Ash's 400 Gallon Reef

Ashish Patel · Dec 2, 2024

So last month I got filefish and few days ago got a Kleins butterfly fish to deal with this persistant aiptasia issue. I have lost patience for these aiptasia that yesterday i build a vacumm jose with a 1/4" end and did my best to suck them out, I was not successful but it felt good lol. Than i dosed them with sodium hydroxide. My hope was the file fish would start to see them as food when they became distressed. So far they are nipping at the rock but have not seen them do anything to the aiptasia yet.

Ashish Patel · Dec 2, 2024

I may have to order peppermint shrimps to deal with them but everything is so expensive and never guaranteed. However, I lost a few zoa colonies and probably will lose this one if i dont get a handle on the outbreak.

McPuff · Dec 2, 2024

You may need to get a couple of filefish, peppermint shrimp, and some berghia nudibranchs. The fish may not be able to completely eradicate the aiptasia but the shrimp and nudibranchs probably will. The whole team can get the job done a lot faster. I've used filefish and shrimp in the past to good effect. Good luck.

BZOFIQ · Dec 2, 2024

I have had a great success with Filefish from Petco. If you have nothing against Petco they are either ORA or other AC provider but they have decimated Aiptasia in any tank that I have.

Ashish Patel · Dec 2, 2024

BZOFIQ said:
I have had a great success with Filefish from Petco. If you have nothing against Petco they are either ORA or other AC provider but they have decimated Aiptasia in any tank that I have.

I got a filefish from biota 1 month ago and trained it to eat aiptasia in QT before adding him to the display. I actually had 2 filefish but one got sucked up in the MP60, which really sucked. These fish are very expensive i spend $270 on 3 fish just for aiptasia and if i want to add peppermint its a good $150 from reeftopia. All of this stuff for it may or may not work is frustrating. I also got peppermints 2 years ago when the first aiptasia appeared but they all started dieing when i started killing aiptasia with sodium hydroixide, i believe it poisoined them. Until than the aiptasia problem was not out of control but the peppermints didnt take care of the entire tank and just focused on the entire rock structure on the left but never dared travel to the second island, which had less hiding places. This is the reason why i decided to kill the larger ones knowing the peppermints would take care of the babies. Also my UV sterilizer i stopped using 4 months ago bc it had a leak in the bulk head. aiptasia exploded after that,

Ashish Patel · Dec 9, 2024

Breaking News. I believe i saw my filefish eating baby aiptasia with my own eyes. He proceeded to start nipping about 20 times at various areas within 10 seconds. I also went to war with Aiptasia few days ago with sodium hydroxide. I dont use more than 3 needles worth at night and stab and inject a little bit inside their body, which they do not like this and die for sure. The probably is they can still go into survival mode since surround aiptasia sense this attack and still drop babies. I actually stopped caring i just need to kill the larger ones now that i have 2 fish that i am praying will take care of the babies.

Ashish Patel · Dec 9, 2024

Not happy with the Tank right now bc of the aiptasia, they really make the Aquarium ugly. I am proud of the aquaspace and being a perfectionist, that's really a big deal. Also happy with overall health and happiness of all my fish. Corals go on growth spurt and stop and cycle continues but i think thats was bc of the high Nitrates. I lost a good amount of acro frags this year so that stinks. Hoping i can get that consistent growth i had in my previous system. But this time i won't buy corals until I know my tank is right, which it is not.

Ashish Patel · Dec 17, 2024

My Youtube Channel is finally approaching 1000 Subscriber mark. I have over 8000 watch hours but getting 1000 subs took forever. However, it was a good learning experience for me since I want to eventually make a YT channel for something mainstream and this was great practice.... I mean if i could make this channel blow up that would be awesome but I would need to tour and make videos of the best tanks in town, which i may consider.

Miami Reef · Dec 25, 2024

@Ashish Patel

Hello, I hope you don’t mind answering a few questions:

How long have you had your Orange shoulder tang?

How small was it when you first got it?

How big was it when it started changing colors?

I’d like pictures from around when you first got it to now to examine the growth rate compared to mine.

I’d also like to know what you feed him.

EDIT:

I went through this thread and found some info that I was seeking:

It basically took you a few short months to get your tang as big as mine, and mine still hasn’t changed at all.

Mine is NOT dominant and very passive. It’s extremely peaceful. I think that’s why mine isn’t changing.