What causes aiptasia?? Once gone is it gone forever??
- Thread starter dnguyen1
- Start date
ThRoewer
New member
I got a good number of Aiptasia with a portion of Halimeda... Only good thing about those particular ones is that they don't reproduce as crazy as other strains I have dealt with.
The worst were the micro "Aiptasia" I got once with some macro algae from LiveAquaria. They didn't get any larger than 1/4", reproduced like crazy, and nothing would eat them, not even the Berghia I ordered to clean the tank of them. They rather starved to death. Ultimately I decided to bleach the whole tank to make sure they would not spread to my other tanks...
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The worst were the micro "Aiptasia" I got once with some macro algae from LiveAquaria. They didn't get any larger than 1/4", reproduced like crazy, and nothing would eat them, not even the Berghia I ordered to clean the tank of them. They rather starved to death. Ultimately I decided to bleach the whole tank to make sure they would not spread to my other tanks...
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Spyderturbo007
New member
I've had them for years and can't for the life of me get rid of them. I think I've tried everything. It's so frustrating. The look terrible and my coral isn't too terribly thrilled.
lespaul339
Reefer
My matted filefish wouldn't touch aiptasia. It was tank bred though so maybe that had something to do with it? I had a huge infestation that over took my tank.
I ended up tearing my tank down, muriatic acid dipping my rocks, and starting my tank over. Aiptaisa gone. :uzi:
Now I'm going fowlr so I can just enjoy my tank and not have to deal with the hassle of coral and the hitchhikers and pests that come with it. I grew tired of the testing and dosing that a reef tank requires. Then even when everything tests good you'll have some coral start to die off for no reason. Super frustrating. Fowlr for me equals less stress and more time to just enjoy my tank. I got into the hobby because of the fish anyways.
hkgar
Active member
Tempting. I got into it for the coral,but your comments made me go Hmmm.
lespaul339
Reefer
I had my hesitations on going fowlr, but now that I have I'm pretty happy with my decision. I actually spend a lot of time just sitting back and watching my tank now instead of worrying about it. Corals are awesome, but my tank was overtaking all my time and I didn't enjoy working on it. I found that I looked at my tank as work instead of looking at it to enjoy it. It was time for a change. So I made the change.
lolgranny
The DQ King
You got a dud for a fish lol. I would have took him out and got another before doing what you did. Dipping rocks is no simple task that's for sure.
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hkgar
Active member
The only job I really don't like is cleaning the glass. What about algae? Do you test for PO4 and NO3?
Oldreeferman
New member
Man,
Im sooooo happy ive never had aiptasia in either of my tanks in 2 yrs. & now i add nothing but water changes & food no more additions of corals or fish period.
Scary part is when i visit both of my favorite LFS both are heavily infested with Aiptasia BIG time in all the reef tanks YIKES! So, i just look, enjoy, & pass on buying anything.
Couldn't give me a free coral from a tank or any algae either, grow my own cheato & it gets a haircut every 2 months.
In feel for all of you that have this issue think i was just lucky from what im seeing.
One thing is for sure tho yes a FOWLR is a lot easier to maintain & enjoy workwise long as ick does not rear its ugly head.................
Im sooooo happy ive never had aiptasia in either of my tanks in 2 yrs. & now i add nothing but water changes & food no more additions of corals or fish period.
Scary part is when i visit both of my favorite LFS both are heavily infested with Aiptasia BIG time in all the reef tanks YIKES! So, i just look, enjoy, & pass on buying anything.
Couldn't give me a free coral from a tank or any algae either, grow my own cheato & it gets a haircut every 2 months.
In feel for all of you that have this issue think i was just lucky from what im seeing.
One thing is for sure tho yes a FOWLR is a lot easier to maintain & enjoy workwise long as ick does not rear its ugly head.................
Kevin Guthrie
Member
I don't know if it is possible to eradicate them because there are probably always some in your tank that are so small you'll never find them - until they grow that is. I think the best you can do is kill the visible ones on a regular basis and expect to do it forever. Never tried the filefish route but they can probably see smaller ones than you can.
This is my plan I was going to trap my melanrus for the shrimp but decided that aiptasia will just be part of my maintenance with aiptasia x like water changes[emoji2957]
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lespaul339
Reefer
Yes once in a while. But not so much now that I'm fowlr. Something I've been doing is more frequent small water changes. It's helped a lot with keeping phosphates and nitrates down. I honestly don't worry about it too much. If algae gets too bad I do have a gfo reactor. But I haven't even ran gfo in a few months.
ThRoewer
New member
So are you saying that they are evil aliens who draw their energy from a parallel universe?By the way, they don't need food from the tank to survive.
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Oldreeferman
New member
A fly now that IS funny!
Was that put there as a stunt or did it really just happen?
Inquiring minds want to know as ive never seen a outside bug in my aquariums ever.
Was that put there as a stunt or did it really just happen?
Inquiring minds want to know as ive never seen a outside bug in my aquariums ever.
