Aptasia outbreak

Brian Van Fleet · Mar 13, 2019

My main DT is fine without a single trace, but the refugium in my sump is having a major outbreak of aptasia. Its everywhere, even growing on the cheato itself.

Is there any way to knock it out or lessen it without just wrecking the refugium and starting over?

Tuan’s Reef · Mar 13, 2019

You can get rid of the big ones with aip x by Red Sea . And critters that eat. Once they are in large numbers though you won’t be able to get rid of all . Just management

jd371 · Mar 13, 2019

If you're willing to spend the money get Berghia Nudibranch, Aptasia is all they eat. I've used them in the past in my tank and they got rid of them after a few months. I'm having an outbreak in my refugium as well but the main tank for the most part is free of them with the occasional Aptasia popping up here and there but nothing to get alarmed about. The thing with Aptasia-X is it works but only with the ones out in the open that are easy to smother, the ones in the holes retract when you inject thinking you've killed it but it comes back a few days later with more friends. I just bought some F-Aptasia from Franks Tanks and it seems to work better than the Aptasia-X because it will seal the hole unlike Aptasia-X that gets blown around. You can learn more about it on here because I think they are a sponsor on this forum.

Acroporaaddict · Mar 13, 2019

Check this out from R2R sponsor @Frank's Tanks

It has received good reviews so I ordered a bottle and will be trying it out

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f-aiptasia.542934/page-5#post-5822065

Brian Van Fleet · Mar 13, 2019

Do I need to dump my cheato and get new?

ZoWhat · Mar 13, 2019

What about spending a Saturday breaking down the sump, removing it and scrubbing it down with vinegar? Start with a new bunch of chaeto

.

dhof · Mar 13, 2019

Brian Van Fleet said:
My main DT is fine without a single trace, but the refugium in my sump is having a major outbreak of aptasia. Its everywhere, even growing on the cheato itself.

Is there any way to knock it out or lessen it without just wrecking the refugium and starting over?

You should take a serious look at berghia nudibranch. After several months of manual extraction and aiptasia zapping with chemicals nothing worked. In fact It only seemed to make it worse. I put 8 nudibranchs in my dt and they (and their offspring) totally eliminated all aiptasia in my DT and sump in about 2 months. No idea how they got to the sump but they did.

Brian Van Fleet · Mar 13, 2019

dhof said:
You should take a serious look at berghia nudibranch. After several months of manual extraction and aiptasia zapping with chemicals nothing worked. In fact It only seemed to make it worse. I put 8 nudibranchs in my dt and they (and their offspring) totally eliminated all aiptasia in my DT and sump in about 2 months. No idea how they got to the sump but they did.

will do. I found a place that they aren't too expensive so I'll get some on the way and see how they do.

Do they just die off from starvation eventualy? Seems a like a crappy reward for ridding me of my pests.

GlassMunky · Mar 13, 2019

Bergiah nudis did absolutely nothing to my aiptasia problem. I never say those expensive slugs again after I put them in my tank.

And since nobody had mentioned it... if they are that bad in your sump I’m going to say there’s a very high likelihood that they are also in the rest of your system just in places you can’t see. Good luck, as every “solution” that people suggest we have tried and none work. Aiptasia x and kalk make the problem worse.

dhof · Mar 13, 2019

Brian Van Fleet said:
will do. I found a place that they aren't too expensive so I'll get some on the way and see how they do.

Do they just die off from starvation eventualy? Seems a like a crappy reward for ridding me of my pests.

In my case, I battled aiptasia using aiptasia-x and kalkwasser paste. I really spent months perfecting what I thought was a perfect application where the aiptasia would 'swallow' the bolus of liquid instead of just spraying it on the things. I used to keep a log of how many aiptasia I killed each day. I'd kill 15 or 20 aiptasia and I would inspect the tank for any more and it would be totally clear. The next day I'd find 5 more to kill and the day after that another 10 and so on. For fun, I thought I'd post the log here as inspiration (below). Note the upward trend while I persistently used precise aiptasia-x killings, and then note the flat line since I haven't killed one since Nov 11th when I got the berghia. Now, there were aiptasia present for 2 months since I introduced the aiptasia but it became harder and harder to find any as time went on. I watched the tank like a hawk at all times of day and night and only saw a Berghia once at like 3am. Then in mid January I encountered 2 or 3 berghia out and about in the tank or in the sump. Then I just stopped seeing them. The 2 or 3 I saw looked nice and plump and weren't really crying about anything.

They certainly die off once all the aiptasia is gone. Whether that death is by starvation, or they just stop producing offspring due to the lack of food is a good question. Either way, the 8 or 9 that I originally ordered had a wonderful life in the biggest buffet of food they ever dreamed of. Their offspring had a wonderful life, and their offsprings offspring had a wonderful life. I certainly provided a wonderful life to many generations of berghia during this endeavor. I like to think that the last set of berghia noticed there wasn't a lot of food around and decided not to make little babies in this neighborhood. They probably died of old age in their sofa while reading a really interesting issue of Readers Digest.

RCS82 · Mar 13, 2019

Filefish, so easy, they're easy to find and cheap and now I can't even find an aptasia in my tank, 90g, after just a couple weeks. I think he likes acans too but meh, I just have a couple not expensive acans so I'm still happy. Plus he eats foods too so not worried about it starving like nudis would.

Brian Van Fleet · Mar 14, 2019

RCS82 said:
Filefish, so easy, they're easy to find and cheap and now I can't even find an aptasia in my tank, 90g, after just a couple weeks. I think he likes acans too but meh, I just have a couple not expensive acans so I'm still happy. Plus he eats foods too so not worried about it starving like nudis would.

Not really an option, the refugium doesn't really have any swimming room with the cheato in there, I really don't want to dump the cheato because I have a large pod population in there that's about a year in the making.

Biokabe · Mar 15, 2019

Berghia are the only surefire method and after ten years, that's all I would use for my display tank. I've had aiptasia problems many times, and berghias are the only solution that have ever been successful. Get 5-6 per 50g of tank and let them loose. After they annihilate your aiptasia population, pay it forward - if you have a LFS, they might be willing to take your berghia. If not, local reefers would probably be happy to take them from you. So long as you have a healthy aiptasia population, you'll rarely see your berghia... once the aiptasia start dwindling, you'll start seeing them out more often as they take more risks to find food.

If you have certain predatory species, though, they can and will eat your berghia. Best to introduce them to your tank at night, and protect them as much as possible until they get into your rockwork.

For a refugium, though... get a peppermint or two and throw it down there. It'll subsist on the leftovers from the display and you might get lucky and have it start eating the aiptasia.