Um...Help?!?

[Grant_J]

Hi All,

I'm in year 1 of aquarium life and it's great! My FOWLR 125 tank was doing very well. So I decided now is the time to add some small and cheap corals to learn from. Within a week, I started seeing aptasia and now there is this strange red rust looking stuff growing on the sides of the tank. I won't share the online store I bought it from, but they were supposed to be one of the best! Anyway...Do you know how to get rid of these guys? I've bought 3 peppermint shrimp and 2 aptasia eating filefish...but the aptasia is now in locust-swarm amounts. Also, the red stuff won't even scrape off the front of my tank in some places. This isn't some dust. This is hard core growth. Ideas?


Thanks,
-G

 

[Grant_J]

Image of the rust-colored growth. This is 2 weeks ago. Red stuff and aptasia are 5x worse now.

 

[Reefing102]

Aiptasia can generally be held at bay with an Aiptasia eating filefish, Berghia or certain species of peppermint shrimp (they’re not all the same).

As for the glass growth, looks to just be an algae. If it’s hard, it may just be a calcerous type instead of the easy to remove film type of algae.

 

[D.WhiteShark]

Are the aptasia confined in any way? Being mostly fish only, could you remove the rocks that they are on and replace them with clean rocks. depending on the amount of the exchange, it may have a minimal impact while the new rocks become "live".

Kalkwasser in a paste form will also knock them down if you can get to them

 

[BryanM]

Hi All,

I'm in year 1 of aquarium life and it's great! My FOWLR 125 tank was doing very well. So I decided now is the time to add some small and cheap corals to learn from. Within a week, I started seeing aptasia and now there is this strange red rust looking stuff growing on the sides of the tank. I won't share the online store I bought it from, but they were supposed to be one of the best! Anyway...Do you know how to get rid of these guys? I've bought 3 peppermint shrimp and 2 aptasia eating filefish...but the aptasia is now in locust-swarm amounts. Also, the red stuff won't even scrape off the front of my tank in some places. This isn't some dust. This is hard core growth. Ideas?


Thanks,
-G

better pics under white lights and full water parameters might help shed some light on the issues.

Aiptasia out of the blue THAT quickly becoming a problem seems quite odd.

 

[Grant_J]

Are the aptasia confined in any way? Being mostly fish only, could you remove the rocks that they are on and replace them with clean rocks. depending on the amount of the exchange, it may have a minimal impact while the new rocks become "live".

Kalkwasser in a paste form will also knock them down if you can get to them

The aiptasia are not confined, so I could remove the rocks and replace. I'm also considering taking them out and scrubbing the aiptasia off so the filefish have a fighting chance. I got that pink stuff for killing them, and it works great on the one-offs, but my whole tank will be pink if I go after the whole field. Unfortunately, one of the file fish got sucked into a wavemaker and died yesterday. They aren't the strongest swimmers.

 

[Grant_J]

better pics under white lights and full water parameters might help shed some light on the issues.

Aiptasia out of the blue THAT quickly becoming a problem seems quite odd.

I'll work on those things for you ASAP. Getting ready to leave town on a biz trip so it may be Friday. The aiptasia started smaller, and I tried to keep them at bay with the pink stuff that drowns them, but they just took over faster than I could keep up. To be continued! Thank you for the help @BryanM and @Reef Box !

 

[D.WhiteShark]

The aiptasia are not confined, so I could remove the rocks and replace. I'm also considering taking them out and scrubbing the aiptasia off so the filefish have a fighting chance. I got that pink stuff for killing them, and it works great on the one-offs, but my whole tank will be pink if I go after the whole field. Unfortunately, one of the file fish got sucked into a wavemaker and died yesterday. They aren't the strongest swimmers.

A lot of times scrubbing them off isn't 100% successful. In effect any pieces that are floating around can reattach and start a new one. They are a type of anemone and basically split to reproduce. If there is any part of them left, they can grow back. You will definitely want to invest in some Berghia so they can work on any that you can't see or get to. Stay on top of them and eventually you will make some headway. Kalkwasser powder which is white (I'm not sure what the pink stuff is) mixed to a thick paste is very effective but should only be used on a few at a time as it raises PH in the tank

 

[Fish Fan]

I would be careful with all the scrubbing and cutting, you can run the risk of spreading them. Even doing it out of the tank isn't a guarantee that bits of anemones won't make it around your tank, and with Apasia it seems to take only a couple of cells and you've got a whole new anemone to deal with.

@Reef Box just beat me to it