skimmer, you could carbon dose to cut costs and eleminate your need for water changes. You would just have to replace whatever elements the aiptasia needed for growth back into the water.

HTH


Agree with carbon dosing + skimmer. Might also consider a remote DSB with sterile materials.

I had 5 or so Aiptasia I hit with one round of Aiptasia X. For a week, looked GREAT. On the 6th day, hundreds of the little buggers. I'll never not have a copperband butterfly in my tank again.

I thought about a fuge for your system, but would be tough to sterilize before introduction.
 
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