How to kill aiptasia effectively

[UMALUM]

Will peppermint shrimps eat Zoanthus after the Aiptasia gone?

I wish

 

[OrionN]

I wish

You wish to get rid of the Zoanthus?
There is somebody on R2R with sea spider that decimated his Zoanthus. Maybe you can get some from him.

 

[OrionN]

I look for Sundial snails, Heliacus variegatus, a long time ago to get rid my tank of Zoanthus. That was 30 years ago. This snail is a specific Zoanthus predator.

 

[UMALUM]

You wish to get rid of the Zoanthus?
There is somebody on R2R with sea spider that decimated his Zoanthus. Maybe you can get some from him.

Yeah I had a frag fall into a hole months ago and this happened. My fault for not doing something sooner. I would love a natural predator as I'm not looking forward to cutting them out.

 

[dwarfseahorse]

Peppermint shrimp have worked for me 100% of the time

They have worked for me 100% of the time also. Plus, they get along with everything in the tank and are fun to watch. They keep everything clean. Unfortunately, they won't eat bubble algie but thats another problem.

 

[haslip]

Why not just keep an aptasia eating file fish in there? When they see them they eat them. When they have cleaned them up, they eat any food you feed the rest of the tank. Plus, they might not have amazing colors but are fun to watch swim around.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Pretend it is expensive and try to keep it alive.

 

[Garf]

Not a lot survives an overcoat made from sodium hydroxide and kalk;

Technique for Spot-Treating Algae In Tank (unless it's dumb) NaOH+H2O2

(Edit: after trying it, Garf's suggestion - posts 4,5,6 - is better. I'd use Sodium Hydroxide denser than saltwater + Calcium Hydroxide.) I looked for a few different things to kill hunks of algae in a tank without having to pull the rock out and that might be less work/more effective than...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Lavey29]

You need a couple things to kill aptasia effectively

Mini Majano Wand Aiptasia and Majano Eliminator

Find premium aquarium supplies at Aquacave. we offer top brands like Tunze, Ecotech, and more. Free Shipping available!

aquacave.com

 

[KrisReef]

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%.

You need to teach the fish to swim into the overflow and get them if you want 100%, and of course into the sump and in all the pipes. I have mine in a tank without any aps and I need to move him into the fish tank in the house but I am worried about aggression in that tank. These things always seem to have some complication.

 

[littlefishy]

Yeah I had a frag fall into a hole months ago and this happened. My fault for not doing something sooner. I would love a natural predator as I'm not looking forward to cutting them out.

F aiptasia works on xenia, maybe on zoa, too?

 

[littlefishy]

My peppermints didn't distinguish between aiptasia and small rfa. They're all anemone, after all. But, it's been a year + and no aiptasia. Only lost a few smaller rfa, stopped immediately after I returned the shrimp to the store.

 

[reefiteasy]

Will peppermint shrimps eat Zoanthus after the Aiptasia gone?

Generally not if the tank is well fed. They do have a tendency to pick food out of corals if they’re not well fed and sometimes that can irritate corals

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

pepps! Haven’t seen one Aptasia since.

 

[KrisReef]

Technology is key.

 

[gbroadbridge]

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

I've been using 3M Sodium Hydroxide + Calcium Chloride for long while now.

Works pretty well at nuking them, but they pretty much always come back 3-12 months later no matter what you use.

They're just a part of reef keeping which I've accepted

 

[stewy14]

what I did(accidentally) was set the tank to 100+ degrees f...
killed NOTHING(even the sps!!!) but the aiptasia...

 

[gbroadbridge]

Why not just keep an aptasia eating file fish in there? When they see them they eat them.

They're not reef safe - at all

 

[KrisReef]

I've been using 3M Sodium Hydroxide + Calcium Chloride for long while now.

Works pretty well at nuking them, but they pretty much always come back 3-12 months later no matter what you use.

They're just a part of reef keeping which I've accepted

They do seem to be able to resurrect from the dead. I have tried the pastes and injection therapy; I watched them return after seeing them disintegrate with vinegar, Muriatic acid lime juice, and still they would spontaneously generate on the live rocks after repeated treatments.

I suspect that they do indeed die from injecting them but they must be leaving behind a small pedal clone, or something similar that was deposited before they were treated? The observations were that they came back from the dead and after 4 reincarnation episodes (some that included injections and acid immersion of the whole piece of live rock) and they returned typically after 3-4 weeks of “successful” eradication.

 

[Dburr1014]

You need a couple things to kill aptasia effectively

Mini Majano Wand Aiptasia and Majano Eliminator

Find premium aquarium supplies at Aquacave. we offer top brands like Tunze, Ecotech, and more. Free Shipping available!

aquacave.com

Hmmm, seems like the more I drink the better they look!