How to kill aiptasia effectively

[Dburr1014]

Everyone has or will have these buggers if you don't QT everything. They have adopted to living in our tanks quite well and are really good at survival.

I have used many ways to kill aiptasia I still find them. I have only seen one in my system in the past couple years until a couple days ago. I probably have a dozen since trying to kill that one a couple months ago.

There are several ways to kill aiptasia but I have never found any to be 100% effective.
Not even the Berghia nudibranch is 100%, they eat what they can find and die. Others have success with shrimps and certain fish but if they leave the system certainly the aiptasia will return.

Kalk paste, lemon juice, and commercial remedies at the LFS, all the same. If not used correctly they don't kill 100%. Most likely they lead to the aiptasia getting worse.

I came across this article today and it's the first I've seen it so I wanted to share.
This method says it's about 90% effective. It will burn the aiptasia as long as it's gets onto the target.

This is NOT to be taken lightly by any means. This is a chemical that can do some damage if you don't take your precautions. Wear your personal protective equipment (PPE).

Happy Reefing

aiptasia control

www.reefscapes.net

 

[rhitee93]

I have been using NaOH for the last several months to manage aiptasia, however it hasn't worked to eliminate them. I went from finding one or two a week to hunting down a dozen or more every saturday morning. Most of the ones I killed were the size of a pea.

I'd get every one I could find. Then a week later there would be a dozen more.

In the end I gave up on this and introduced an aiptasia eating filefish. I haven't found a single one since the fish went into the tank a few weeks ago. So far it hasn't bothered any coral or my clams, but I know that is still a risk. I see it pecking at the rocks all the time. I don't know what all it is after, but it is getting the aiptasia as they grow because I never see them anymore.

 

[Mwatts12]

I have a few popping up. I know what happens next.

I’ll give this a try and update.

 

[Mwatts12]

And based off the comment above mine. Maybe I won’t.

 

[A-10reefer]

Aiptaisa X also uses sodium hydroxide in a lesser concentration. Great resource to have in your back pocket but you can probably get the same results with calcium hydroxide.

I was losing the battle pretty early on trying aiptaisa x and other methods. Got a couple biota peppermints and have not seen an aiptaisa since. Put me in the shrimp def work category lol

 

[UMALUM]

Wild peps from reeftopia and a cb Molly Miller blenny from Dr reef seemed to clean mine up. I did also use that f aptaisa stuff for the larger ones at the top of the reef where I figured the peps were to scared to travel to. I'm not sure what's all in that stuff but two things I noticed was 1 the aptaisa absolutely disintegrated and 2 I had a 18 hour alk stall. The blenny is an ugly little thing God bless him but he does a great job on the smalls.

 

[reefiteasy]

Peppermint shrimp have worked for me 100% of the time

 

[Jimbo327]

I just inject straight vinegar.

 

[VP616]

I've had good experiences with Frank's F-Aiptasia. But, you've got to cover that thing like no other. They will get through even the smallest crack/hole left behind. Threw a couple peppermint shrimp in for good measure, and haven't had a problem since.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Great post @Dburr1014. I have a Copper banded butterfly fish that is the Michael Phelps of my 180g. “Unstoppable”! 100% 7 plus years no Aptasias! At least in my “tank proper” There are dozens of them in my two overflows. I mostly forget about them. Anyhow maybe not 100%.

 

[Screwby]

I currently have a 24g and a 45g system. I used some of the live rock from the smaller tank to help cycle the larger one. Shortly after transferring the rock, I noticed some aiptasia popping up in the 24g. About a month later the 45g was going through the ugly hair algae stage and after that cleared, I noticed aiptasia everywhere (at least 50). I bought some peppermint shrimp for both tanks and within two weeks I couldn't find a single aiptasia. I'm sure there's still a few lurking in the tank, but the shrimp seemed to do their job.

 

[Dburr1014]

I used the concoction of sodium hydroxide last night on the one in the tank. It was kinda on its side near the sand bed in a small hole.
My tank is 24" deep, lucky I have long arms. I did my best to position the syringe near it's mouth but it retracted. So I just shot it in it's hole.
I used the whole 0.5ml I sucked up in the syringe. It seemed like I was over doing it but I didn't care, I want it gone. I left the pumps off for a few minutes while I watched the small bubbles bead out of the hole. It did feel satisfying and I didn't see any part of the aiptasia come out either.
Time will tell if I completly destroyed it. Fingers crossed.
Next on the list is the sump. I will be doing a different method on that. When my fish get out of QT in a couple weeks, in going to put my small frag rack in my 8 gallon low boy and completly remove and clean it with bleach. I will also clean the skimmer, calrx, return pump and the pipe connecting it. All my other pipe is new. Leave that out in the sun for a day and reassemble. Probably rearrange things when I'm there.
It will be nice having a dedicated coral QT in the end.

 

[Reef Puncher]

Everyone has or will have these buggers if you don't QT everything. They have adopted to living in our tanks quite well and are really good at survival.

I have used many ways to kill aiptasia I still find them. I have only seen one in my system in the past couple years until a couple days ago. I probably have a dozen since trying to kill that one a couple months ago.

There are several ways to kill aiptasia but I have never found any to be 100% effective.
Not even the Berghia nudibranch is 100%, they eat what they can find and die. Others have success with shrimps and certain fish but if they leave the system certainly the aiptasia will return.

Kalk paste, lemon juice, and commercial remedies at the LFS, all the same. If not used correctly they don't kill 100%. Most likely they lead to the aiptasia getting worse.

I came across this article today and it's the first I've seen it so I wanted to share.
This method says it's about 90% effective. It will burn the aiptasia as long as it's gets onto the target.

This is NOT to be taken lightly by any means. This is a chemical that can do some damage if you don't take your precautions. Wear your personal protective equipment (PPE).

Happy Reefing

aiptasia control

www.reefscapes.net

no where i look shows 2N....they are all represented as a percentage of hydroxide to water. so no clue which to actually buy.

 

[Reef Puncher]

I currently have a 24g and a 45g system. I used some of the live rock from the smaller tank to help cycle the larger one. Shortly after transferring the rock, I noticed some aiptasia popping up in the 24g. About a month later the 45g was going through the ugly hair algae stage and after that cleared, I noticed aiptasia everywhere (at least 50). I bought some peppermint shrimp for both tanks and within two weeks I couldn't find a single aiptasia. I'm sure there's still a few lurking in the tank, but the shrimp seemed to do their job.

see...i have to keep manually killing aip and they keep coming back so fast. how the hell do they reproduce so fast lol. but i would love to get some nudibranch or peppermint shrimp but everyone says peppermint shrimp will eat torches and zoas. and that terrifies me.

 

[Reef Puncher]

Aiptaisa X also uses sodium hydroxide in a lesser concentration. Great resource to have in your back pocket but you can probably get the same results with calcium hydroxide.

I was losing the battle pretty early on trying aiptaisa x and other methods. Got a couple biota peppermints and have not seen an aiptaisa since. Put me in the shrimp def work category lol

did they not eat your corals too?

 

[rhitee93]

no where i look shows 2N....they are all represented as a percentage of hydroxide to water. so no clue which to actually buy.

2N is a measure of concentration of the solution. I forget the difference between "N" and molarity "M", but I think for our purposes they are probably close enough to each other to not matter. (Randy can chastise me if I'm wrong) I used a 2 molar (2M) solution of NaOH when aiptasia hunting.

Generally speaking, You'll find NaOH as a solid and have to mix up your own solution. However, given the danger involved, I don't really feel qualified to explain how to mix up your solution.

 

[Reef Puncher]

2N is a measure of concentration of the solution. I forget the difference between "N" and molarity "M", but I think for our purposes they are probably close enough to each other to not matter. (Randy can chastise me if I'm wrong) I used a 2 molar (2M) solution of NaOH when aiptasia hunting.

Generally speaking, You'll find NaOH as a solid and have to mix up your own solution. However, given the danger involved, I don't really feel qualified to explain how to mix up your solution.

ohhh is M the same? i did find a 1.0 M? does @Randy Holmes-Farley know?

 

[Dburr1014]

no where i look shows 2N....they are all represented as a percentage of hydroxide to water. so no clue which to actually buy.

Home Depot is where I bought lye. It's granular in form. I don't have a picture of the bottle but it was in the plumbing section. On the back it said 99% pure.

When mixing you want to start with water and then add the sodium hydroxide. I didn't know how much to add so I just kept adding some until it stopped mixing. I just use a small shot glass as you don't want to use much and I was only going for one aiptasia. Use gloves.

 

[Rjukan]

Does no one else use boiling water in a syringe? It's been very successful for me with zero spreading and almost 100% success rate.

 

[A-10reefer]

did they not eat your corals too?

I read the horror stories with peppermints also, thats why I decided to go with biota. The biota peppermints are a little pricey but they haven't touched any of my corals that i am aware of. When i first got them, I put them in a container in the sump with a frag of zoas with an aiptasia on it. Ate the aip and didnt touch the zoas, so I put them in them tank. All of my torches and hammers are fine, I even have a few tiny spawned torches.