will "cooking" live rock kill aiptasia and mejanos?

[stugray]

I have cooked LR before. No heater, in the basement ( ~75 deg F ), in a brute trashcan with a lid and a power head. No skimmer & no water changes for 1 month. I took it out, and there were still hermits alive! I put it in my QT tank to observe. All algae is gone, but a couple of aiptasias survived.

In my display, I have a Copperband Butterfly. I havent seen an aiptasia in the display in 2 years but I still have them in my sump, skimmer, and refugium. That means the spores are still present, but the CBB is keeping them cleaned out of the display.

Stu

 

[Crazy4salth2o]

I don't anything will kill aiptaisia.

 

[SeanT]

stugray, what you did was not "cooking" the rock.
Many water changes and swishing are key in the "cooking" process.
That it what continually helps to lessen the organics (P).

 

[stugray]

SeanT

"what you did was not "cooking" the rock"

Actually, I was hoping for a nasty, smelly, broth of crap that would kill everything from the die-off and ammonia spikes. That didnt happen things stayed alive in complete darkness and skimming wasnt required, obviously or the hermits would not have survived.

My intent was only to kill the nuisance hair algae so it did perfectly. However, I expected it to kill everything from the low temps and zero light, and obviously almost everything stayed alive except the algae.

It did exactly what I cared about ( algae removal ), but I expected everything to be dead, which it wasnt.

Also, I have a huge powerhead in about 6 inches of water ( loudest thing in my basement ) so I was definitely "Swishing". I just expected MORE die-off and it didnt happen.

Stu

 

[fkshiu]

I believe what SeanT means is that in addition to the swishing around you need to CHANGE the water on a regular basis for true rock cooking.

It's this step that most people skip out, but it's probably the most important step because the removal of the old water denies non-photosynthetics like aiptasia the food source it needs to survive.
The swishing merely dislodges the crud from the live rock, but it's the water changes that deny the aiptasia it's food source. It's this crap that's floating about that was feeding your hermits, aiptasia and anything else that survived.

If you changed the water out over and over again, eventually there would be nothing left floating around to feed on.

 

[killagoby]

I've taken corals out of my tank with the Aiptasia on them, poured a little of Seachem's reef carbonate on them and in the holes, waited a minute, put them back in the tank never to see the buggers again!

It works the same as kalk paste. Just don't get it on your corals. I killed some Acan heads that way, but in a week they grew back.

 

[basssnake]

You also can take a solution of a lot of sea salt and a little ro water and hit them with the thick milky salt mixture. Be careful though, it will kill anything in the short vicinity though. I did it on a reef tank, and have never seen them return.

 

[shabreeson]

what i did was I boiled water and kept on adding salt water until the salt would not desolve anymore. and then syringed the aiptasia. it was incredible, the heat from the water makes the cells expand while the salt crystallizes in mid flow and on the aiptasia making the cells contract at the same time, thus obliterating the cell walls, you do have to worry about your salt content though

 

[dkh0331]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11124218#post11124218 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
"Cooking" rock, in the ways I have detailed, WILL kill aiptasia, mojano, etc.

:thumbsup:

A couple of years ago I followed SeanT's rook cooking recipe to the "T"

Because of various reasons, my rock cooking was extended - 6 months total. I did change water, rinse and dunk, etc every week.

ALL AIPTASIA was gone when I finally got the rock back into the tank.

 

[tankbuilder]

I've tried just about every remedy I could find.......from Joe's juice to lemon juice to hot water to shrimp, you name it, I've probably tried it. Only two things have worked for me....Copperbands and Klein's butterflys. Klein's are hardier but riskier in a reef tank. First one I had ate all the Aiptasia and then ate the rest of my tank! My Copperband ( Abe ) died about a month ago after I'd had him for two years. Have a Klein's now who is a model citizen, so far. But the Aiptasia is still in the overflow and sump. So when the Klein's gone, Aiptasia will be back.

 

[ouuduy]

thats good dkh0331 glad to hear you god rid of those little buggers

 

[hurleycr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11124218#post11124218 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SeanT
"Cooking" rock, in the ways I have detailed, WILL kill aiptasia, mojano, etc.

Don't know if anyone is still following but, following the process completely will kill them. It did for for me and I had hundreds, its what led me to tear down my tank completly for Since April of last year. I cooked my rocks all the way till Oct, before putting them back in water. I did alter the process just a bit, not on purpose but bit.

I used a 55 gallon trash can, and threw in a MAG 24 for the pump. Ugh well dumb arse....... heat can't escape. Literally cooked the rock the water was at hot to the touch. I mean like scalding hot to the touch.

Because however I new it would be a long time before I got back to it I just did a scrub and swish, changed the water. For about a month, then bought a couple of pieces of rock from a friend threw them in with the rock and seeded in the trash can.

All came out great, rock clean as a whistle, and most of all no aiptasia.

 

[Maudsley]

My main tank contains a copperband......tank was infested with about 200.....one month...no aiptasia....a few pop up here and there but they don't last too long....my copperband also eats brine shrimp so I don't have to worry about it starving to death.

 

[dilligaf_biker69]

thanks for all the replies...added a copperband and aiptasias are basically gone...one small problem....the majority of the pest anemones are mejanos...too much of a problem to joes juice or squirt all of them with anything....kalk..boiling water, lemon juice , theres just too many....are mejanos as survivalistic as aiptasias if "cooked"?

any help will be appreciated...and thanks again

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11061398#post11061398 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 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

Aiptasia anemones are indeed photosynthetic, ie zooxanthellates. Just look at their nice brown color, they are full of symbiots. However, they have the ability to survive without lighting. They can instead survive solely on eating. This is why depriving them of light is not a method to kill them. In fact, light deprivation often causes them to expel gametes and reproduce. So, not a good idea if you want to get rid of them.