I need help, I'm at wit's end, I don't want to tear it down but I'm in a bad place.

[sixline]

I second the berghia nudis. Luckily, there is a guy here in the bay area who is actively breeding them.

There is? Who? i may be looking for some.

 

[Cole.mormon]

adress alk, plus one on the berghia also get 10 peppermint shrimps for those two systems

 

[Uncle99]

MG is a bit low at 1100ppm.....should ben1260-1360ppm. This is important as low MG results in Alk and CA coming together and not available to corals.
Phosphate at zero is not good. Corals need trace phosphate.
If Nitrate and Phosphate is out of balance, yup get Cyano and Pest type algae’s.
In your case, nitrate is 2-5ppm so phosphate should be say 0.03 -.1 max.

Aptasia
It’s been years now but I once had a ton of these.
While many say Aptasia X doesn’t work.....it’s worked every time for me....in fact for 30 years now.
Hold it on them until they crash implode. People say this makes them multiply.....not for me....and if they do...I beat them anyways.
Every day I hit 20-30 ish of them.......takes 10 minutes a day
Most gone in a month...then I went to once per weak........4-5 of them....that’s all Incould find
I made it part of weekly maintenance.
It took 4 more months.........but now.....nothing in years.

 

[sunken3]

So many issues! I've tried a copperband but he only lasted a week then died, he didn't eat a thing in that week so I'm not sure if it was me or not. Yeah, multi sided approach is what I've been trying, it's a good call.

I spent 3 hours drip acclimating the berghia, no wrasses, but read that sometimes larger pods will cause problems with them.

Noted on the alk, you're the second person this week to mention it, so Ill definitely look into it further.

Yup, run carbon 2 hours a day (runs the system volume through the carbon 3-4X per day)

i don't know what to say about the copperbanded.. probably not you (your tank), assuming parameters are reasonable. I think they are a finicky fish and many are destined not to make it.. if you get a healthy one, they are easy peasy... mine eats just about anything. I also have an orange beaked file fish (which are typically impossible to keep).. mine eats anything... i don't think anyone ever told him what he is.. he hangs out with the triggers and tangs and eats whatever they eat.

the berghia are (honestly) best acclimated over a long period (3 hours is plenty)... put in at night.. low/no flow where you put them. they are kind of challenging. they may all die, or you many end up with thousands.. i like to put some in the main tank, and breed a few in a seperate tank with an aiptasia rock until they adapt.

 

[Fishdisease]

not to sound mean, but the last time i had it really bad was when I let my tanks go on autopilot... so maybe you need to get back into this full steam ahead!

You aren't being mean, so no worries. While I have been diligent with keeping my alk/cal steady I haven't been doing the little things for aptasia control. I assumed that a filefish and peppermint shrimp would slowly solve my issue, I stopped with the Aptasia-X because I'd use it and a week later that same one would reappear. However, it seems what I have been doing isn't working and I let it go too far.

 

[CMMorgan]

Ok first off what is your cleaning/ maintenance/water change schedule? Your pumps are kinda a disaster...not being rude just saying...loss of flow could be an issue.
I feel the tanks that look the best keep it simple. Dosing seems to cause more trouble for more people.
For the size of your tanks and the amount of aiptasia, you need WAY more than 10 berghia. They aren't cheap but they work. It will take time. You can help them out cleaning the pumps...
These are just thought and my opinions. All that junk algae and crust on your glass is due to high nutrients regardless of what test kits say. It needs nutrients to grow. It just needs some elbow grease. This set up is beautiful it would be a shame to tear it down.

I second you, Leslie. The best reefer that I know is in the midst of the same thing right now. He will be the first one to admit that the last year has been a challenge with work (or lack thereof - creating money issues). His tank is just shy of 400 and ridden with aiptasia. He calls it his penance for slacking on water changings, leaving his levels to the dosers and not scrubbing his pumps, etc for way too long.
Again, not picking on the OP. Life has been a train wreck... it's 2020. Just take a deep breath. It did not get like that in a day and it won't get fixed in a day. One day at a time, multi-front attack. It's going to get better, you can do this. You know you can do this... hang in there.

 

[Pkunk35]

How do I get the ones that are hiding along the base of the larger colonies? My only thought is to pull the colony of the rocks, frag them to get rid of the dead parts, dry out the rock to kill the aptasia and start again. Any suggestions?

As someone said earlier I think many hand removal methods can produce nothing but babies. The best method I had was to use a needle syringe filled with microwaved kalk wasser slurry and inject it into the body. After this you want to try and scrape the whole body off the rock and vacuum siphon the body out. This will avoid the “babies” from the kill because it’s the base or basal disc that just sprouts the dandalions from hell even if the mouth dies.
I’ve never had total success with anything other than berghia (although I could never try something like a klein butterfly fish that sounds way cooler). Berghi need to reach a critical mass I think, and in your tank if the infestation is bad this is good because they will have the fuel to increase populations to the point where even predation on them won’t stop them from eating the tank free of their food source. so while people with light infestations would have variable success with berghi I think bad cases have the best luck with them which results in 100% eradication.
I’m just a big fan because i must have been dealing with them for years until I tried them.
I very much recommend feeding them separate from the main tank first (they will be starving and small when arrived) in no flow like a Tupperware or small bucket. This lets them eat and then they double in size and reproduce before your eyes (this is prob the only time you’ll get to see them they are pretty rad) Stop/slow the flow in the tank at night and gently put the rock near an aiptasia patch and cross fingers and wait. In the meanwhile continue to nuke and fix nutrient export issues!
I did this to my 45g, 20g, and 75g in the past with berghia! I never kept any wrasses tho.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hey, i've been at this since 1993. Yes I have them in my tank right now. I kalk paste them till they are completely covered like a tomb with all pumps off. I most likely will always have them, so it means I will always have to attack them when I see them.

 

[sunken3]

As someone said earlier I think many hand removal methods can produce nothing but babies. The best method I had was to use a needle syringe filled with microwaved kalk wasser slurry and inject it into the body. After this you want to try and scrape the whole body off the rock and vacuum siphon the body out. This will avoid the “babies” from the kill because it’s the base or basal disc that just sprouts the dandalions from hell even if the mouth dies.
I’ve never had total success with anything other than berghia (although I could never try something like a klein butterfly fish that sounds way cooler). Berghi need to reach a critical mass I think, and in your tank if the infestation is bad this is good because they will have the fuel to increase populations to the point where even predation on them won’t stop them from eating the tank free of their food source. so while people with light infestations would have variable success with berghi I think bad cases have the best luck with them which results in 100% eradication.
I’m just a big fan because i must have been dealing with them for years until I tried them.
I very much recommend feeding them separate from the main tank first (they will be starving and small when arrived) in no flow like a Tupperware or small bucket. This lets them eat and then they double in size and reproduce before your eyes (this is prob the only time you’ll get to see them they are pretty rad) Stop/slow the flow in the tank at night and gently put the rock near an aiptasia patch and cross fingers and wait. In the meanwhile continue to nuke and fix nutrient export issues!
I did this to my 45g, 20g, and 75g in the past with berghia! I never kept any wrasses tho.

yes, emphasis on "near" the aiptasia and NOT in/on the aiptasia. the aiptaisa will eat the berghia if given half a chance (or at least sting it to death).

 

[Flippers4pups]

Oh and by the way, @Fishdisease, your system is pretty awesome!

 

[Fishdisease]

Oh and by the way, @Fishdisease, your system is pretty awesome!

Thanks, I saved/planned for 8 years for this iteration of the system. Its a nice spot to unwind after the day.

 

[Brody’s Reef]

Looks like you are getting some really good advice here. I can tell you’ll pull through because you’re listening and open to all advice. Keep your head up and keep working at it! Your system is awesome by the way!

 

[Smarkow]

My filefish took a while to go for the aiptasia. They did not get a taste for it until my wife and I left on put honeymoon (4d with family then 10d in palm springs, CA) during which time a friend tank-sat and only fed every other day. I think it’s like salad for them... if there is something more tasty they will ignore the aiptasia. So I would recommend decrease your feedings and see if the filefish handle the displays (make sure some filefish in each display). I would put some berghia in the chaeto clump and sump.

Good luck.

 

[charged]

Berghai and peppermints worked for me.Have to acclimate them 2-3 hours and turn pumps off. Wrasses will hunt them and it will be 2-4 weeks before you see aptasia disappear. Copperband are tricky w/tangs. Had no luck w/them. Still have aptasia in overflows. but for non visible in display. You will be amazed at how fast they eat them.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

Thanks, I saved/planned for 8 years for this iteration of the system. Its a nice spot to unwind after the day.

See! You don't want to give up on that! You worked hard to get it perfect...now, get some good tunes going, get some coffee or a drink, ya know, whichever...and get scrubbing!!

 

[Leslie Tabor]

Ok good, you know what you're doing and what you need to do! If we all lived close we could have a tank cleaning party!

 

[Fishdisease]

Figured I should keep up with the progress in this thread. Hopefully I'm successful and it'll serve as a beacon of hope for anyone else who's hit the bottom.

Updates:
1. Got some peppermint shrimp from my LFS 2 days ago, they disappeared into the depths of the tank so hopefully they are still there, saw one while feeding tonight so that's a good sign.
2. Now you might recognize this, its the same one from the original post. Now 3 of my 4 Gyre pumps are cleaned
3. Pulled a couple of rocks out and fragged a couple of corals. I might re-scape the tank while I'm at it. I'm not a fan of the current 3 pillar based structure.

 

[Fishdisease]

Question: When I pull out a piece of rock to get rid of the aptasia, what's the best method for doing so? I assume there's no way to kill the aptasia without killing everything else in that rock (like pods and bacteria). I've just got 4 medium-ish rocks drying in the tank room right now. They just had some zoas on them that I fragged.

 

[SMSREEF]

I will add my experience.
when I tried to get rid of aiptasia on my rock prior to adding to the new tank, I used F-aiptasia. There was nothing left that I could see after 3 weeks so I added the rock to the tank.
About 2 months later I noticed aiptasia on sand, dead rock and live rock that I had added. I bought 3 berghia nudibrach and a biota filefish the next week. I also bought 2 Biota peppermint shrimp for the sump.
I have not seen the berghia since the day I put them in, but the aiptasia seem to be gone.
I have not seen the filefish eat aiptasia, but it is super cool and my favorite fish now.
I think the berghia are eating the aiptasia, but not 100% sure. The aiptasia seem to be gone in the tank. Not sure who deserves credit, the berghia that I have never seen after adding them, or the file fish that I have never seen eat an aiptasia.

 

[Daddy-o]

I did a quick dip in vinegar. Sorry the pods would be a gonner.