I have had it with aiptasia

LCornelius

LCornelius

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Hi all,

Aiptasia, will be the reason that I quit this hobby!
And I have just about had it!

So going to get rid of them for good!
I first decided to nuke them in a microwave. After some reading I realized that this would be a very very bad idea :p

So here is what I'm going to do:

Take all LR out of tank and place it in big container with fresh water for 2 days.
After 2 days drain all the water and add new fresh water. Add a bit of bleach and let it soak for 2 days.
Then drain the water again and add fresh water. Do this a couple of times.

I will then reseed my LR and cycle my DT with new water.

What do you think of this?
 
Seems radical, but I have not had the problem. Surely Peppermint shrimps and aptasiaX should work? I know someone had a dedicated Aptasia cleaning station where they would put the rocks in for the shrimps to clean them, and the large ones was zapped with AptasiaX or something.

I think destroying all that biolife on the rocks would be such a waste....
 
Meneer said:
Seems radical, but I have not had the problem. Surely Peppermint shrimps and aptasiaX should work? I know someone had a dedicated Aptasia cleaning station where they would put the rocks in for the shrimps to clean them, and the large ones was zapped with AptasiaX or something.
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I have tried all the ways to get rid of them. The problem is that you can't kill all of them at once. So they simply return. I can't spend a hour a day fighting them.
I tried doing it, but get so frustrated!

I think destroying all that biolife on the rocks would be such a waste....
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Indeed, but I will reseed the LR with other clean LR.
 
no bleach.
why not look up you to build your own aptasia zapper. Then at least you can have some fun while you go on a rampage....
 
FransSny said:
Lean , leave the bleach ...thats looking for : shit :
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Cool, will stay away, just read it on reef central

If you wanna go so drastic , you can actually boil it in a pot.
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I heard that is a bad idea also, due to gases that could be poisonousness.

Or leave in the sun for a week or so (difficult at this stage in CT i know :))
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Cool, might be my best bet then!
 
I noticed the more you mess with the aiptasia the more it spreads, so I just left them alone. You have to take the rocks out of the tank to kill them to prevent spores being released into the DT. Boiling water works well, just do it out of the tank
 
the problem with aptasia is ulless you get them all at once there is a chance of them coming back..

from my understanding of bleach it is effective in steralising the system but you will as you know will need to reseed and remature the system

i know it may seem a little extreme but when you are the one fighting the aptasia battle every day this is a better option than giving up..

research your options well and make an informed decision whichever way you choose to go..
 
oh in adding to this, i once took all the rock out placed them in a bucket of NSW and left them outside for a week 9no aeration)

all the aptasia (and the rocks were infested) died off over this period.. i can only assume the main culprit was the cold.. perhaps lack of o2 had something to do with it..

the rocks stank from the decay so i wased them in NSW and placed them in the tank and never saw an aptasia again..

so there are other methods..
 
leslie hempel said:
oh in adding to this, i once took all the rock out placed them in a bucket of NSW and left them outside for a week 9no aeration)

all the aptasia (and the rocks were infested) died off over this period.. i can only assume the main culprit was the cold.. perhaps lack of o2 had something to do with it..

the rocks stank from the decay so i wased them in NSW and placed them in the tank and never saw an aptasia again..

so there are other methods..
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Thanks Leslie,

That is also not a bad idea. I think I will give that a try first. Add all my LR to some NSW and leave it for a week without heater. Then when I start cleaning them I can check for the buggers!

It is also giving me a chance to rescape my tank@

Will chat to you tomorrow about something else :tt2:
 
Well the bonus is that you dont loose the bacteria, but the higer lifeforms suffer so its a bit of a trade off, at least if you see something on the rocks like a mushroom etc you can remove them and then allow whatever else you dont want to go through the cold cleansing process..

its not concrete but it did work for me ;)
 
Get a Butterfly to munch them up and keep them under control.
 
leslie hempel said:
Well the bonus is that you dont loose the bacteria, but the higer lifeforms suffer so its a bit of a trade off, at least if you see something on the rocks like a mushroom etc you can remove them and then allow whatever else you dont want to go through the cold cleansing process..

its not concrete but it did work for me ;)
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Thanks Leslie! Hope it works for me 2 :thumbup:
 
The aiptasia I had in my tank was blooming and then went away by themselves. I was worried about it at the time and waited for the rest of the stuff in the tank to also die but it never happened and it is 6 months later. Maybe the wise ones can give an explanation for this that can help you.
 
I dont think the Butterflies and shrimps compatible. The Butterflies eat shrimps too.
 
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