Early Aiptasia... Nuke and Redo or Battle?

[TheMoose]

On Saturday I picked up a 10 gallon tank, some live sand, and live rock from a LFS and got everything setup and running.

 

Last night I noticed a few Aiptasia heads on one of the rocks so I quickly removed that rock from the scape and was fine with just being down a rock.

 

This morning, it looks like the aiptasia had already spread to at least one other rock with a couple of heads showing on that one.

 

Should I try to battle this aiptasia or should I just nuke the tank and start over?

 

If battling - what do you suggest? I was thinking I could look for some peppermint shrimp at a few LFS to see if they could help.

If nuking - Should I contact the original LFS I got the live rock from? How long should I let the tank sit before redoing the sand, rock, and refilling? Can I use the same water to try to preserve whatever bacteria I already had or should I start with newly made saltwater?

[Clown79]

Buy aiptasia x. Works very well. Might need a couple applications but it works if you follow the directions.

[OPtasia]

No. Do not buy aiptasia-X. It works too well, causing aiptasia to implode from within and spread little chunks of aiptasia flesh all over the tank. Next thing you know, you'll have them in plague proportions growing on everything.

 

If you only have a few of them, seal them into the rock with 2 part epoxy or coral glue gel. This will prevent their tissue from exploding and drifting all over your tank. If you have a plague of them, I can't speak highly enough of bhergia nudibranchs. I had a plague of hundreds of aiptasia in a biocube 32 last year. I added six bhergias purchased from ebay and a whorl of eggs and they ate all of the aiptasia. In two months time, all aiptasia were gone. They even rooted through my zoa colonies and ate the aiptasia hiding in the centers of each colony. Zoas untouched. Everything else untouched.

[Clown79]

 

 

5 hours ago, OPtasia said:

No. Do not buy aiptasia-X. It works too well, causing aiptasia to implode from within and spread little chunks of aiptasia flesh all over the tank. Next thing you know, you'll have them in plague proportions growing on everything.

 

If you only have a few of them, seal them into the rock with 2 part epoxy or coral glue gel. This will prevent their tissue from exploding and drifting all over your tank. If you have a plague of them, I can't speak highly enough of bhergia nudibranchs. I had a plague of hundreds of aiptasia in a biocube 32 last year. I added six bhergias purchased from ebay and a whorl of eggs and they ate all of the aiptasia. In two months time, all aiptasia were gone. They even rooted through my zoa colonies and ate the aiptasia hiding in the centers of each colony. Zoas untouched. Everything else untouched.

I have never experienced this in any tank of mine using aiptasia x, I've also never heard of that happening.

 

 

Aiptasia can move, like any other anemone and they can also reproduce on their own.

[Lula_Mae]

Don't nuke the tank. I had aiptasia on my first live rock and was scared of it lol.  A member here, Brandon, who has a 10+ year old pico vase reef, used to advocate getting those butane torch lighters and using them on the aiptasia (out of the tank of course) Burning those suckers was a lot of fun lol. I'm not sure, but peroxide might also be an option. Aiptasia-x has been used for years by many people with success, some also used boiling water or a kalkwasser paste but those might be an option. Just don't use a majano wand, someone on here did that and had an aiptasia population explosion!

[richnyc]

Honestly I would start over.  I had the same problem with my nano two years ago.  Now even after aiptasia x and kalkwasser (which I overdosed and killed my fish) vinegar, I am thinking of getting nudis.  Wish I started over in the beginning.  I have aipatasia even in my sand 

[Tamberav]

I just boil water... suck it into a syringe and then sneak up on them..... and burn them and their hidey hole to hell 🔥  Flood the crap out of whatever crevice they try to retreat into and they will melt. Works for me every time. 

[jeepseahawk]

I put 6 peppermint shrimp in my 24 gal, it was full of aiptasia.  Less than 3 days they were all gone, took 4 of the shrimp back to shop and kept two for good measure.   It was cool watching them at night with flashlight eating the aiptasia.   I tried Aiptasia x but was not getting good results, plus too many.   Someone on forum suggested the peppermint shrimp way and I was pleased.  

[mcarroll]

Aptasia X works like a charm as long as you can follow directions.

 

Do it like this:

 

[jeepseahawk]

I did what above poster shows, it worked for easily reached and big ones but must sneak up very close.  Many were hard to get to without taking rock out and then hard to locate this way, they shrivel up into crevice (x has to be put in mouth).    Key is to get X in mouth before they close, not easy, another problem I had.   Was ready to buy a laser, burn them out through glass but very costly, tried peppermint shrimp and got lucky.  There are two shrimp that look similar, make sure you get real peppermint shrimp.  

Edited February 5, 2019 by jeepseahawk
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