What would you do in my situation?

TheZoelander · Apr 18, 2019

Hey all,

I had a number of aiptasia in the tank, tried Aiptasia-X, in which a couple weeks later doubled what I had, tried it a few more times...doubled my problem each time.... I'm sure you heard this story before

I noticed I have a significant amount of aiptasia in the "sump" (AIO) area as well so no amount of effort in the display will completely eradicate the problem. I'm thinking of removing all the liverock and create a quarantine for the coral and completely change the liverock out and clean the entire tank and equipment and essentially reboot the thing. ( have another empty tank as well as a quarantine tank )

I was thinking of running 10-20 gallons of tank water through a GFO/Carbon reactor to help re seed the tank. MY QUESTION is would you feel the water would be safe from aiptasia to reuse if I ran it through a reactor with carbon? Would you do something different?

Tank is a custom built 70 gallon AIO ( 3ft x 2Ft X 20-22 inches tall ) - if this detail matters

JumboShrimp · Apr 18, 2019

This did it for me. (‘Aiptasia Eating Filefish.’) I now have 3 of them. Cool fish

xxkenny90xx · Apr 18, 2019

I also had an aiptasia eating filefish. It never touched an aiptasia (but still a cool fish). I like your plan. The water would probably be fine but for all that work your gonna do I'd be worried about aiptasia spores in the water.

WVNed · Apr 18, 2019

Berghia Nudibranchs
I put 10 in and the aiptasia are gone now.

2 file fish and multiple peppermint shrimps failed.

TheZoelander · Apr 20, 2019

xxkenny90xx said:
I also had an aiptasia eating filefish. It never touched an aiptasia (but still a cool fish). I like your plan. The water would probably be fine but for all that work your gonna do I'd be worried about aiptasia spores in the water.

I was hoping the carbon would eliminate the probability of future aiptasia, I think you might be right though, with all the work I'd already be doing, why risk it.

dean.reef · Apr 20, 2019

Peppermint shrimp[emoji106]

Mical · Apr 20, 2019

+100 on filefish. I have a pair in each of my tanks that were infested with aiptasia. It took on an average of two weeks before they devoured them. And don't plan on witnessing it, they eat at night and in very dark conditions. My one tank had everything from tiny to huge aiptasia and one morning noticed there wasn't a single aiptasia in sight. I bought the ORA version from Live Aquaria.

Robink · Apr 20, 2019

I would use the berghia nudi's.

droblack · Apr 20, 2019

Copper banded butterfly fish worked great for me. Given the size of your tank, the filefish is the way to go. They can be taught to eat aiptasia if its not already on the menu.

Jet915 · Apr 20, 2019

Mical said:
+100 on filefish. I have a pair in each of my tanks that were infested with aiptasia. It took on an average of two weeks before they devoured them. And don't plan on witnessing it, they eat at night and in very dark conditions. My one tank had everything from tiny to huge aiptasia and one morning noticed there wasn't a single aiptasia in sight. I bought the ORA version from Live Aquaria.

Are these reef safe though?

jsvand5 · Apr 20, 2019

Jet915 said:
Are these reef safe though?

They have been Reef safe for me. I have anemones, sps and LPS in with them. I also got ORA bred ones

cracker · Apr 20, 2019

Iv'e heard the nudi's work very well. never seen any available local. I put 2 pepper mints in several weeks ago. haven't seen either one since intro. So I don't know if they are even alive .
A copper band always worked for me but this tank is 75 gl too small for the fish in my op. I tried the apastia x,kalkwasser to no avail . i'll most likely try the file fish next .

jsvand5 · Apr 20, 2019

cracker said:
Iv'e heard the nudi's work very well. never seen any available local. I put 2 pepper mints in several weeks ago. haven't seen either one since intro. So I don't know if they are even alive .
A copper band always worked for me but this tank is 75 gl too small for the fish in my op. I tried the apastia x,kalkwasser to no avail . i'll most likely try the file fish next .

You’ll be happy with them. Just make sure they are the correct ones. Easiest way to be sure is to get the ones ORA is producing

Bossman · Apr 20, 2019

I had aiptasia in 2 tanks. No more then 6 at one time.

Red Sea Aiptasia X worked perfect. We turned the pumps off so flow was return only. Critical to keep the product on the aiptasia. Put the needle right on the aiptasia and encapsulate it. Worked every time.

We bought a file fish. It ate our coral (acans) so it was promptly returnedt to the LFS.

Jet915 · Apr 20, 2019

jsvand5 said:
You’ll be happy with them. Just make sure they are the correct ones. Easiest way to be sure is to get the ones ORA is producing

Id get a file fish but im worried they will nip my corals. I wonder if ORA ones are less likely to nip but even the webpage says to use with caution in a reef tank.