Berghia....pros/cons for use on aiptasia

[rckfsh44]

How about lemon juice??

 

[Nibejeebies]

Cheapest and easiest way I know of if your willing to do it, take out the rock, and use a blowtorch. It wont survive the heat of a blue flame!

Ive also had ALOT of good luck with Atlantic Peppermint Shrimp in a single night I watched a single one of these guys clear out 20-25 aptasia polyps!

If your going this route just be sure they are atlantic, as the pacific ps are likely Not to eat them.

 

[Steffan1]

If you're tank is empty save for infested rock I'd get a half dozen or more peppermint shrimp. With no predators present they will do a number on aiptasia. Plus they are cheap.

 

[ahiggins]

Good idea on the shrimp! Id rather not use chemicals if I dont have to...
My other idea was to let the rock dry out for a couple weeks. Could they survive that?
Im going to build the rest of the rock structure out of dry rock-just wanted to seed the initial startup.

 

[RoyalGrammaJohn]

Berghia work on reducing Aiptasia populations, but they don't always get every last one, before they starve to death. You almost need a separate tank breeding Berghia to use them to effectively remove every last Aiptasia. 15-20 aren't enough and depending on the tank size, they may never get to all of them.. Since your setting up the tank, I would remove rock and dig them out of the rock or remove them another way. For sure, deal with the Aiptasia now, they are the std of my reef. I've tried Berghia twice, the second time I let my tank turn into a aiptasia frat house, had hundreds of them. It took a few months for the Berghia to start knocking down the population, but once they did it was awesome. I went about 2 month without seeing any, but just last week an aiptasia popped up, argh.

Get a peppermint shrimp after your tank cycles and after you manually remove the aptasisa they will keep it clear if they start return

 

[RoyalGrammaJohn]

Honestly I would just scrap the rock and start over with either reef saver rock or Eco dry rock which are natural rock but not from the ocean. That's what I use and I've never had a problem. Marine depot sells Eco rock and bulk reef supply sells reef saver. If your tank is only a 20 gallon your not really losing that much you spent on the rock. Do it now while it's still cycling so it's good to go when you start putting fish and corals in. This will guarantee all those little jerks are gone for good.

 

[Beekeep]

I am going through a aptasia problem as well. I have recently added a aptasia eating file fish with no success I was told 1 in 10 will not eat them looks like he's the 1. So I added another and a few days later my aptasia where disappearing. Down side to these fish is they can eat Zoas and lps. These fish can't get to them all so maybe adding a few peppermint shrimp will help with the ones the file fish can't get to. Also ounce the file fish have eaten most of the problem they can be passed on to a friend or returned back to the lfs. Then the peppermint shrimp can maintain the the outbreaks. I don't think it is possible to get rid of all of these pests with out removing all the Rock and killing it.

 

[Jongalt26]

Have you had success using it? I never have.

I have had success with Aiptasia-X but i've haven't had a major outbreak... yet...

Ahiggins, Since you have the opportunity, i highly recommend eradicating this problem now as opposed to managing it later. Using nudi's or shrimp, while effective, leaves a very real probability that the aiptasia will come back.
As mentioned before a blowtorch will work, and if going with MA i used the Jasco non-green successfully in the past. I then used baking soda to neutralize the MA.
If you can return the rock or swap out for dead rock, even better. Chances are that the Coralline would recede anyway and regardless it will return soon enough.
Farmboyreef has a video on how to propagate coralline but i havent verified it's effectiveness.
Good luck!

 

[ahiggins]

thanks everyone!
This got more responses than I thought it would!
Im going to call the LFS to see if I can trade it back for credit. I can handle one or two here and there like I have been but I would rather take it back and get 2x as much dry rock than just kill the entire rock.

 

[ahiggins]

good news, LFS will take back the rock and give me credit
Problem solved

 

[dbl]

good news, LFS will take back the rock and give me credit
Problem solved

Love happy endings!!!

 

[ahiggins]

yep, so I got some premium rock and dry as well.
He is also letting me use his par meter for an unrelated issue. win-win

 

[Jongalt26]

Thats great news, thanks for letting us know !

 

[ahiggins]

Anytime!
If I couldnt take it back....I would have used a combination of vinegar, then drying it out, then a fresh water rinse, then dry it out again.
The MA sounded way too harsh for me LOL

oh, and @Nibejeebies, I probably would have burned my house down with a torch HAHAHA but it was a close second