aiptasia outbreak :(

i just got back from a 5 week vacation. my tank has a aiptasia outbreak. they cover everything. is there some way of killing all of them at once w/out killing corals and livestock?

 

no way of total decimation to them as a whole, you must wage war on the individuals..some may recommend Aiptasia X (i have never used it), i personally use very concentrated NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and it has worked wonders, simply melts them away without terrible side effects. i have also read that manual removal, with a siphon running in the area to suck up and pieces of the aiptasia that drift away. any way you cut it, you are in for a battle i imagine. HTH and good luck!

 

If its that bad, there are 2 options, IMO, total tank nuke or berghia nudibranches. Berghia's are not super easy to come by, but you can get them from reefcleaners, reefs2go, that hawaiann place, shoot what is it??? The problem with them is they only eat aiptasia, so once done, they will die, you'll need a rehoming option, like my LFS

 

Peppermint shrimp?

 

I have had good success with the old kalk paste method. Blast a few here and there but I have never had an "outbreak" either.

 

the only time i had luck removing them was with peppermint shrimp. i got three of them and didnt feed for awhile. one day they were all gone.

I know this is hit or miss with the shrimp, im one of the lucky ones.

 

Shirmp all day

 

whats a total nuke?

 

I got peppermints and they ate them all.

 

AHhhh, i feel like everyone has to eventually go through this! This stupid crap was about a 2 year battle for me. I just had to nuke which took about 6 months total! I slowly took out all my rock and dried it on the concrete. U have to do it very slowly or u will screw up the biological filtration and also you will have to fill ur tank back up with salt water. I wouldnt suggest it for just a few aiptasia as it was pretty much my very last resort! But it worked in the end and thats pretty much all that matters! Hahaha Good Luck!