Best way to get rid of Aptasia only in refugium?

[aaron186]

I have aptasia that are starting to pop up in the refugium section of my tank. My fuge is ceramic bio balls and chaeto and I have seen 5-10 aptasia on the walls balls and algea. Thankfully it appears isolated to the refugium and I haven’t seen anything in my display. I have 5 peppermint shrimp that might be to thank for that. I ordered some berghia nudibranchs and put them in the sump about 2 weeks ago but I’m not sure they are still alive and haven’t done anything to help it seems.

What would be the best course of action to take to prevent this from becoming an issue? I think I have F aptasia in my supply closet. I was considering catching a shrimp or just buying 1 or 2 more to throw in the fuge. Any suggestions?

 

[hikebikebrew]

I put peppermint shrimp in the sump of my old tank to help. They def kept the aptasia at bay. I've used F aptasia in my current tank, that worked great.

 

[exnisstech]

Maybe put one or two of the peppermints in there.

 

[aaron186]

I put peppermint shrimp in the sump of my old tank to help. They def kept the aptasia at bay. I've used F aptasia in my current tank, that worked great.

The only issue with F aptasia (outside of its safety? Never used it) is that I have to find all of them. There’s a few that look like that are stuck to the algae so finding them is going to be challenging. I guess I can do it on the easy ones and maybe just replace all the chaeto

 

[aaron186]

Maybe put one or two of the peppermints in there.

I don’t think I’m going to catch them. Will probably just buy more

 

[phillyb614]

I may sound crazy for doing/saying this, but in my AIO tank, I had a massive aptasia problem. To the point that I almost threw in the towel. I aquired a file fish and a couple peppermints. The job that these guys did, was absolutely incredible. I never see an aptasia in my display now.

However, In one of my filter chambers in the back of the tank, there are plenty of big healthy aptasia. I have a theory. I have left these alone, so that they can still produce larva that may make it's way into the display. I do this is in order to try to keep giving my aptasia destroying team some of the problem nems to eat, to help keep them from getting hungry and going after my corals. Which I know both the file fish and peppermints have both been well known to do and have created many haters of these guys in the hobby.

Maybe this is helping to keep them from touching my corals (because they haven't) or maybe not. Just something I have tried that has worked so far.

 

[aaron186]

I may sound crazy for doing/saying this, but in my AIO tank, I had a massive aptasia problem. To the point that I almost threw in the towel. I aquired a file fish and a couple peppermints. The job that these guys did, was absolutely incredible. I never see an aptasia in my display now.

However, In one of my filter chambers in the back of the tank, there are plenty of big healthy aptasia. I have a theory. I have left these alone, so that they can still produce larva that may make it's way into the display. I do this is in order to try to keep giving my aptasia destroying team some of the problem nems to eat, to help keep them from getting hungry and going after my corals. Which I know both the file fish and peppermints have both been well known to do and have created many haters of these guys in the hobby.

Maybe this is helping to keep them from touching my corals (because they haven't) or maybe not. Just something I have tried that has worked so far.

Interesting. Right now though I only have peppermints in my display which I don’t think will go after many corals. My tank is sps dominant. I also have never noticed aptasia in my tank. I’m not sure if that’s because the problem started in my fuge and hasn’t spread to display, or the shrimp are doing their thing. I quarantine everything the best I can including coral. I got the chaeto from Algaebarn which was supposed to be “clean” but perhaps it wasn’t

 

[Jmp998]

Berghia should do well in a refugium. If you see 5 aiptasia in a fuge with bioballs etc, you probably have 10 times that many. It will take the berghia a while to reproduce and eat them all. Generation time is 2 months, it will likely take about that long to start seeing results unless you bought a lot of berghia.

 

[exnisstech]

Interesting. Right now though I only have peppermints in my display which I don’t think will go after many corals. My tank is sps dominant. I also have never noticed aptasia in my tank. I’m not sure if that’s because the problem started in my fuge and hasn’t spread to display, or the shrimp are doing their thing. I quarantine everything the best I can including coral. I got the chaeto from Algaebarn which was supposed to be “clean” but perhaps it wasn’t

I have 3 tanks all with aiptasia. Peppermint shrimp do a great job of keeping them out of the display and I have not seen the shrimp bothering coral. I also have a CBB that keeps them out of my largest display that doesn't have shrimp. If you want to try catching a shrimp vs buying one a simple bottle trap has never failed for me.
Not my image. I use gatorade bottles because the opening is larger. I set them at night so I'm less likely to catch fish.

 

[aaron186]

Berghia should do well in a refugium. If you see 5 aiptasia in a fuge with bioballs etc, you probably have 10 times that many. It will take the berghia a while to reproduce and eat them all. Generation time is 2 months, it will likely take about that long to start seeing results unless you bought a lot of berghia.

I bought 6 of them. Thank you

 

[piranhaman00]

Aiptaisa are not some devil that must be eradicated at all costs.

Having them in your refugium will only provide benefits

 

[aaron186]

Aiptaisa are not some devil that must be eradicated at all costs.

Having them in your refugium will only provide benefits

What benefits? I’d prefer not to deal with them in this tank and I’m hoping it’s a 10 year plus tank

 

[TX_REEF]

also curious what benefits to having aiptasia in fuge

 

[Doctorgori]

However, In one of my filter chambers in the back of the tank, there are plenty of big healthy aptasia. I have a theory. I have left these alone, so that they can still produce larva that may make its way into the display. I do this is in order to try to keep giving my aptasia destroying team some of the problem nems to eat, to help keep them from getting hungry and going after my corals.

if someone has eradicated aptasia with a biological control and they keep reappearing then the overflow box is the most likely source IME…what I did was just shut off the overflow, close the return pump valve and filled the chamber with RO water, then let it dry out …

or you could just subscribe to the post below

Aiptaisa are not some devil that must be eradicated at all costs.

Having them in your refugium will only provide benefits

I dunno, I’m pretty certain I’ve always had aptasia so no armageddon all these years, but I’ve had them explode so like bristleworms less = better
I ended up buying berghia

 

[Jmp998]

A few aiptasia are mostly harmless. Problem is if you have the right environment-mostly this means feed a lot for whatever reason-they can explode out of control and they will kill many other desirable corals.