Beginning of the pests.

[Llyod276]

So I got my tank just finally stabilizing and in come the pests. The dang aptaisa and bubble algea. 3x emerald crabs and they're throwing a party in the rocks. Ain't touched the algea.
The aptaisa I'm not into dang things are straight out of a nightmare. But I'm debating on a file fish or a peppermint shrimp. Don't have many but hey are spreading. And it's time for them to go. So what do yall recommend filefish ot shrimp? Or the nudibranchs? Although even though they are (a type of, sorta) worms I'd hate condemn them to death just for my personal vendetta against the aptasia...

 

[rwreef]

For bubble algea I recommend Vibrant. I've used it for bubble algea and it works great.

For aptasia, I've done Filefish and he just at my acans...I finally landed on aptasia X to breakdown the aptasia to smaller sizes..then added peppermint shrimp...now all 100% gone.

 

[Llyod276]

Gotta love it when the LFS' aptasia are taking home prizes for best in show. Now it's my problem.... but thanks, dude. I'm wary of chemikills, cause yeah this tank is more or less all natural, I dont want to add stuff that isn't readily found in the ocean. Next week I begin dosing microplastics...

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Berghia Nudibranchs seem like your only choice then if you dont want to do chemicals. Peppermint Shrimp and Filefish arent the for sure answer to that, depends on the creature you get. Lemon juice in a syringe is another means to kill the aiptasia but it will make them propagate again.

 

[Llyod276]

Berghia Nudibranchs seem like your only choice then if you dont want to do chemicals. Peppermint Shrimp and Filefish arent the for sure answer to that, depends on the creature you get. Lemon juice in a syringe is another means to kill the aiptasia but it will make them propagate again.

Dude I did that with a mix of h2o2(hydrogen peroxide), and guess what the just laugh and bloom up in different spots. Like on this rock, he's Paul... which is where it spread to. On the other side of a 75g tank. The bubble aptasia flustercluck is/was ground zero. Been o/d-in them on lemon with h2o2, made some cool bubbles and here they are again plus Paul on his rock on the other side.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Yeah, knock on wood but I lucked out I think. I did Aiptasia-X and buried the sucker in it, the stock of it was under the sand so I think the spores were entombed to the sand as well. I havent seen one since. Bubble algae, if you can move out of the tank I'd just do that and remove them carefully not to burst the bubbles. Maybe follow up with some H2O2 on top of it after you remove it. I've had a lot of success with chemicals like FluxRX and Aiptasia X if you change your mind though.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Aptasia- Mix kalkwasser powder with ro water into a paste and inject into their center cores and watch them melt
Bubble algae- Agree on Liquid vibrant along with slight reduction in white light intensity.

 

[Llyod276]

Aptasia- Mix kalkwasser powder with ro water into a paste and inject into their center cores and watch them melt
Bubble algae- Agree on Liquid vibrant along with slight reduction in white light intensity.

I'm a brokebutt ho, so my lights dont change intensity just, just on or off. If ya'll got some extra maxspects and ai primes laying around, let me know. Until then the cheapest is what I got. But the corals ain't ********, they dig it growing like the slow weeds they are. I'm on an 11.5 hr cycle. Otherwise it'd be dark when I leave the house and dark when I get back this way I get 3hrs of viewing...

 

[ReeferWarrant]

@Llyod276, I work late so I have the light schedule start at a later time that way when I'm home at 7pm its daytime for my tank. You might want to change it to something like that.

Are you saying it's on 11.5 hours? Thats a lot of light, I only do about 8 hours with my whites on.

 

[Llyod276]

Woth out the ability to auto change them, yep whites are on for 11.5, the blues on the weekend. They're only 2 channel. Lights. Fullspectrum, so my algea doesnt starve. And to a lesser degree coral. The only coral I've killed so far is purple anthelia. The rest is growing good. Even multpliyng. The zoas are attaching to the Rocks. And the green star polyps spread to a rock at which point I removed the frag and glued it to my PVC return. So I got plenty of light just enough to grow but not really enjoy... no colors for me.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Yeah, I bought some wifi controlled plugs on Amazon for $20. You can set a schedule for the outlet and then you can control it from your phone. Not sure if thats helpful with your lights not automatically switching though... Bummer you cant tune the blues like you said thats what makes the colors pop out. It's great for when I'm feeding or want to turn off the skimmer too though.

 

[Llyod276]

Yeah, I bought some wifi controlled plugs on Amazon for $20. You can set a schedule for the outlet and then you can control it from your phone. Not sure if thats helpful with your lights not automatically switching though... Bummer you cant tune the blues like you said thats what makes the colors pop out. It's great for when I'm feeding or want to turn off the skimmer too though.

Way ahead of you. Got 2 for 20 wifi plugs from home depot. They work well. But they dont adjust power, besides the lights are cheap. Like 50$, I just don't have the money for some cool lights, I can't justify the expense when this works. Plus I read a hard to defeat argument that blue light is unnatural in a shallow reef. The blue channel is maybe 50par at the top and 2 in the corners. The corals, fish, and anemone actually fall asleep when I turn them on... one day ap9x, one day...