Aiptasia removal

|sCRIBe| · May 19, 2019

I got a rock that had one a few months ago and I used X to kill it. Shortly after another appeared and another. I used X again but now I am seeing more very tiny and I am convinced that aiptasia x does not work 100% and is making things worse.

I don’t have any coral on the rock and could remove the rock if I really had to but I also heard crazy glue is a good option.

What sort of glue could I use and are there any other options I could try? I have a peppermint that doesn’t seem to eat them.

Fiesty · May 19, 2019

What size of tank? If large enough, an aptasia eating filefish worked wonders for me. Also, just making a paste out of kalkwaser worked as well, and cheap, but needs to be applied a little bit but very often. With powerheads off. And will be a battle till u get most of em. Prob similar to the "x" which ive never used. If large enough tank the filefish may be your best / easiest bet IMHO.

Holy_makerel · May 19, 2019

Use kalk paste. I mix it up thick, suck it into a syringe and entomb the aptasia with it. I've never had one come back or spread doing this. Either remove the rock to treat or kill the flow and apply in tank, keep flow off for 15 min after. I'd only do 5 or so a day(depending on tank size) so you don't spike your alk.

The kalk will gel up in the water and dissolve the aptasia, since it's entombed it won't be able to release spores for new ones.

Good luck! That's how I've dealt with them for the last few years

road_runner · May 19, 2019

I have dealt with aiptasia many times in the past. My personal experince, the best treatment was through natural predictor.
Peppermint shrimp was the best for me.
Every time I have used chemicals or home remedy chemicals the aiptasia multiply and increased in number.

Hemmdog · May 19, 2019

Mojano wands work wonders.

road_runner · May 19, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Mojano wands work wonders.

Tried it as well. Did not cut it for me...

(

Hemmdog · May 19, 2019

Ohashimz said:
Tried it as well. Did not cut it for me...(

it is tricky. Took me awhile to get the hang of it. Not a great solution but better than aip-x imo.. lol.

astridaly · May 19, 2019

I’m pretty sure that they are Aiptasia but... they could be feather dusters which look kind of similar if they are small. Could you send through a picture?

Wh00pS32 · May 19, 2019

Just take out the rock it's not worth the risk.
I've been battling aips for over 4 years and have given in and i'm about to take the tank down and start over.
Tried every chemical that is supposed to kill them, they just make things worse.
Pepperment shrimp ate over a grands worth of LPS (never touched an aip) before i managed to get them out.
Berghia's added twice, they just disappeared.

The whole tank looks like this.
Just get rid of the rock as i said, it's honestly not worth the risk.

GlassMunky · May 19, 2019

Physically removing them entirely from the tank is the best way, any time you try using chems or glue they are just gonna make hundreds of little babies that you will never be able to deal with. We had an infeatation get almost as bad as the picture above and we tried everything from bergiahs, filefish, kalk, lasers, the whole nine yards. And nothing worked at all, so we went full on madman and cut back every single piece of rock that didn’t have live coral flesh on it, and tore the tank down, bleached everything, and started over.... and now I’m doing twice weekly FULL scans of every frag/coral/rock in the tank and sawing off anything with a hint of aiptasia left.

Physical removal is the only guaranteed way to get rid of them.

ncaldwell · May 19, 2019

I bought a filefish that took care of hundreds in about a month with no trace of them now. Get rid of it as soon as its done eating then though

Scurvy · May 19, 2019

Try F Aiptasia by @Franks Tank’s Far and away the best product Ive tried. Nudi’s worked best for a predatory approach.

CrissyCoralsGirl · May 19, 2019

Aiptasia X works on the bigger sized polps, but peppermint shrimp have always worked well for me keeping the little ones under control

|sCRIBe| · May 19, 2019

Thanks for all the suggestions. The tank is a redsea 625xxl. The location of these things are in various spots that’s nearly impossibly to get to with any device or treatment. I would need to move a few rocks to physically remove the bad one but not end of the world. The tiny aiptasia, the size of the tank and location of the them just makes it impossible to treat inside the tank

cmcoker · May 19, 2019

Scurvy said:
Try F Aiptasia by @Franks Tank’s Far and away the best product Ive tried. Nudi’s worked best for a predatory approach.

This stuff, very happy with how well F-Aiptasia is working in my tank. I wish I had taken before and after pictures..

Mical · May 19, 2019

I tried kalk, X, majano wand and even laser. All that did was irritate them and they multiply. Aiptasia is a form of anemone, when irritated they multiply. What worked for me was a pair of filefish in both of my tanks. Within days, aiptasia gone and never to reappear. Even after aiptasia gone, filefish are model citizens. I still have some aiptasia in sump and I pluck some out and toss in tank and filefish get a treat.

Jet915 · May 19, 2019

cmcoker said:
This stuff, very happy with how well F-Aiptasia is working in my tank. I wish I had taken before and after pictures..

I agree it works well, its thicker paste that doesnt blow away so the aiptasia is killed and cant spread.

|sCRIBe| · May 23, 2019

Is it possible to starve them to death?

eggplantparrot · May 23, 2019

Wh00pS32 said:
The whole tank looks like this.
Just get rid of the rock as i said, it's honestly not worth the risk.

holy crap...

Screwgunner · May 9, 2022

Jell crazy glue for gluing your rock together and frag plugs. Got a piece of coral with a mushroom at the bottom and green zoas at the top. About a week in my tank and the zoas split away in the middle . Yep aiptasia pulled the rock out and glued his little a__ in his hole . Been 8 months no sign of any.