What's your preferred method for eradicating aiptasia? Or do you just manage it?

FugeTown

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
871
Reaction score
850
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Then you are skilled my friend. I can never seem to cover the oral disk completely which is what aiptasiax says will stop the clones from surviving. I probably manage to kill half of the ones I attack. The other half morph into at least 5 more.
I do turn off everything that moves the water so it’s completely still plus I put a generous amount of it on top looks like a little white pile where the aptasia once was and I leave the powerheads/ skimmer off for 15 minuets
 

pirutgrrrl

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 8, 2011
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Location
Valencia, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've had huge success with a standard file fish. They love it! I have a full reef tank with only a few fish and he isn't picking at any coral. I feed the fish very little too. I haven' seen aiptasia in a LONG LONG time. They're really dopey looking but I love my little guy.
Have also tried peppermint shrimp but they never worked out. Have had copperband butterflies but they don't seem like hardy fish. File fish are my tried and true method.
 

JVU

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 14, 2017
Messages
166
Reaction score
138
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I heard about F-Aiptasia for the first time on this thread, so thank you guys for that. I ordered some, we’ll see how it works for me.

Over the years I’ve tried:
- Aiptasia-X: Kills them but they multiply, still use it though. It does help with control but is a never ending battle. Also works on invasive clove polyps.
- Matted file fish from ORA: Hasn’t touched them at all for many months. I have him in my fuge to “learn” to eat the few aiptasia I have there without coral around, no luck at all.
- Berghia: Very expensive, tried twice, sort of work for a while after a slow start (months) but always peter out without really achieving much overall. I don’t have any known predators.
- Peppermint shrimp: Never saw them (large bunch) after day 1, no effect on aiptasia. I don’t have any known predators.
- Laser: Dangerous toy, takes forever to zap 1 incompletely, can only get the ones you have a straight shot at from the glass. Waste of money.
- Majano Wand: Pretty much the same commentary as for the laser. Novelty item but not useful.
 

karlandtanya

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 14, 2018
Messages
29
Reaction score
39
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I haven't had very many of them, but when I do I use the kalk paste method.
Little dab of goop hits the anenome, it disappears into the sand and never seen again.
 

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,680
Reaction score
3,412
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I tried asking what makes this "F-Aiptasia" stuff any different than the other pastes on the market like Aiptasia-X over on Facebook on a thread someone started with the owner...... but instead of an answer i just got yelled at like a child who didnt listen to their parents and belittled because i dont understand.......
Maybe someone on this much better forum would be kind enough to explain it without being super rude.

because like many users here, over the years ive tried all the products on the market, aiptaia-X, Kalk, Lemon juice, Joes juice, peppermints, beghia nudis, and nothing worked.
so much so that when we just moved we went full nuclear and cut every living coral back into fresh margins and bleached every single rock, to start fresh, and have kept all coral in a QT tank for about 3 months now checking every week and sawing(physically removing) any that are found.....
Id really like to believe this product works...... it would make things easier for sure
 

karlandtanya

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 14, 2018
Messages
29
Reaction score
39
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I tried asking what makes this "F-Aiptasia" stuff any different than the other pastes on the market like Aiptasia-X over on Facebook on a thread someone started with the owner...... but instead of an answer i just got yelled at like a child who didnt listen to their parents and belittled because i dont understand.......
Maybe someone on this much better forum would be kind enough to explain it without being super rude.

because like many users here, over the years ive tried all the products on the market, aiptaia-X, Kalk, Lemon juice, Joes juice, peppermints, beghia nudis, and nothing worked.
so much so that when we just moved we went full nuclear and cut every living coral back into fresh margins and bleached every single rock, to start fresh, and have kept all coral in a QT tank for about 3 months now checking every week and sawing(physically removing) any that are found.....
Id really like to believe this product works...... it would make things easier for sure


If people get belligerent when you ask "What makes your product better?", this means they don't have an answer to a very basic and appropriate product question.
BTW, did you look at this F-Aiptasia
The inventor started the thread. Obviously he's not giving away his formula, but he should be able to answer your questionif it's not already answered in there.
 

GlassMunky

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 30, 2014
Messages
2,680
Reaction score
3,412
Location
Philly
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
If people get belligerent when you ask "What makes your product better?", this means they don't have an answer to a very basic and appropriate product question.
BTW, did you look at this F-Aiptasia
The inventor started the thread. Obviously he's not giving away his formula, but he should be able to answer your questionif it's not already answered in there.
It was the “inventor” who got all angry and yelling on Facebook so kind of doubt his thread on here would be much better, but I’ll take a look.
Honestly tho, his interactions have basically stopped me from supporting him and his company, even if the product does work .
 

Elegance Coral

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 29, 2014
Messages
560
Reaction score
670
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
To answer the OP's question, I simply don't put them in the tank in the first place. I've tried fighting them with chemicals, fish, shrimp, nudibranches........ Nothing rally works to totally eradicate them. There seems to always be that one hiding out in the plumbing or other hard to access area, that just keeps reproducing. We end up trying to manage the infestation. Not really eradicating it.
A few years back, I took everything living, that I wanted, out of my tank, and dumped a gallon of bleach into it. Killed everything in the whole system. Started the tank over again. Now I QT everything. Even snails.
It's soooooooo much less stressful knowing I simply don't have to worry about these things. No aiptasia, vermetidae snails, red bugs, flat worms.......... none of those problems.
Peace
EC
 

holyscoly

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
100
Reaction score
13
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
These guys... yes, I meant to include the picture of the shrimp. That "little" dude has been with me for two and a half years and devours aiptasia. The copperband is about two months in my system and it was clear of aipys when added, but I'm sure if one pops up and the shrimp doesn't get it first, she will eat it.

20190813_204102.jpg
20190909_182553.jpg
i finally got one of these to eat frozen, and than he got a taste of my micromussa and it was a feast for him, i had to take him out. Proceed with caution if you do use one of these. I know many reefers who have them with no problems at all and ive had them before and nothing like that ever happened until it did lol. I am using aptasia x for now but they keep coming back.
 

karlandtanya

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 14, 2018
Messages
29
Reaction score
39
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
It was the “inventor” who got all angry and yelling on Facebook so kind of doubt his thread on here would be much better, but I’ll take a look.
Honestly tho, his interactions have basically stopped me from supporting him and his company, even if the product does work .

I guess if the inventor can't tell you why his product is so special, it's probably not.
What a salesman.
 

sfin52

So many pedestrians so little time
View Badges
Joined
Jun 19, 2016
Messages
23,410
Reaction score
99,738
Location
Usa
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
We need Potm featuring aptasia.
 

kenjung

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
92
Reaction score
51
Location
Alexandria, va
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Australian CB works well for my tank I hope has has has a long life, larger tank and high flow CB is the way to go they roam about day or light out. Now Aiptasia shows up in the refugium. I am feeding CB mysis shrimp, every now then Aiptasia show up under a rock CB swim by and attack. Its almost like steak to these fish.
 

radiata

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
1,088
Reaction score
763
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Radiata's Law of Dynamic Cnidariology:

There is ALWAYS one more Aiptasia.
 

Richard Severns

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
94
Reaction score
129
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I've never heard of f-aiptasia, where can you get this, also I've been considering nudibranch, I've got a150 that is what I would call med infestation, how many would recommend for me, aiptasia x was a big mistake for me too
 

GrouperStupor

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
302
Reaction score
193
Location
Huntsville, AL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Right now I use a butane torch on rocks I can easily remove. Otherwise super glue.

I've used Berghias before to clean a really bad tank.
 

Palmetto Reefer

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 25, 2016
Messages
14
Reaction score
6
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I battled aiptasia breakouts for years with Aiptasia-X. It seemed as though it was killing them and the tank would get cloudy from all the combat then be clear of Aiptasia for a few days or weeks, then they would re-emerge again typically with more and more after each battle. I repeated this process for years and even tried a high-powered laser. That worked also and was fun the first few times that I used it, but it took hours to eradicate them. I tried peppermint shrimp with no luck at all. I finally found my salvation with a Copper Banded Butterfly. I've had it for 2-3 years now and my display has zero signs of Aiptasia.

Having said that I saw a thread on here a few weeks ago showing a picture of someones overflow that was covered up with Aiptasia. It had been a while since I had looked into my overflow so I did a couple weeks ago and mine was also overgrown with Aiptasia. I considered trying to catch the CBB and drop him/her in the overflow to feast on the monster aiptasia but decided that probably wasn't the best idea. I ended up shutting everything down while I manually scraped and shop-vac'd everything out of the overflow. Pretty sure I got them all but if a few respawn I'm confident that my CBB will take care of the display. My CBB has definitely saved me hours, days, weekends, if not months of battling with Aiptasia-X. It is one of my favorite fish now because of his/her work ethic.
 

Mr_White_Reefer

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 23, 2019
Messages
38
Reaction score
46
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Good morning all,

This is my first post but it's a subject that I have a lot of experience with, I'm a 12yr reefer and like many I've been through multiple tanks and have tried almost all methods of reefing over the years. 2019 is the first year I can say I've gone from a complete coral killing aiptasia break out to no visuals in almost 6 months using no chemicals. Red Sea was a disaster, berghias attacked by POD'S!!!.... All hope was lost until I decided to get a little crazy, I sold some of my fish to the LFS and crammed the ones I couldn't part with into a 60g I had for quarantine from their 180g home. I ordered 30 peppermint shrimp and a copperband, I split up 10 shrimp into chambers in my refugium and the rest went in the main display. Then I starved all of them... It sounds terrible and I actually felt bad doing it. But after about the 5th week of nothing the coral killers started disappearing, once everything got hungry enough to start hunting instinct kicked in and it was On! I went from a full blown corner to corner breakout back to fluffy happy corrals in about 2.5 months. About half way through the process I ended up putting my purple Tang back in to control the algae that started to build up but I'm still visually aiptasia free above and below. I'm sure there are some stragglers in the plumbing but I didn't remove any of the shrimp so if one comes back I know what's in the tank already has a taste for them.

20190909_211958.jpg
I hope this helps , happy reefing! 20190808_201150.jpg 20190808_201338.jpg
 

Dempsey941

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 26, 2018
Messages
1,824
Reaction score
3,856
Location
Frisco
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have had success with joe's juice for my aptasia. I have also tried Peppermint shrimp but they were more interested in my acans than the aptasia.

For every aptasia you can see, there atleast 4 more you dont.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 73 51.4%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 73 51.4%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 36 25.4%
  • None.

    Votes: 31 21.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 6.3%
Back
Top