One Single Aiptasia

Unfortunatly it seems every lfs I have been too has aiptasia in their tanks. The tanks that look clean usually have a butterfly fish in them as a means of control which is not the best option for are reef aquariums at home.

Best you can do is study each piece you buy. Look at it from all angles and if you see any pest on it inlcuding aiptasia avoid it. Even though you may not see any there can be microscopic little babies on there so it is never a 100% sure thing but it will limit introducing problems into the aquarium and if something pops up it will start small enough where you can handle it.

As for the original question I battled the same issue. Tank has been up for 10months or so now and never has an aiptasia until 1 day a nasty little bugger popped up right next to a mushroom coral. I went back and forth on if I should get a butterfly or shrimp and as the weeks went by it grew and grew until it had a decent sized head. I decided against known coral predators and used some aiptasia x following the direction perfectly and it basically melted the thing away. Hopefully no more pop up but I have leftover if needed

 

I wouldn't follow too much of their advise, but from what some folks say, they'd like to be with in throwing range of at least one LFS. Some folks drive an hour or two away just to find a salt water fish store. My LFS has 3 tanks where he leaves the aptasia alone just for peppermint stocking.

 

I am definitely blessed that this LFS is only 5 minutes away....just wished their fish and tanks looked a little better! Definitely an inspiration to quarantine anything from there before I place it in my DT!

 

Some of the best lfs are sometimes also the ones that look the most unkept. I have a very high end one near me and they clean there tanks and glass constantly, have cherry cabinets and beautiful setups but they order from sometimes questionable places and much of their livestock comes in with infection or parasites. Another lfs looks very unkept with the glass on the aquariums needing some attention and very little thought put into presentation of corals and other livestock, but he orders from more trustworthy vendors and spends a lot of his time dipping fish and corals and treating anything that looks diseased. Still not perfect as it would be impossible for a lfs to have disease free livestock when they order in new things every week to add to existing setups

 

Personally, nothing has worked except for peppermint shrimp, and simply removing the rock, with the latter being the best option. from what I've seen, kalk paste doesn't actually kill the nem, it just covers it, and aiptasia are able to bore through rock and can move more speedily than one would think. When I kalk pasted mine, they just popped up somewhere else. Aiptasia X, lemon juice, boiling water, etc, are all hard because if you don't get it just right, the aiptasia releases spores because you poked it with a needle, causing more little ones to pop up. Peppermint shrimp are iffy because sometimes they just stop eating the anemone, at which point it releases spores again, also some claim they eat coral, and are often times confused with camel shrimp which aren't reef safe.

Unfortunately, these guys are just part of a reef, it took me almost 2 years to get rid of mine, starting with just one. I would still go to your LFS, assuming they provide good info.

 

i have never been able to kill a brown button polyp. kalk paste, lemon juice, vinegar, taking the rock out and burning with a lighter. none of those worked to kill a few brown button polyps i have in my tank. when i was new to the hobby i thought they were bad and ugly but they are just ugly. actually now they grew back a super green fluorescent.
with that being said i am very doubtful kalk paste will kill aiptasia, probably only piss it off and make it spread. i would remove whatever it is on immediately and let bake it in the sun