Aiptasia already??

[Hely'sreef1]

Yay a glimmer of hope!
I mean if I just aiptasia x whenever I see them I know I can't eradicate but I could keep them in check right? That's what I've been doing in my current tank....

 

[Hely'sreef1]

I mean I'm serious my husband is refusing to start over.....we actually have had no sofa in our living room for 2 weeks now - I'm running 2 tanks until the new one cycles.....

 

[Hely'sreef1]

I mean I'm serious my husband is refusing to start over.....we actually have had no sofa in our living room for 2 weeks now - I'm running 2 tanks until the new one cycles.....

 

[Hely'sreef1]

Plus 2 full days aquascaping with live rock under water - no mean feat!!!!

 

[Mark3]

Like I said, that is only a suggestion in the first week of setup. I only say this at this point in starting because it would be nice to start clean and fresh without a battle in the very beginning. Choose your way of battle....if I was one week in, with an empty tank I would fight it in a different way than latter on with livestock to come into the picture.

Don't worry.....different strokes for different folks

 

[Bronx19]

You were always going to get it at some point, don't fret it.

 

[Gaines69]

Do the shrimp work? I'm planning on getting snails and a sand goby - will they live peacefully together?

Yes peppermint shrimp work. I added two to my tank and they go rid of every one of them. (At keast the ones I can see). Mine get along with my snails and goby.

 

[Shadowspop]

I just went through this with a new tank. Started with 3 aiptasia, quickly grew to 7. I ordered 6 Berghia Nudibranch and within a couple of days, they started disappearing. They eat the aiptasia and when they are gone, the nudie die. They don't harm anything else in the tank, and the bonus is that if you can see them in action, it's pretty awesone.

 

[RussiReef]

Aiptasia X works for me

 

[OREGONIC]

Aiptasia X and my orchid dottyback have kept mine under control. I used to notice 2 to 3 a week, now 1 every month or so. If i see one on a rock ill let it be for a few days to see if the dottyback gets to it before my weekly water change, if he does not eat it by then i just hose ot wirh aiptasia x a few hours before my water change. I vacuum off the remaing aiptasia x during the water change later that day.

 

[Bluecbs]

I run fowlr, I used to put a rock w aiptasia in my sump, hope that it spread and consume nitrate, but they just withered away. People say they are indestructible but couldnt survive in my tank. My only guess is my temp is 86-88F, all fish n inverts are ok....maybe aiptasia cant stand high temp....what do you guys think?

 

[Hely'sreef1]

Now there's some easier suggestions! Thanks guys. I mean I do want to get it right but....

 

[Hely'sreef1]

Bluecbs so my tank is currently cycling. Should I crank up my tank temperature and see if that will kill them then?

 

[Wh00pS32]

Yes peppermint shrimp work. I added two to my tank and they go rid of every one of them. (At keast the ones I can see). Mine get along with my snails and goby.

Peps only work sometimes, i added 4 to deal with an infestation and they got rid of £100's of worth of acans, some very nice favia's and other lps. They never touched a single aip and were as big a problem as the aips themselves.

 

[Gaines69]

Peps only work sometimes, i added 4 to deal with an infestation and they got rid of £100's of worth of acans, some very nice favia's and other lps. They never touched a single aip and were as big a problem as the aips themselves.

Guess I should have said that I have a FOWLR tank. Every once in a while I'll see a small Aiptasia pop up then it's gone within a couple of days. I'm sure that peppermint shrimp don't work for everyone but they did for me. I considered other methods but I'm a "if it can be done naturally then why use chemicals" kinda person. I try to run my aquarium as naturally as possible. One of the things I love about this site is you can get different suggestions from different people so you can decide what is best for your aquarium. I learn something new every time I read posts on here.

 

[Bluecbs]

Bluecbs so my tank is currently cycling. Should I crank up my tank temperature and see if that will kill them then?

i'm pretty sure you can try, 86F or 88F wont hurt your cycling and bacteria (my tank is still running at that temp). But mine took like weeks to die off (became thinner and thinner)......

 

[Philt56]

This lag sucks.

Anyway here are a few methods:

Lime or lemme juice concentrate injected.
Dill pickle juice injected.
Nudi's
Certain Shrimp
Aiptasia formulas from a retailer
And the best: a copperband butterfly

My copperband wouldn't touch them. My rocks became covered with them, bought the bergias and slowly they disappeared. Still have some big ones on my return nozzles, I'm guessing the bergias couldn't get to them there.

 

[jpcrash1]

Peppermint shrimp worked for me..

 

[tjdouglas]

I just mix about one half teaspoon of kalkwasser powder (your LFS will likely have this at a pretty low price) with one half teaspoon of freshwater and stir into a paste. Then I squirt the paste directly onto the aiptasia with a pipette (or something similar). You can apply again the next day if you want to be doubly sure you melted the whole thing. Also, I turn off the pumps and powerheads when I do this for a few minutes so that the mixture remains on the aiptasia. I find this to be a pretty cheap and easy remedy and you don't have to worry that your tank may not yet be cycled and ready to house delicate livestock such as peppermint shrimp or berghia nudibranchs.

 

[Hely'sreef1]

It's all good I zapped them with aiptasia x yesterday and they're gone! Meanwhile I'm looking into getting peppermint shrimp and nudis once the tank has cycled