Drying out Aiptasia

[TrampledByEwoks]

Hi All!

I took in some cycled rock out of someone else's reef. I was buying a few coral off of him and mentioned he'd get rid of some rock as well because he was consolidating tanks. I know this is a usually frowned upon and well I am now paying the piper in a sense.

I am now about two months in of having the rock in my display and I am noticing some aiptasia here and there on it. I know I could get peppermint shrimp, the filefish, or a copperband to take care of them but I am wondering if I am able to just pull the rock and let it dry out for a few days and to kill the aiptasia and then put it back. All the aiptasia I can see are still centered on the one rock. I know this will cause some die off of bacteria, algae, and other things but I feel like the repercussions of that are worth it if it kills off all the aiptasia.

Wondering what others thoughts on this route may be!

 

[CasperOe]

Stick it in fresh water, that will kill it straight away! You can actually see it imploding, which is rather fun in a macabre kind of way! Beware though, I did it and I noticed an ammonia spike when i put it back in my tank - likely from all the dead aiptasia.

I did it in a "test tank" in a controlled environment though because i was curious if it could be done!

 

[TrampledByEwoks]

Stick it in fresh water, that will kill it straight away! You can actually see it imploding, which is rather fun in a macabre kind of way! Beware though, I did it and I noticed an ammonia spike when i put it back in my tank - likely from all the dead aiptasia.

I did it in a "test tank" in a controlled environment though because i was curious if it could be done!

Sounds both effective and a little satisfying! Thanks for the response and will likely give this a try. Probably will pair it will a water change scheduled shortly after.

 

[dakoop]

Hit em with a torch

 

[Quintin]

Stick it in fresh water, that will kill it straight away! You can actually see it imploding, which is rather fun in a macabre kind of way! Beware though, I did it and I noticed an ammonia spike when i put it back in my tank - likely from all the dead aiptasia.

I did it in a "test tank" in a controlled environment though because i was curious if it could be done!

Putting it in fresh water defeats the purpose of tanking rock from an existing system. The reason why you take rock from an established system is for the bacteria, micro fauna and flora to help you cycle your tank faster.

Now you going to dump it in fresh water and essentially kill off all the stuff on the surface of the rock you tried to import in the first place.

The ammonia spike is not just because of the aiptasia you are killing off but also all the beneficial stuff you tried to import..

 

[Doctorgori]

you can put the rock in hot sunlight, turn it every 20 min or so…. trust me, you can’t possibly kill off all the bacteria on rock by exposing it for a hour …. it will be set back with some surface die off but it will crank back up in a week or so
OR as stated put a mini torch to them,I’ve actually done that

 

[Mechano]

Why not just kalk paste or aptasiaX the ones on the rock with it out of water? Less damage to the live rock microfauna and less chance of a mini cycle. Just a thought.

 

[The_Paradox]

Aiptasia is not that big of a deal if caught before it’s out of control. If it’s less than I dozen I would just skim over them with some superglue.

 

[Jmp998]

A brief freshwater dip will not eradicate Aiptasia in my experience. I have left them > 24 hours in a bucket of tap water with many surviving. Yes it did thin them out, but many survived.

 

[Pistondog]

Kalk paste injected on the aptasia