Is there a way to nuke a tank of aiptasia?

[ReeferJohn408]

Had same scenario last year but I think our tank had the worse Aiptasia infestation ever. It came from a simple liverock that we missed cleaning when we purchased some from a local reefer. From 20 Aiptasia bloomed up to at least 500 within 6 months.

- We have tried Peppermint Shrimp, Did not work.
- Laser Zapper , Not enough. Aiptasia will just hide once it senses the laser on it's tips.
- Kalkwasser / Aiptasia X , Same thing as the laser.
- Majano Wand, Same thing as the rest.
- BOILED THE ROCK AND NEARLY CRASHED THE WHOLE SYSTEM DOWN. Did not work, lots of eggs and tiny buds hides within the tank, pump, glass etc.

Finally, We ended up rebooting the whole system. Got rid of the old live rocks , boiled and cleaned all equipments, sump change etc.

Now, we're Aiptasia free. Not even a single pest in the tank. All corals are happy. Wife is happy. ^^

VIDEO of the Red Planet we purchased but you can see those mature Aiptasia in the background lurking. They even wave like Green Star Polyps everytime the current sweep the tank.



- So, it's depends on your approach and Good luck. ^^

 

[The Macro Guy]

If you're going to extreme measures already, just get a single file fish. The brown ugly ones. They will literally eat every aptasia and mojano in your tank within a few days. After that, they may or may not move on to zoas or bubble anemones if you have them, at that point, put it in a sump or refugium till you need it again.

Either method you choose to try and completely nuke a tank of aptasia is going to result in coral loss, try to go a natural route if possible. From my experience though, 1 or 2 file fish will take care of your aptasia problem. My 2 cents.

 

[twilliard]

You want some white flatworms? I got lots of tiny ones from rock phos leeching. It's down to .1ppm now with GFO but there's enough of them near the bottom to probably snag some with a baster to re-establish them.

I would absolutely love to have a new species of flatworm!!
Shoot me a PM

 

[650-IS350]

Berghia Nudis are the only ones that will completely wipe them out.

 

[Jlobes]

Thats why I love to work with aiptasia they are a creature of their own.
Too bad I killed them all
I even go to stores looking for them and flatworm.
What happened petco you quite carrying them!
Saddens me

you can buy aiptasia from SA/thecoralreef! lol

http://www.coralreeftn.com/

 

[reef4beer]

Thats why I love to work with aiptasia they are a creature of their own.
Too bad I killed them all
I even go to stores looking for them and flatworm.
What happened petco you quite carrying them!
Saddens me

I agree, I have this one aipstasia that has survived everything. I like to pet it and praise it as it grows and survives solo, maybe one day I will give him a new home.

As stated, resort to drying your rocks as the last!

I've tried multiple things to get rid of them such as adding dozens of peppermint shrimp, and injecting them with calcium. I think the main problem is that if you dont get rid of the foot they will continue to reproduce.

 

[Bokevince]

If'there is an invasion, it s really hard to get rid of them, i ve made a reset with dead rock after washing my tank 3 days of fresh water with white vinegar 1% volume, it will be faster than trying to find a solution and restarting is very cool!
I ve made it twice : one 150 g with myrionemas and 1 nano of 30 g with hundreds of aiptasias...!
Beside maybe high temperature could worth the try, i ve learned something today, thanks @twilliard but i hope i won t have to try...!
Resets have worked and try getting only frags for sps, lps , the little aiptasias i ve seen on zoa colonies for example where super glued imediately out of the tank, if you do something in the water they release cells in the water column

 

[Davehla]

How about a Klein's Butterfly?

 

[sstewart81]

I'm needing a good solution as well keeping tabs for sure.

 

[Eric B]

Berghia Nudis are the only thing I have seen completely wipe them out and not touch anything else in the tank as they eat the entire aptasia off the rock so nothing is left to grow back. They are a little pricey and I have tried all the other ways to remove from the lasers to the matted filefish (Which wiped out my zoas overnight as it was an easier meal for it and then started in on acans until I caught it) so if you only have sps and nothing else then a filefish might work, but they can't get the ones in all the cracks and such. I bought 8 Berghia's and put in my tank which had aptasia everywhere and it took about 6 months but I no longer see an aptasia anywhere in the tank. They feed at night so you will never really see them eating the aptasia they just start disappearing over time. Once the aptasia is gone the Berghia's die off as that is the only thing they eat. I was going to try to collect them and pass them on to friends but you can't find them as they live deep in the rocks and in a 300 gallon tank it was not worth looking for them.

 

[SROPE]

Berghia Nudis are the only thing I have seen completely wipe them out and not touch anything else in the tank as they eat the entire aptasia off the rock so nothing is left to grow back. They are a little pricey and I have tried all the other ways to remove from the lasers to the matted filefish (Which wiped out my zoas overnight as it was an easier meal for it and then started in on acans until I caught it) so if you only have sps and nothing else then a filefish might work, but they can't get the ones in all the cracks and such. I bought 8 Berghia's and put in my tank which had aptasia everywhere and it took about 6 months but I no longer see an aptasia anywhere in the tank. They feed at night so you will never really see them eating the aptasia they just start disappearing over time. Once the aptasia is gone the Berghia's die off as that is the only thing they eat. I was going to try to collect them and pass them on to friends but you can't find them as they live deep in the rocks and in a 300 gallon tank it was not worth looking for them.

Bingo! Eric.
I fought aptasia for 5 years with everything on the planet to no avail. I bought 5 Berghia and problem solved in about 3 weeks. I was able to collect them afterwards as when there are no more aptasia for them to feed on they came out of hiding on to the glass for easy recovery. I gave them to someone recommended at one of my lfs and believe he killed them[Berghia]. Please read up on them for a aptasia free tank.

 

[Cali9dub]

I was also at my whits end with regard to aiptasia. Tried peppermint shrimp, no luck. Matted filefish, no luck. Aiptasia X, no luck. Boiling water, lemon juice, Kalk paste...no luck. Finally got a Copperband Butterfly. It took right around 2 1/2 or 3 weeks before I noticed the aiptasia disappearing. I of course made sure the Butterfly was eating before I purchased him. Now I am almost free of aiptasia. I still see 4 or 5 that are in the main flow of the tank current. Very pleased with the Copperband. We'll see how long it lasts. He's been in there for 2 months so far.

 

[huskerreefatl]

Joes juice. It is made for that and it worked for me.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Peppermint shrimp are a hit and miss. You will only see them at night with a flashlight. They will not touch large ones. Need to cut down on feedings and light. The more nutrients in the water the faster they multiply. Matted file fish may work but it may destroy your corals, I thought my file fish was ok until I seen it pull whole polyps off my cup coral. Majano wand does not work. Use Aiptasia X to kill big ones and the peppermint shrimp hide when they molt for days. If they get hungry they will get rid of the aiptasia

 

[huskerreefatl]

Thank you for all of the replies, I really appreciate it guys.
I will definitely look into seeing if my LFS can get any of those fish for me, if not I guess I will have to kill them with aptasia x or something of the sort until I can get me some bergias.
I was looking at my tank last night and its coming along so nicely except for those little buggers that I felt bad to break it up to do a nuke so I will look into other options for now

Joes juice can be safely used in a reef tank. I have used it a couple times and nothing else was affected. You can order through amazon.

 

[Scott97062]

How about a Klein's Butterfly?

I had really good results with a Raccoon butterfly fish when I had an aiptasia breakout. When they were all gone, which didn't take long, he was removed so that he wouldn't begin to lunch on the corals.

 

[Travisz]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but the brackish fish the silver scat will also destroy Apitasia, it known for eating poo in the aquarium. I can't speak for whether or not it will harm coral, It can live completely in saltwater just take it slow. I would imagine it would be a cheaper option because it is a fresh water fish and quite common. You should also be advised that the adults can get mean so have them clean up your tank and get rid of them. Hope this helps

 

[tdjma]

Hey guys, so I'm officially fed up of these pests (aiptasia). I bought 4 peppermint shrimp (@ $150 each..... yeah that's how much I pay for them here, works out to about $25 USD each) only to have them all disappear within 2 nights, and yeah I searched every crease and crevice. I saw them out and about the first night, the second night only one was out and then boom none to be found!! BTW there wasn't a dent in the aiptasia population within that 2 day period. (maybe the aiptasia ate them instead lol)
I cant get any bergias here unless I travel abroad and bring them back with me which is out of the question right now and Aiptasia x only makes them spread in my opinion... it started out with one frag that had aiptasia on it that I didn't notice until it started to spread and after a few times 'killing them' they only re-appeared in greater numbers, so much so that I now have an epidemic, these things are everywhere, rocks, sand, power heads.... sigh.....

Sorry for the ranting, I just had to vent a little.

So my question is, if I set up a temporary tank to house all my corals which I will have to cut off of the rocks, zoas, inverts, etc. is there a way that I can nuke the tank of them with minimal damage to the beneficial bacteria, etc. in the tank? if not I may not mind just nuking the entire tank and starting over.

I was thinking that copper would be a good nuke but then the copper will be absorbed into the rocks and leech back into the water after right?

At this point I'm open to ideas and suggestions that preferably would keep me from starting over, if not possible I'm not against starting over fresh and be pest free!! I'm just fed up of these things!!!!

I used a copperband it chowed on them

 

[andyscandy]

Did anybody mention a Copper banded butterfly? I had one that I could hand feed and just grab him at any time and changed him from my display tank to my frag tank whenever I seen aptaisia. Thing is its hard to get them to eat flakes or pellets. Wich wasn't a problem for me cause I feed frozen and freeze dried. And for the peppermint shrimp they dissappeared in my tank till I cleaned it all out months later and there they were . I would like to hear about this wand thoug . Never heard of such a thing .

 

[rayn]

The majano wand is fun, but doesn't kill them enough. Remember majano and aptasia are different pests.

If twillard says heat works, that may be the best way. Even drying and bleaching rock, I have had them come back.