Aiptasia Problem

[jaxteller007]

I had some aiptasia in our 75G FOWLR, got an adult filefish that took care of just about all of it. However, i just discovered a few of them growing in the corner overflow. What to do? I don't want to just scrap them off right because they could release stuff into the water or spores and spread throughout right? Can't really put fish or shrimp in the overflow lol. Or do I just not worry about it since over the next month or two we are migrating over to a 180G tank?

#reefsquad help lol

 

[Billldg]

Aiptasia Problem

I had some aiptasia in our 75G FOWLR, got an adult filefish that took care of just about all of it. However, i just discovered a few of them growing in the corner overflow. What to do? I don't want to just scrap them off right because they could release stuff into the water or spores and...

www.reef2reef.com

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it since you are moving to another tank shortly. You can try something like aptasia X, but I would just make sure to dip everything that is going into the new tank.

 

[ScottR]

I had some aiptasia in our 75G FOWLR, got an adult filefish that took care of just about all of it. However, i just discovered a few of them growing in the corner overflow. What to do? I don't want to just scrap them off right because they could release stuff into the water or spores and spread throughout right? Can't really put fish or shrimp in the overflow lol. Or do I just not worry about it since over the next month or two we are migrating over to a 180G tank?

#reefsquad help lol

Can you block the light getting to them? I’m sure they’ll still get food from the water column that spills over but blacking them out will help them from growing and spreading and hopefully will choke them out.

 

[jaxteller007]

Can you block the light getting to them? I’m sure they’ll still get food from the water column that spills over but blacking them out will help them from growing and spreading and hopefully will choke them out.

I probably could. It's a standard corner overflow set up and i have two radions mounted. I could probably block at least most of the light at the least.

 

[ScottR]

I probably could. It's a standard corner overflow set up and i have two radions mounted. I could probably block at least most of the light at the least.

I had this same problem. I finally got all of them out of the display and found one in the overflow almost half out of the water looking for light. I put a piece of black acrylic over it. Kind of forgot about it for 2-3 weeks. I’ve never seen it again. No idea if it died or detached itself and found a new home somewhere.

 

[jaxteller007]

And holy heck. It's a good thing we are moving tanks or I'd have to do some serious cleaning on the overflow. Just really looked in there and apparently I overfed a dry food mix that had pellets that didn't really sink. There's a bunch of them in the bottom of the overflow and i can see bristle worms in there. Maybe I should take a shop vac to the bottom lol.

 

[Peace River]

And holy heck. It's a good thing we are moving tanks or I'd have to do some serious cleaning on the overflow. Just really looked in there and apparently I overfed a dry food mix that had pellets that didn't really sink. There's a bunch of them in the bottom of the overflow and i can see bristle worms in there. Maybe I should take a shop vac to the bottom lol.

Can you get a siphon hose in there? Even though your moving tanks soon, it would be a good idea to get it out now anyway.

 

[jaxteller007]

Can you get a siphon hose in there? Even though your moving tanks soon, it would be a good idea to get it out now anyway.

Yea more than likely I can, I have a pretty long one that I used to use for water changes and stuff. I could use get my small shop vac in there too but I'm guessing that would remove more of the water than I really want to?

I could shut everything off and turn off the drain from the overflow so that I only suck the water out of the overflow and not the sump or tank. And then just top the overflow back off with fresh saltwater. Would I risk disturbing the aiptasia and them spreading back into the display if I did that?

 

[Peace River]

Yea more than likely I can, I have a pretty long one that I used to use for water changes and stuff. I could use get my small shop vac in there too but I'm guessing that would remove more of the water than I really want to?

I could shut everything off and turn off the drain from the overflow so that I only suck the water out of the overflow and not the sump or tank. And then just top the overflow back off with fresh saltwater. Would I risk disturbing the aiptasia and them spreading back into the display if I did that?

Anything is possible, but I don't think you would spread the aiptasia as long as you avoid it when you are siphoning. If the filefish is still in the tank then the small risk is even lower yet. Another option would be to order X Aiptasia Killer from Frank's Tanks to treat the overflow.

 

[kireek]

If they are high up on the overflow could you expose them to the air? Then take a paper towel to scrape them up and away.

 

[Ron Reefman]

KLEINI BUTTERFLY IS YOUR ANSWER !!!
Reef safe, eats aptasia like candy and when gone, eats All frozen and dry foods, nice color and peaceful.

Live Aquaria and several other sites say the Klien's Butterfly is NOT reef safe. Does anybody have more info about this?

 

[jaxteller007]

If they are high up on the overflow could you expose them to the air? Then take a paper towel to scrape them up and away.

A couple are but more are down low in the overflow. With what i saw at the bottom of the overflow, I just need to suck out the muck anyways and probably just keep an eye on them to make sure they don't explode into the display tank before we move everything.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's a major PITA, but I'm setting up a new tank anyway. So when I tear down the old tank, rocks with aiptasia will go into one holding tank and the rocks without aiptasia will go in a second holding tank. The old tank gets torn down and the new tank goes in and plumbed. Then rocks without aiptasia can move to the new tank. The ones with aiptasia will get treated and cleared of aiptasia and got to the clean holding tank that is now empty of rocks and coral. Newly cleaned rocks will be held and inspected for aiptasia. After some period of time, I'll move them to the new tank as well.

It will be a long process. But since I'm going from a 40g cube to an 90g (36x30x20) I'll have room for all of it and the rockscape will be very different. You are welcome to follow along in my build thread.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ron-reefmans-new-90g-build.636706/#post-6344998

The new rockscape will end up being built on a stair step platform like this: