Needing some help eliminating aiptasia.

So, I was given a some live rock from a friend to seed my base rock. At the time I was sooo excited because he also gave me some softies along with all these little brown anemones. So, I have about 3 rocks that are completely covered in aiptasia - problably about 25 per rock... I've have tried Kalk paste on them twice and also tried Joe's juice on them twice as well. It works for about two weeks, but then they just all come back. I'm seriously thinking about just soaking these rocks in bleach. My question is this - I do have some good life on the rocks that obviously would also be killed. I have these little white things with red fuzzy things coming out of the top that look like little pinapples as well as some tube worms that I have no idea what they are. (The come out in this tube at night and appear to be eating pods - they are very fast when they grab them) Is nuking the rock worth killing all the other life as well, and if so, how exactly should I nuke it. Thanks so much!! - Nathan

P.S - I also have a peppermint shrimp in the tank, but have yet to see him eat any aiptasia. I don't think he is a Camel, but he only comes out at night (so its hard to tell) and he was purchased as a pepp.

 

spray the bases with burning hot water out of a syringe when they let go net them out

 

or cover them in epoxy.

 

lemon juice in a syringe, inject a very small amount into the "mouth". It will kill them. check your PH and buffer after as that's an acid. Or buy a couple peppermint shrimp!

 

Ok first of all those red fuzzy things are called forminiferans, I believe.
As for the aiptasia explosion, you could purchase a Copperband Butterfly, add many Peppermint Shrimp, try vinegar or other suitable choices and inject these liquids into the mouth of the anemone itself, or place the piecs of live rock into a refugium and use the aiptasia as an integral part of the biological filtration within your aquarium, where you can control the spread of this potentially problematic but also beneficial invertebrate!

 

"Aiptasia X" is quite deadly and easy to use.

That said, if I were in your shoes, I'd nuke that rock, and seed with something that didn't include SEVENTY FIVE aiptasia!

Oh, and I'd have words with the "friend" that gave them to you.

 

Thanks for the input - Coral Reefer - I googled forminiferans and it looked like what I have... as for my friend that gave me this rock, he was just trying to help me out - I honestly don't think he knew what they were at the time either ;-( Does anyone know if Aiptasia X works any better than Joe's Juice? I've used Joes twice, but they just come back and some of them are so far into the rockwork that I can only access the mouths. If I nuke this rock, is it worth the trade off of having everything else die on it? My pod population has already exploded, so I'm sure they will come back as they are also living on my 'base rock'. And coraline is growing well too (Which is part of the reason I took the rock) As far as the butterfly - the tank is only a 46 bow and I'm not sure that will be big enough for that butterfly? I would have to get rid of it as soon as it finished it's job...

 

It really depends on why you want to kill the aiptasia. If you just want to kill those exclusively then nuking the entire rock prolly isn't the way to go. If you want to keep the LR bacteria alive, you can put them into hyposalinity treatment. That'll kill the feather dusters, bristleworms, and other little critters, but wont kill off everything (Coraline Algae for example will survive, as will the bacteria). Butterflys are a great idea, in fact my LFS knows it sells rock with aiptasia. So they offer to put your new purchase into a QT FOLR tank with only butterflys for the period of four weeks for free. And most LFS will accept fish as trades, so if you get a butterfly for your own tank use it for a while (not an extended period like a year or anything), then trade it in for another fish or some coral. Just make sure your store will accept trades though before you buy.

In my display tank I've used white vinegar and within the first treatment its annihilated any aiptasia. I did get some live rock with them on them, and just put them into my 20 gallon refugium. I now have a few down there that are about the size of a silver dollar.
You can always setup a QT or somekind of container with filtration and just poke at the buggers daily with treatment of joe's juice, vinegar, or hot water.

Not a comprehensive solution, but maybe it'll give you some ideas on which direction to go.

Hope it works out for you!
-Gavin

 

This would be the first thing I would do. then place the LR he gave me in his Not so bright place....

 

I used Aiptasia-X on mine and they died right then and there, awesome product !