What would you do in this situation? *Video* (about to tear down tank)

[GlassMunky]

When did you add the filefish and the peppermints? They take time to work, but I can attest to the effectiveness of filefish... the only reason I don't have one still is because they go after corals once the aiptasia is gone.

If you want to go the butterfly route, I would go with Dr. Reef or TSM Aquatics - they'll put them through quarantine ahead of time, so by the time you get them they should be transitioned to captive feeding, which is the biggest challenge with them. TSM doesn't have any at the moment, but Dr. Reef lists them on his site.

And I'd reconsider the chemical methods... if your concern is the size of the aiptasia, use the chemicals to kill the big ones. Yes, they'll release babies, but then you'll have small anemones instead of the large ones. So, keep your biological controls in place (file fish, maybe peppermints, maybe add a copperband or other aiptasia-eating butterfly) and go headhunting for the biggest aiptasia. Knock them out and let your biological controls take care of the small ones.

When you added the berghia, how did you add them into your tank? What livestock do you have in your tank?

The filefish and Peppermints just got here this week, i know i havnt given them time yet, just trying to think forward a bit for if they dont work out.

TSM is actually my LFS, as they are about 15 minutes away, and every fish i own has come from them, except the filefish from biota.
My issue with the chemicals is that they don't seem to do any good. Ill use an entire bottle of F-Aiptasia and only be able to cover about 6-8" of rock space because there are so manyAnd then less than a week later that same area of rock looks like i never touched it.... and that whole week i have to watch my PH because the F-Aiptasia raises it so much that i need to add HCL to lower it to a safe range.

We added the 25 berghia at night after lights out using a pipette that was provided with them.

We do have 3 wrasse, A McCoskers, A leopard and a Pintail. so they might have eaten them if the aiptasia didnt........

 

[GlassMunky]

Have you ever dealt with Nyaquatic.com? He has some Copperbands on his site for $50.

no, i havnt ordered anything offline in about 5 years.....
ill look into them, thanks for the info

 

[twwety]

I would definitely get a copperband such a pretty and unique fish to watch. Even if it took some time to qt one or source a healthy one it'll still save a lot time and effort starting over and you could still end up in this same situation in another year. No matter how many you kill it will always be apart of the tank maintenance so might as well have the fish work for you.

 

[14 foot reef]

people dont realize the massive impact large angles have on a reef filled with Apt. Emporer, blue face, holo holo all will deplete it in 3-4 months.
i did a 3 tank experiment with large angels and APT. I moved the angels from one tank to the other until they were all gone. Give it a try, don't give up. this can be beat

 

[count krunk]

Marine collectors can get you a hand picked cbb and qt it for you.

 

[ajhudson15]

I see two things wrong. 1 is I think these are way to big for any of the predators to really eat. form what ive read nudis only eat the ones that are somewhat their size. these look big enough to eat the nudi. I think this is also true for the copperband.

My other thought that stood out to me that is somewhat unrelated but just curious. why did you cement the rock to the bottom of the tank?

 

[GlassMunky]

people dont realize the massive impact large angles have on a reef filled with Apt. Emporer, blue face, holo holo all will deplete it in 3-4 months.
i did a 3 tank experiment with large angels and APT. I moved the angels from one tank to the other until they were all gone. Give it a try, don't give up. this can be beat

i dont think i have the space for that. tank is only 200G and i already have a Mated pair of BEllus angels.

 

[ajhudson15]

I used to have them and hair algae. I started dosing vibrant to clear the hair algae and the aiptasia all died off as well. not sure if it was a coincidence or not but it worked.

 

[GlassMunky]

I see two things wrong. 1 is I think these are way to big for any of the predators to really eat. form what ive read nudis only eat the ones that are somewhat their size. these look big enough to eat the nudi. I think this is also true for the copperband.

My other thought that stood out to me that is somewhat unrelated but just curious. why did you cement the rock to the bottom of the tank?

because without being attached it moved to easily while i created the structure since I had to build it in multiple pieces over about a week with some of the overhangs and stuff. letting each piece fully cure before adding the next piece of the overhangs, etc.


But yes i totally agree with them being too large for most biological control. thats one of the big issues that i cant figure out. i try killing the big ones and it looks like i did nothing at all.

 

[alysak6075]

So i was literally in the same situation. The wrass and the peppermints would eat all my berghia, after getting rid of the wrass and peppermints, 3 months after i added the berghia, they finally went to work. Cleared out the entire tank. Then died... now somewhere 1 aiptasia survived and its back. I got a super deathly and skinny CBB at my LFS, she eats them like a pig, but will only go after the smaller ones. The bugger ones remain. Still trying to figure out how to kill them all. But Berghia first, CBB second, FileFish third. Peppermints never worked for me.

 

[DanConnor]

I see two things wrong. 1 is I think these are way to big for any of the predators to really eat. form what ive read nudis only eat the ones that are somewhat their size. these look big enough to eat the nudi. I think this is also true for the copperband.

My other thought that stood out to me that is somewhat unrelated but just curious. why did you cement the rock to the bottom of the tank?

I'm not sure about that. My filefish ate all the tentacles off a large rock flower anemone.

 

[ApoIsland]

The filefish and Peppermints just got here this week, i know i havnt given them time yet, just trying to think forward a bit for if they dont work out.

TSM is actually my LFS, as they are about 15 minutes away, and every fish i own has come from them, except the filefish from biota.
My issue with the chemicals is that they don't seem to do any good. Ill use an entire bottle of F-Aiptasia and only be able to cover about 6-8" of rock space because there are so manyAnd then less than a week later that same area of rock looks like i never touched it.... and that whole week i have to watch my PH because the F-Aiptasia raises it so much that i need to add HCL to lower it to a safe range.

We added the 25 berghia at night after lights out using a pipette that was provided with them.

We do have 3 wrasse, A McCoskers, A leopard and a Pintail. so they might have eaten them if the aiptasia didnt........

My file fish took more than a month to start eating aiptasia, but when it did ohh man those thigs were gone quickly.

 

[GlassMunky]

My file fish took more than a month to start eating aiptasia, but when it did ohh man those thigs were gone quickly.

heres hoping!!!!

 

[R33fDaddy]

If it was me I would see this as an opportunity to start fresh and have a whole Quarantine process so it does not happen again. I would take out the corals and put them in Quarantine Tank something cheap from Petco. I would leave the fish in that display tank and dose it with copper. The copper will kill all of that aptasia and unfortunately your coralline algea also. This will also get rid of any unwanted parasites (like ich) and things like bristle worms. After your done with the copper treatment do I big water change and run some cuprisorb in your tank until the copper level tests close to zero. Then take some gsp or xenia and put back in your tank and see how it does for two or three weeks. If the gsp or xenia does well then slowly start added back coral. Be careful to not add aptasia back into your tank after you've gotten rid of it. Do some research on coral Quarantine or if you want I'll let you know what I do.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Give the peppermints and filefish some time to go to work. Before making any further changes.

I would set up some containers to breed berghia nudis and feed them the larger of the aptasias cut from your display. Then continually add the nudis to the display tank as they multiplied.

I think this is the best option. If youre set on removing the aiptasia, i would remove the wrasses and shrimp and put them in a holding tank. Add the new berghias as they multiply and after a month or so you should be able to add everything back in. As long as they are able to establish a population in the tank the wrasse and shrimp shouldnt be able to get all of them.


Also the berghias dont care how big the aiptasia is. Mine took out some pretty big ones. The problem is just getting the population of berghias to take off before they get eaten.

 

[GlassMunky]

If it was me I would see this as an opportunity to start fresh and have a whole Quarantine process so it does not happen again. I would take out the corals and put them in Quarantine Tank something cheap from Petco. I would leave the fish in that display tank and dose it with copper. The copper will kill all of that aptasia and unfortunately your coralline algea also. This will also get rid of any unwanted parasites (like ich) and things like bristle worms. After your done with the copper treatment do I big water change and run some cuprisorb in your tank until the copper level tests close to zero. Then take some gsp or xenia and put back in your tank and see how it does for two or three weeks. If the gsp or xenia does well then slowly start added back coral. Be careful to not add aptasia back into your tank after you've gotten rid of it. Do some research on coral Quarantine or if you want I'll let you know what I do.

This tank was started exactly like that. every single thing was fully QTed for 76 days before going into the tank and all corals were scrubbed so not sure anything different would happen.

 

[GlassMunky]

Give the peppermints and filefish some time to go to work. Before making any further changes.


I think this is the best option. If youre set on removing the aiptasia, i would remove the wrasses and shrimp and put them in a holding tank. Add the new berghias as they multiply and after a month or so you should be able to add everything back in. As long as they are able to establish a population in the tank the wrasse and shrimp shouldnt be able to get all of them.

i think the only way to do this would be to tear down the tank. Theres no way i can catch the wrasse and shrimp without removing all the rock and its cemented to the tank.

 

[Tamberav]

What would you do in this situation?
I'm out of ideas, and at the end of my rope.....
My 210G tank is COVERED in aiptasia.... i mean literally Thousands of them. and some of them are LARGE, like larger than my hammer corals polyps, and in every corner, on almost every coral, and they seem to be getting worse and all i can think to do is tear down the tank and start completely over. (Or not start over and take a break from reefs)
We've tried 25 Berghia nudis, Nothing. (not sure if wrasse ate them or the aiptasia ate them, but never saw them after being added months ago)
Tried Aiptasia-X and F-Aiptasia (went through 4 entire bottles of the large size, and it seems that only made it worse) with zero results.
We've tried using a 5W laser, nope, that doesn't work either.
The most recent attempt is 3 Filefish and 9 Peppermints from @Biota_Marine that just got here, but the more i look at the tank the more I'm losing hope Im not sure if these filefish and shrimp will be able to deal with aiptasia that are 2-3X their size, and SOOOOO many of them.

Do i just say "F-It!" and tear everything down?
Im so at a loss with this tank, it hasn't brought me much if any joy (only thing that has has been watching the pipefish we have) in a long time because every time i look at it all i see is all the issues, and the time and money wasted, and nothing getting better and things just getting worse since the start over a year ago. the only reason its still going is that its just so much work to actually tear down and try and find homes for all the fish and corals, but it might be time....


What would you do in this situation?

I would add a Copperband butterfly. Order one from dr reef.

I bought live rock I knew had Aiptasia on it and it has not been a problem due to natural predation.

Tearing down the tank seems extreme when all it really tanks is a larva stage that you can’t see and isn’t killed by dips to start this problem all over.

 

[jorwill]

if you have a copperband that wont get the large ones, kill them. Scrape off the larges and let them reproduce so the copper band eats the babies that come forth.

 

[GlassMunky]

Give the peppermints and filefish some time to go to work. Before making any further changes.


I think this is the best option. If youre set on removing the aiptasia, i would remove the wrasses and shrimp and put them in a holding tank. Add the new berghias as they multiply and after a month or so you should be able to add everything back in. As long as they are able to establish a population in the tank the wrasse and shrimp shouldnt be able to get all of them.


Also the berghias dont care how big the aiptasia is. Mine took out some pretty big ones. The problem is just getting the population of berghias to take off before they get eaten.

not gonna lie.... at this point i actually think the whole "QT EVERYTHING" mindset is what got me to this problem.....
In my old tanks, years ago, i never QTed anything, used REAL LR from the ocean, not dry rock seeded, and never had any of the issues this "sterile" tank has had.....

If i tear down and start fresh, im going with Ocean LR and just filling the tank as quickly as possible with live corals so they take over before any pests can get a foothold.