Aiptasia Kryptonite?

[DiefsReef]

I have been battling Aptasia for over a year and was about ready to nuke the tank. After seeing this today, I think I have the perfect tank to test this theory on.

You need the wooden air diffuser. You get finer bubbles than stone and more of them.

I'll have to see about getting one of these or maybe remove the baffle between sump chambers and see if I can get skimmer bubbles up in my tank. Might be a stretch for that since its a 20' run from fish room to display..

Edit; I lied, this tank only has an 8' run stright up from basement so skimmer might work.

 

[Thales]

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[anthonygf]

I have been battling Aptasia for over a year and was about ready to nuke the tank. After seeing this today, I think I have the perfect tank to test this theory on.

I'll have to see about getting one of these or maybe remove the baffle between sump chambers and see if I can get skimmer bubbles up in my tank. Might be a stretch for that since its a 20' run from fish room to display..

Yes please try it. Just get an air pump and wooden air diffusers. If it kills them off make sure you run carbon and do plenty of small water changes. keep us posted.
If you have sensitive anemones use caution.

 

[anthonygf]

mak5487, see what you have started? I hope you are not upset with us hijacking your thread. I am glad you mentioned this.

 

[DiefsReef]

Yes please try it. Just get an air pump and wooden air diffusers. If it kills them off make sure you run carbon and do plenty of small water changes. keep us posted.
If you have sensitive anemones use caution.

Will do thx! I have AWC setup and it pulls just under a gallon a day.

 

[A Young Reefer]

mak5487, see what you have started? I hope you are not upset with us hijacking your thread. I am glad you mentioned this.

I just hope this actually works.

 

[DiefsReef]

I just hope this actually works.

me too!

 

[Garf]

I have been battling Aptasia for over a year and was about ready to nuke the tank. After seeing this today, I think I have the perfect tank to test this theory on.

I'll have to see about getting one of these or maybe remove the baffle between sump chambers and see if I can get skimmer bubbles up in my tank. Might be a stretch for that since its a 20' run from fish room to display..

Edit; I lied, this tank only has an 8' run stright up from basement so skimmer might work.

They are some beauties

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I understand. The op did state that he had water quality issues well after the elimination of the aiptasia. And bad water quality like he had will not harm aiptasia but will on sensitive corals. I had aiptasia growing in a fuge that I stopped using and left the water in it in my garage and watched it for several days while the water evaporates the aiptasia were still alive after 5 days. So figure that one out.

I would not be able to state that quote bad water quality like he had will not harm Aiptasia. I do not know that he had bad water quality. All I know is what was presented. Air bubbles, higher than normal alkalinity and salinity, and Aiptasia disappearing. I do not know anything other than that. I may infer, due to the statement about not getting around to fix the pump for a month as he has a busy life with a newborn and football, etc., that maybe there is some neglect to the tank. Although, that would be somewhat of an irresponsible assumption on my part. Stating that things, especially unknown things, did or did not have any effect with absolute certainty is not something I can do. I can draw conclusions based on information provided and state things that may or may not have any effect. Again, I’m not disputing your claim. I am stating that other things may or may not have had an effect in the op. My concern is for the health of other occupants of the tank with rising alkalinity that could possibly continue without intervention. Again, for all I know the tank has been tested and is perfectly fine. Maybe it’s just faulty test kits or results. I do not know. I do know about life getting in the way of things. I also know that I have regretted not performing simple tasks that only would have taken a few minutes of my time that unfortunately, created much more work and headache later on. I am not stating that is what’s happening in this case, just providing a little nudge to check a few things that for all I know, have already been done. Your experience is completely your experience. Share it with the world, have a couple repeated experiments in different tanks and have it repeated by peers and then I can accept it as fact. Until then, I just can’t, it’s not how I work. I think performing your experiment in a system without any Aiptasia predators, the file fish you mentioned, would be beneficial to your experiment. I’m not stating that your file fish did all the work, just that it may cast a bit of doubt as to micro bubbles being the absolute sole cause of Aiptasia eradication as far as experiments go.

 

[anthonygf]

I would not be able to state that quote bad water quality like he had will not harm Aiptasia. I do not know that he had bad water quality. All I know is what was presented. Air bubbles, higher than normal alkalinity and salinity, and Aiptasia disappearing. I do not know anything other than that. I may infer, due to the statement about not getting around to fix the pump for a month as he has a busy life with a newborn and football, etc., that maybe there is some neglect to the tank. Although, that would be somewhat of an irresponsible assumption on my part. Stating that things, especially unknown things, did or did not have any effect with absolute certainty is not something I can do. I can draw conclusions based on information provided and state things that may or may not have any effect. Again, I’m not disputing your claim. I am stating that other things may or may not have had an effect in the op. My concern is for the health of other occupants of the tank with rising alkalinity that could possibly continue without intervention. Again, for all I know the tank has been tested and is perfectly fine. Maybe it’s just faulty test kits or results. I do not know. I do know about life getting in the way of things. I also know that I have regretted not performing simple tasks that only would have taken a few minutes of my time that unfortunately, created much more work and headache later on. I am not stating that is what’s happening in this case, just providing a little nudge to check a few things that for all I know, have already been done. Your experience is completely your experience. Share it with the world, have a couple repeated experiments in different tanks and have it repeated by peers and then I can accept it as fact. Until then, I just can’t, it’s not how I work. I think performing your experiment in a system without any Aiptasia predators, the file fish you mentioned, would be beneficial to your experiment. I’m not stating that your file fish did all the work, just that it may cast a bit of doubt as to micro bubbles being the absolute sole cause of Aiptasia eradication as far as experiments go.

WOW! Well said. Like I mentioned my File Fish can't get to some of them and those are also disappearing. I certainly understand you being skeptical and I hope others can prove mak5487 and myself that our claims are valid.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

WOW! Well said. Like I mentioned my File Fish can't get to some of them and those are also disappearing. I certainly understand you being skeptical and I hope others can prove mak5487 and myself that our claims are valid.

We all should be skeptical of pretty much everything. Treat people with dignity and respect, but question everything. At some point we have to accept things as well. I look forward to seeing further data and experiments on this. We all, well not all but a lot of us, have also had experiences with chemical products meant to eliminate Aiptasia actually making the problem worse or causing harm to inhabitants. I can accept that there may be some user error with that, but I believe that is not the root issue. People have had differing experiences with other means like peppermints, Berghia, file fish, copperbands, etc., but I do not believe there is a one size fits all approach to this issue as of yet. If micro bubbles in the display for six months, with no oil affects to inhabitants, is all that is required to eradicate one of the most unholy of unholy pests in the hobby…..just amazeballs.

edit. I forgot to say thanks for the nice comment above. Thank you

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

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[shootingstar_reef]

Any updates @DiefsReef ?

 

[DiefsReef]

Any updates @DiefsReef ?

Never got a chance to try it yet. I worked all through the holidays and actually just forgot.

 

[jpgillespie2]

Never got a chance to try it yet. I worked all through the holidays and actually just forgot.

Checking for updates. My friend asked me "how do you not get aiptasia even though your tank has been up for over a year?" I happen to always run an air stone under a powerhead that creates thousands of micro bubbles in my tank because I have a glass lid on my tank and want the extra oxygenation. Now curiosity is killing me lol

 

[John1966]

At least in theory aptasia seem to flourish in dirty water. The micro bubbles are polishing the water a bit more than previously and assisting the effectiveness of the protein skimmer. Net result could be an improvement in water quality away from the dirty water optimum for the aptasia. It would be nice to have a timeline of nitrate and phosphorus levels in the tank to see if they have decreased.

Not trying to say this is how it works, but I am just pushing my brain for a possible way the micro-bubbles could help control aptasia. At least a working theory for me.

 

[anthonygf]

At least in theory aptasia seem to flourish in dirty water. The micro bubbles are polishing the water a bit more than previously and assisting the effectiveness of the protein skimmer. Net result could be an improvement in water quality away from the dirty water optimum for the aptasia. It would be nice to have a timeline of nitrate and phosphorus levels in the tank to see if they have decreased.

Not trying to say this is how it works, but I am just pushing my brain for a possible way the micro-bubbles could help control aptasia. At least a working theory for me.

I My parameters have been steady for over 2 years with no change anytime after the bubbles started.

 

[mak5487]

Looks like I should have been monitoring this thread. It is great to see the conversations about this amazingly annoying issue.

Tank Update
Turns out that if I turn down the flow rate of the pump it stops sucking in air. That problem ended up being an easy fix. I haven't had bubbles in my display tank since sometime in December. The Aiptasia is starting to come back. I can see little ones on my power heads and a few of the bigger ones that were in the substrate but protected by rocks are starting to come out.

There have been questions about my water chemistry. Well, I am still playing mad chemist it seems. I am trying to run ALK at 9.5-10 with Tropic Marin All-For-Reef and can't keep my calcium below 550. I have been switching between ALF and 2 part to keep my ALK up and try to keep my calcium below 500. During this entire time, the Aiptasia that is in my sump has been alive and well. They are unfortunately growing really well and have multiplied but mostly in the sump. This might be how the new growth in the DT is coming along.

I am no scientist just a techy that has an aquarium, but it does seem to point that the bubbles were part if not the solution in suppressing the Aiptasia in my display tank. The growth in my sump leads me to believe that water chemistry didn't have an impact. The only other major difference is lighting. Obviously, my DT has a higher par and a different spectrum.

I am now waiting for more growth in my DT and will hit it with the bubbles to test my theory a second time. If this works, I might turn on an air stone at night in my sump to pump bubbles into my DT. See if that keeps them suppressed and I wouldn't have bubbles in my DT during normal viewing hours.

 

[skimmerman]

Buy an asfur Angel I had a plague of majonoe anemones and he cleaned them out probably do Aiptasia too never bothers corals

 

[Dburr1014]

@DiefsReef do any testing?