will "cooking" live rock kill aiptasia and mejanos?

[dilligaf_biker69]

I have a severe over growth of both...mostly mejanos that started in the back of the rocks and back of the tank and cannot zap them with kalk paste....I am moving from my 125 to a 180 and cannot use this rock like this...I am thinking if I cook it for a "long" period of time it will die off and not come back...any opinions?

 

[scaryperson27]

I don't think it would. I see totes of live rock at aquarium shops all the time with no lighting, filtration, or any life support for the rock for that matter. The live rock in those totes usually have Mejanos and Aiptasia anemones on them.

You could try killing then with Joe's Juice. I don't know how the Kalk paist method works so i can't comment on that

 

[lechee12]

i don't think it'll kill them either, those little buggers are resilent. Why don't you dry out your rocks for couple of days first and then cook them?

 

[scaryperson27]

That would make the live rock dead rock. wouldn't it?

 

[crispyreef]

I have had great results with making a kalk paste (I used picking lime, its about $5 at Walmart). I make a thick paste and put it in the micro for 20 seconds, then use a syringe and inject the suckers. BTW, i think boiling a rock will kill everything on it.

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

sorry..."cppking" live rock does not refer to actually cooking it, like in a pot..its a process used to try and rejuvenate live rock that have maybe taken up too many nasties... ie too much dietritus. But just a quick rundown on the process is....put live rock with saltwater in a plastic container with NO light and a skimmer if possible, do weekly or so water changes and keep it in the dark...what it does (as I understand) is that the bacteria will feed upon the dietritus and other bad things in the live rock till it has "cleaned itself"...someone else may be able to simplify it or add to that....any how...thinking with keeping it in the dark for a long period of time....could possibly have them migrate to the container top searching out light? or die from lack thereof?
dont know how long they can live without light or food from the tank?..
thanks for looking at the thread

 

[joebo1717]

I have a similar aptasia problem and the only thing I have been able to think of that will be a sure fire kill is killing the rock itself. Yes at the end of the day you have a bunch of rock that you probably paid good money for the life on it but think of what it would cost to replace all of that with new vs killing it all and using a small batch of fresh LR as a seed. Eventually your old LR will become "Live" again and be covered with all that good bacteria you need. I personally would rather know for sure that I have killed all of the elusive critters on this rock and not have to worry about them populating up the back of my tank and killing my coral. Think about, good rock is $5-$8 lb at retail, SPS go up into the the hundreds of dollars. If your rock is dead it can be reseeded at minimal cost, if you loose a colony from aptasia your least expensive recovery is starting from a frag again and waiting 2 to 3 years to regrow.

 

[WarrenG]

I went from having 40-60 aptasia to just a few individuals by squirting kalk in their mouths and adding a few peppermint shrimp to take care of the small ones. It's like getting rid of athlete's foot-it may take two applications and time, but it works.

 

[Spracklcat]

And I have Aiptasia doing just fine in a tank with no lights--a little paler, but still there.

 

[Nereaga]

Aiptasia are not photosynthetic, they dont need light to survive at all. They will adapt to almost ANY conditions, this is why they are labeled a PEST! I had a battle with 2 enormous ones, they were like 10-12'' when fully extended. I removed the rock they were on and scrubbed at their feet until there was no more. I then added 2 peppermints in my tank to control the smaller ones. They have not returned since.

HTH, Brad

 

[jnc914]

I had to pull out all of my rock and soak it in RO waste water and killed everything on the rock, including the Aiptasia that overtook the tank. My rock was covered, I am talking about 200 overall. And this was after using the kalk mix to inject them on a weekly basis. Every time you kill them, they would release spores into the water column. I would have double the amount of the ones killed within a 3-5 day span. Needless to say I hate aiptasia.

 

[Raynman]

I have tried the kalk/lime paste, the joes juice, and peppermint shrimp. I will tell you that TRUE peppermint shrimp will eat them out of sight, you will see them no more, but they are still there. The aptasia will return ever so slowly upon demise of the shrimp, try 4 or 5 but do your research and make sure you get peppermints and not their non-aptasia eating cousins (I forget the name) you can tell in the LFS by the length of the "horn". People usually have false peppermints, and claim they are not as advertised, True peppermints WORK! So, don't kill the rock, just use the peppermints to control them, in 3 months you will not see one of those pesky little brown weeds. The joes juice and kalk inj. works, but you cannot find every aptasia in a tank, there is no way. the peppermints can find them all and are fun to watch.
Ray

 

[thirty5]

LEMON JUICE> Straight from the lemon or you can get concentrate from the store. Get a syringe and then inject some into the base. You will see a white puff come out!! DEAD! I had ONE in my tank and he was gone instantly.

Just if you are overun with them, do not kill to many ant once it may pollute your tank. Kalk will work but anything that it touches it will also kill, and you gotta make the paste. Lemon Juice was just easier.

 

[BigRedSpecial]

I'll tell you one way that works, boiling vinegar. Like using a 12 gauge to kill a fly. Too bad it wiped out half my tank

 

[tibbs2]

I use kalk paste. It doesn't always kill them so you have to reapply it sometimes.

I had tiny aptasia growing in some of my zoa frags. I did a five minute freshwater dip and most of the aptasia have survived the dip.

 

[Tech Diver]

I too use Joe's Juice or sometimes kalk paste. Both require multiple applications, but it does eventually work.

Another comepletely different method is to mechanically "prune" the rocks. If you have highly irregularly shaped pieces it is easy to take cutting pliers and remove just the offending areas. I use a set similar to those used for coral propagation.

 

[Sk8r]

Two things survived the cooking of my unfortunate live rock during and after a move---in nearly an ammonia soup, rife with ribbons and gray festoons of dead worms and former life, including mushrooms---I rinsed it, put it in---and I have caulerpa and aiptasia.

I have since gotten rid of both.

My trick: get a clutch of about five juvie pep shrimp. Out of the five, one is statistically likely to eat aiptasia. Younger shrimp are more apt to eat them: I think the young are hungry and eat anything.

A refugium did in the caulerpa.

 

[tspors]

Here is what I did.. have no fear. Take the live rock out drop it in boiling water. Leave it a good 10 minutes. Then take the rock outside and let the sun bleach it. Over a week!!!! The buy at least 45 lbs of new live rock. When you bring the bleached rock back in the house. Scrub it in hot water using a BRASS bristle brush. Intermix it with the live rock and in 6 months you will have beautiful rock back to life.
Good Luck,
I had to do this when I went from an 80G to 150G

 

[scaryperson27]

All you had to do was kill the larger anemones with Joes Juice and get Peppermint shrimp for the smaller ones. Thats what I did. I have not seen a Aiptasia anemone to date.

 

[SeanT]

"Cooking" rock, in the ways I have detailed, WILL kill aiptasia, mojano, etc.