aptaisia in my aio

[mrjoe]

good morning all... So after doing some travel it seems my aptaisia has reared it's ugly head again... there are so many I'm not sure where to start although I did buy a filefish and a few peppermint shrimp to assist... What concerns me though is that they are in my AIO sump of my IM25 lagoon... I could just drain it and try to clean them out but I was think of wiping down the insides with some wet vinegar on a towel and then filling with water and draining a few times??? thoughts?? Thanks...

 

[KrisReef]

Once they are in the system they are difficult to get out. I would be very careful with an aio because the filter is home to a lot of the biological filter. If you nuc that area you could uncycle your tank, possibly?

I have an overflow and a refugium where they can hide and so I just keep a fish in the DT that eats them when they show up there and everything exists in a balanced way but they don’t get eradicated at this point.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Agreed with @KrisReef. I too have a fish, Copperbanded Butterfly that has kept the aptasia population down to zero for many years now in my 180g sps dominant. Yet they do live in my overflow. Your idea of shutting your system down while cleaning out completely your filter section isn’t bad. So your setup is 18gals of display water vol. yes? I’d fix that first. A small CBB. Then clean out your back filter area. Your tank size makes it a manageable project. Either way good luck.

 

[mrjoe]

Agreed with @KrisReef. I too have a fish, Copperbanded Butterfly that has kept the aptasia population down to zero for many years now in my 180g sps dominant. Yet they do live in my overflow. Your idea of shutting your system down while cleaning out completely your filter section isn’t bad. So your setup is 18gals of display water vol. yes? I’d fix that first. A small CBB. Then clean out your back filter area. Your tank size makes it a manageable project. Either way good luck.

probably more like 20gal of display water but ya.... I did get a small filefish to hopefully help... I'd love to get a small cbb but not sure my tank can't have another fish.. I presently have 3 small clowns, diamond goby, melunarus wrasse and a small lawnmower blenny... I'll hit some with aptaisia X as well...

 

[DED65]

Just to add… I have an IM 120, so a little bigger. I have filefish in the display and I cannot find an Aiptasia in there. I put 6 Peppermint shrimp in the back chamber and they do make a difference in the Aiptasia back there, not completely gone, but under control. Unless you want to replace everything in the tank, there is a good chance that you won’t get them all!

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I have a Red Sea Max 500, the rear chamber where the weir flows into can be an aiptasia farm. In fact, after about 30 days I will have a dozen or so in my rollermat. But those are the only two places I get them as I have a file fish and 8 peppermint shrimp in my display. The shrimp and fish really keep the display looking good. I hacked something together that works well. I took one of those 1/4 inch aluminum straws and duct tapped it to a pipe that I then Duct tape to my shop vac. I will put the straw on an aiptasia and then turn the shop vac on and it sucks up the entire aiptasia.

These things can grow really large back there if I don’t do this regularly.