Aiptasia Anemones

Use kalkwasser and alternate with the lemon juice if you're really concerned.

 

Guys, I have crazy thoughts swimming in my head. As I take all this time trying to get this situation figured out, as I type now , my two kids are wanting to play with me.
I have these thoughts that maybe I should bail on this whole thing now. I know how much time it takes and had a soft coral reef 4 years ago. I got rid of it when I had my first son because I didnt have the time or money.. now I am having similar thoughts. This whole situation really threw a wrench into my positive outlook when I decided to get back into it.

 

It's up to you personally I think its a little earily in the game to give up.
There will be times you have to spend a few hours on the tank to fix something(mostly when your getting it set up). personally I don't think its that much but if you can't scrape together that much time every once in a while it might not be for you.

Of course theres always the option of nuking all your rock, you will loose all the life on it but it will take far less time then killing each anemone. you got the rock for less then base rock anyway.

 

I'll also say that at some point, things become relatively stable with the tank, and require a minimal time investment. I top off (no ATO), do a water change every month-ish (only 6 months since I set up), and clean the glass every couple of days. That's a weekly investment of under 2 hours.

Now, I have time to sit and watch the tank with the time I was spending on doing all sorts of changing and maintenance.

As for aiptasia, I'm still fighting them, and am just gonna use some Berghia Nudibranchs to do the work.

 

If I decide to nuke all of the LR what would be the chances of them being in some of the 50lbs of dry thats been in the tank with it? The dry has been in the tank for about 2 weeks now. The LR only 2 days.

 

I don't know, probably not very good but there may be one or two that fell off. they are anemones they like to stay attached to where ever they are if its hospitible.

 

Whats the success rate of Berghia Nudibranchs and do they have any negatives if added to the tank!?

 

100% if they get put in securely. They are obligate feeders on aiptasia, meaning they won't eat anything else, ever. They have no big negatives in terms of hurting other organisms.

If a fish picks on it (which is rare), they'll feel a sting, as nudibranchs store the nematocysts (stinging cells) from the aiptasia they eat in the sacks on their backs. Other than that, they won't walk on corals, and they won't hurt anything.

You have to make sure they're not placed directly on to an aiptasia when you put them in to the tank, or they will be eaten. Otherwise, the biggest "problem" is that once they eat all your aiptasia, they'll die off from starvation, so you might want to pull out as many of them as you can (you usually buy a couple, and let a colony grow from there) and ship them to someone else after they did their job in your tank.

They won't eat majanos, but you can nuke the majanos, as they're not as likely to reproduce from a "death" the way aiptasia will.

 

Will anything eat the Majanos?
Also when these are eaten anemones are eaten, does that mean there gone for good or what the chances they come back?
Iv done some research but nobody seems too sure.

 

I guess there may be a chance they could miss one, but when your in average sized tank and your obligated to eat them you will search pretty hard.


the problem some hobbyist have removing them is you sometimes leave peaces when you kill them, they can come back from. but when they get eaten there is nothing left.


as far as the majano are concerned, I can't think of anything reef-safe that eats them. but they grow much slower then aptasia if you keep your water clean they won't reproduce, which means you can manually kill them when you have time. I had two majano's on a rock for over a year and they never reproduced. However don't do anything as stupid as to feed them they will spread if you do that(my father made that stupid mistake, ignoring my warning, because he was excited to have something growing. ).