Aptasia is truly a bummer

[MasterBlaster]

Well, I thought I had gotten rid of my Aiptasia infestation when my heater stuck and cooked everything in my tank. I forgot about the ones in my fuge. As luck would have it, circulation between the two had been stopped because my pump had failed. But there were enough to reinfest the tank.

I was getting sick of the whole deal. I had waves upon waves of flowing, thriving Aiptasia all over my LR. I tried a CBB. No luck. Pepermint shrimp? Ditto. Joe's juice? It killed em fine. There were just too many babies waiting to replace the ones I killed, and Joe's juice doesn't last forever.

A friend of mine had the same problem. He said you have to yank ALL your LR, scrub it under freshwater, set it out, and let it dry. Man, I just can't bring myself to do that. So...

I yanked it all, put it in my fuge, and turned off the lights. My tank is now just a bed of LS. I'm gonna play all this by ear, and see what happens. As the Aiptasia appears in the tank, I can easily remove it. And maybe the Aiptasia will die from lack of light.

But I've been told that it can still live without light. So I'm gonna find out. At least I haven't killed my LR, so far.

Any thoughts on this? Do ya'll think it might work? Or do I have to scrub...

[Reefland]

Yeah that is a real bummer; dealing with Aiptasia can be worse than an outbreak of hair algae.

I don't think keeping the rock under no light will kill the Aiptasia, they will continue to feed from particulate matter in the water and thrive. There are a couple of choices for you in my opinion, none of them are "easy" fixes.

1. Removing your rock and scrubbing it under freshwater and letting it dry will only kill the rock. If you go this route, you will need to purchase new liverock so save yourself the hard work and just toss the rock and buy new rack. if you do this, make sure you thoroughly clean the tank, sump and all the equipment to ensure the new rock doesn't get seeded by remaining Aiptasia.

2. Continue to purchase Peppermint Shrimp from different sources ustill you find some that will eat them. It is a "hit and miss" process and could get costly depending on how many different sources you had to try before you suceeded in finding a couple that would eat the Aiptasia, but may prove to be less costly then purchasing all new liverock.

3. Try out some of the Nudibranchs that Coral Sand Bar offers. It is inevitible they will die once there is no food to consume (Aiptasia) so you would be forced to try and find someone that could use them before that happened. http://www.coralsandbar.com/files/berghiaegg.jpg

Hope that helps,

[MasterBlaster]

I don't think keeping the rock under no light will kill the Aiptasia, they will continue to feed from particulate matter in the water and thrive.

So how 'bout I starve em? I only have two fish. I could relocate them and let the crabs and bristleworms fend for themselves.

???

[Reefland]

There is always going to be a certain amount of organic and inorganic compounds in the water column they will feed from; I don't think you can starve them. If it were me and I had some funds allocated to attack the problem, I would go with option 2; purchasing an array of Peppermint Shrimp from various sources with the hope that one of the new additions will have an appetite.

[MasterBlaster]

Yea, I didn't think starving them would work. I'm getting ten peppermint shrimp tomorrow, but they will all come from the same LFS.

How about a fresh water soaking? That would be better than outright killing it.

[Reefland]

A freshwater soaking would kill off the liverock if left in freshwater for an amount of time that would kill off Aiptasia.

Good luck with the Peppermint Shrimp when you get them, hopefully they will attack your problem.

[DEE]

Hey Masterblaster-

I hate to tell you but turning the lights off won't do it. I had a small infestation in one of my tanks but it did really matter to much because I knew I was taking the tank down cause we are moving. To make a long story short I took all the equipment off the tank heater, pumps, skimmer, filters, lights, I mean everything -just left some of the water, the infected rock, and the sand for about 2 months maybe more and it still survived!

Sorry!-Dee

[mike3843]

I have a Aptasia Anenome I discovered in my 30 gallon reef. I injected it last night with Kent Marine Liquid Calcium. Since I injected it I have not seen it since. It has only been 1 day but it seems it killed it.

[MasterBlaster]

Man, I can't believe I'm gonna have to kill my $600 worth of LR. My friends say, "No biggie, the LS will reseed it". I just don't think it's gonna be the same.

[MasterBlaster]

OK, I think I've psyched myself up to do the deed.

What's the best way? Scrub it under hot water?

[Reefland]

If your going to kill it off, I think I would just take it out and set it outside for a week or so and then rinse it good with freshwater before placing it back in the tank.

[MasterBlaster]

So, scrubbing it under hot water wouldn't speed things along?

And how long do ya think it will take my DSB/LS to re-seed it? Years?

[Reefland]

Yeah scrubbing it would speed it along but it sounds like patience is more needed than elbow grease. What I mean is if you have that kind of problem and if your going to go through the loss then you ought to make sure it's done right the first time.

As far as reseeding the rock, I don't think the sand bed alone is enough, I would probably add half of the dead rock on the bottom and seed it with new rock on top.

[MasterBlaster]

This is almost enough to make me go back to Astronotus ocellatus , and the like. The heater malfunction, combined with the infestation, has lost me easily over $1000.

I'm very worried about future purchases. Who's to say it won't be in my new LR? This has got me rethinking everything.

Truly a bummer.

[Reefland]

The only way to ensure your new rock doesn't have an infestation is to purchase the rock from a very trusted source.

[MasterBlaster]

Well, I'll do the deed today. I guess I'll set all the LR in a big, flat tupperware container that might allow me to catch whatever critters might come out of the rock. I know there is a pistol shrimp that's been living in a piece now for over two years.

For the record, I didn't get the aiptasia from LR, it was in a handful of caulpera I purchased for my 'fuge. I remember seeing one in it, and I didn't think anything about it.

This has been a hard lesson.

[MasterBlaster]

My tank and fuge is bare. The rock(It's just rock now ) has been scrubbed under hot water and is outside to dry.

I've never felt so guilty before over doing something. I erradicated all those good critters.

THIS has opened my eyes...

[Reefland]

Unfortunately there are a lot of hard learned lessons that can be learned in this hobby, propoer quarantine to prevent disease outbreaks and pesty critters is one of them.

Hope it all works out for you, be sure to keep us up to date on your progress.

Scott Z.

[MasterBlaster]

So when is the rock gonna stop smelling like a corpse? I've rinsed it outside twice with under high pressure with hot water, letting it dry out each time. Flys everywhere. Yeeuch.

On the bright side, my aiptasia appears to be nearly gone. All I see are the occasional one or two babies which I remove. I think I've got it whupped, but it's cost me a high price. And I'm still gonna wait a goodly while before I do anything.

I've removed my protein skimmer completely for the time being. My bioload is low... two High-Finned Cardinals and twenty blue legs. I don't want provide the aiptasia anyplace to proprogate in. It's just my LSB any an Emperor 400, boiwheels removed.

It's just me, and the aiptasia babies. I'm winning.

So when will the LR... errr, dead rock... stop stinking?

[MyLittleOcean]

maybe a week.

Sad Sad day....I am having the same trouble. Kill one find 50.
I had a Berghi Nudi that was wooping there a** but i found it a monthe later chewed up in the surge.
I will be tearing down the tank at the end of August. I will temp set up at the new house and start a 180 gallon. I will get some more Berghi's and VERY carefully inspect and QT each piece for a month before placing into the new tank. Thats not all for me I have those #$#@ red flat worms too. I have learned the meaning of a 30 day QT. EVERYTHING will now be QTed before placement.

I assume you know you will have to cycle the rock again before putting back into the tank. New plastic trash can and skimmer will do fine.

You say the rock was 2 yrs old. I am sorry man, thats gotta hurt.