Aiptasia

[Aaron88]

So I’m getting a new tank in a few weeks. And I’m wanting to use some of my current rock in my new tank when it’s cycled. The issue is there is a lot of Aiptasia on the rocks that I want to use. I’ve been using Aiptasia-X by Red Sea but it’s not keeping it under control. I’m going to do a coral dip on the rocks and coral before the transfer to the new tank. Do you think this will knock out the Aiptasia? What can I do to eradicate this nuisance?
Thanks for y’all’s help.

 

[legrunt]

Dips won't do jack schmidt against these little pluckers... They are more resilient than corals, and if the dip is coral safe, then it's aiptasia safe too.
If you really want to use the rock, nuke it with a bleach cure... Then reseed.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Kleini butterfly is your answer. Will eat every one of them like candy and friendly, colorful and eats all dry and frozen food. I have one in each tank and they bother No coral

 

[piranhaman00]

Butterfly fish or peppermint shrimp. Nothing that eats aiptasia is 100% guaranteed reef safe except berghia nudibranch. I have had kleini ,copperbands and peppermint shrimp eat acans

 

[Aaron88]

Dips won't do jack schmidt against these little pluckers... They are more resilient than corals, and if the dip is coral safe, then it's aiptasia safe too.
If you really want to use the rock, nuke it with a bleach cure... Then reseed.

I would bleach but I have mushrooms and zoas on these rocks.

 

[legrunt]

I would bleach but I have mushrooms and zoas on these rocks.

Hmmm, if thats the case, then I would take careful note of where the aiptasias are on the rock, remove the rock and chip off a bit of the rock where the aiptasia was. (They would retract when you pull the rock)
Then put into a quarantine tank for a couple of days to check for any more...

 

[BighohoReef]

You're going to be hard-pressed to keep aptasia out of your new tank if you just add the rock. They hide very well when you take them out of the water and you might not be able to see the little ones. You'd have to clean and scrub the rock probably wiping out any beneficial bacteria. I'd recommend looking at these other options and seeing if you can find that at a LFS.

Things that kill aptasia:
Filefish
Berghia nudibranchs
Majano wand

As a reef keeper this is one of my favorite videos

 

[JMM744]

I have a bad case of them. Been waiting an my filefish for months now. I keep hearing vetteguy recommend Klein’s and am starting to think I might try a young one out. They are easy to qt and hardy butterflies. My current one ate a huge chalice but maybe another will be good.
I keep seeing them on Live aquaria.

 

[Aaron88]

You're going to be hard-pressed to keep aptasia out of your new tank if you just add the rock. They hide very well when you take them out of the water and you might not be able to see the little ones. You'd have to clean and scrub the rock probably wiping out any beneficial bacteria. I'd recommend looking at these other options and seeing if you can find that at a LFS.

Things that kill aptasia:
Filefish
Berghia nudibranchs
Majano wand

As a reef keeper this is one of my favorite videos

I’ve tried a filefish before in the past with no luck. But I haven’t heard of the other ones. I’ll definitely look into them. My new tank won’t be here until August sometime (Thanks COVID-19). So I have a little bit of time to play with different Options.

 

[Salemsoul]

I think everyone has a different experience, I had a peppermint shrimp remove them all. Others use nudibranchs or filefish. Some with luck others with no luck. So you have to take on each step knowing it might now work... have you tried a nudi or peppermint shrimp? also i know tsa sells Berghia but they're $$, not sure the going price on them normally