# Aptasia



## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

I've got a 55 gallon tank that I'm breaking down into a 29 and I'll be selling off the excess. Unfortunately I'm not very experienced in SW and I have no idea how to get rid of the crazy ammounts of aptasias that have taken over the live rock over the past few months. I figure if there is a way to rid them while I'm already going to be transfering the live rock from my 55 to a 29, I mine as well do it then. If anyone has any good ideas on how to rid them, I'd appreciate it.

I have tried vinegar, lemon juice and kalkwasser injections with a syringe, but no luck. Possible a butterfly fish or some peppermint shrimp? Open to anything, lend me your thoughts please!


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## Guest (May 2, 2006)

What about Joes Juice?

http://www.joesjuice.com/


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

while you have the rock out of the water to transfer it let them have it with a torch lighter, that should take care of them sumbitches


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

lol, I'd much rather do it that way Andy! I dont want to kill my live rock though but I sure as hell don't want aptasia in my new 29!


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

that wont kill your live rock just get one of the wind proof stick lighters like you would use to light your grill. it would only cook a small area about the size of a dime the rest of your rouck would be fine.


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

Well, I just went to the LFS and got some of Joe's Juice. I just tried a small ammount on a piece of rock in the tank, and it totally nuked them!!! I'll have to take out the best of the 70 lbs I have and transfer about 35 lbs of aptasia free pieces to my 29 for my 29 reef to be set up!

By the way...I need a protein skimmer for my 29. I was thinking about the Jebo 180. What do you think Andy? Noisy? Worthless? what would you go with?


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

congratulations on ridding your tank of aptasia

I have the same problem and I'm planning on trying peppermint shrimp first, and maybe some joes juice also

Im scard to use joes juice casue I have some coral in the tank.


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## jiggy (Jun 27, 2004)

i think joes juice is just bottled kalk/lemon juice/vinegar mix.. best way to get rid of them permanently is to burn them off.. and then get peppermint shrimps to take care of the scraps.. butterfly fish nip at corals, so i wouldnt recommend one..


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

So.....what you're saying is....torch them!


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

Rodgers said:


> So.....what you're saying is....torch them!


yea I think that is exactly what he's saying?

boy I sure do hate to take all the live rock that I have in my tank out and torch the bad stuff on it cause I have evrything arranged so nicley, but its gotta be done soon, and I do also plan on getting some peppermint shrimp.


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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

trillion, joes juice is completely reef safe. just use some joes juice and throw a few peppermint shrimp in there for a while


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

illnino said:


> trillion, joes juice is completely reef safe. just use some joes juice and throw a few peppermint shrimp in there for a while


ok will do.

one question though, will my cleaner shrimp mess with my peppermint shrimp?.

And I have a lot of these wind mill looking things growing on my tunga rock with my star polyps, are those baby star polyps or what?.

there not like any aptasia I've ever seen but they have a long white narrow base, and a head with tenticles all the way around like a wind mill.

there in a fairly large group, but I really don't think they are aptasias or feather dusters.


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## jiggy (Jun 27, 2004)

peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp will be fine together..

u can use joes juice if u want, but it simply just doesnt work for some people. might as well just go through the trouble of torching them all now, instead of buying bottles of joes juice over and over if it doesnt work the first time.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

jiggy said:


> peppermint shrimp and cleaner shrimp will be fine together..
> 
> u can use joes juice if u want, but it simply just doesnt work for some people. might as well just go through the trouble of torching them all now, instead of buying bottles of joes juice over and over if it doesnt work the first time.










thanks!

ill get right on that tomorrow, but I swear if I start seeing them again I'm just gonna transfer all my coral to my 40 cause that is such a pain taking them out and burning.hmmm may be I should get a under water torch








justkidding ill do it the hard way. this 1st and last time.

The guy at the pet store told me that my cleaner shrimp would mess with my peppermint shrimp but I knew he was lieing I think he jut wanted to keep his shrimp caue he had a BAD aptasia problem.

thanks jiggy, dang man you must of got you some good booty or something cause you been being cool as hell lately.

by the way all your avatars kick ASS.

thanks for the quick response man.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

i really dont know any thing about the jebo skimmers, i think an asm mini g would suit you well though. When i finaly do finish merging my 20 with my 75 i could send you my diy skimmer all you would need to make it work is a pump like a mj 1200. i use a mj 1200 for flow and two airstones for bubbles, it skims great. But it is also tall, like 3 feet tall, and you would need a sump to house it in


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

How much would you want for it?

I'd have to put it on my forty gallon sump, cause I don't think that would fit in my 75 gl sump itd probably be to tall for the cabinet .

But just having it would give me the power to build a smaller one, now seeing how to build it from your invention.

I'd really like to get on a diy sump


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

Hey Trillion...how bout this..."Get out of my thread" you have already taken it over, how about starting your own. Thankyou!


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

ok soon as rbp answers my questions

people take over my threads all the time, and if you wanna get mad at some one blame rbp not me, he was the one that went completley off topic.

What's the matter you scard of him









just kiding, but if you wanna get technical about stuff theres already a thread about aptasia posted by me on page 2 or 3 so technically you took over mine, but unlike you Im comfortable with letting you take it over.









good luck.

So RBP, how bout it?


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

This is my thread. And RBP 4 135 is my friend and he's trying to help me out by selling me something that I may find useful, and you're trying to snatch it out right from under me, right out of my own thread. they call that "stepping on toes" and you've got some big feet there mister!


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

im not selling it ill just give it to you. also it probably wont fit under any commercial stands. so the sump would have to be behind then tank. i am using it in my 15 gallon sump filled to about 12 gallon capacity there is plrnty room for it, my draim pipe return pump and pipe and heater. let me know.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

my bad homie ill "step off", get it? step off :laugh:

holla, but I thought he was talking to me


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)




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## illnino (Mar 6, 2004)

trillion, you are a thread stealing whore.


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

illnino said:


> trillion, you are a thread stealing whore.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)




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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

Trillion said:


>


Aww man, cheer up mate! we were only givin you a hard time. Just try to be sensitive of other people threads, before you take them over for your own personal gain.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

will do man, thanks for being so understanding ulike some of these other punks.

won't happen again.

later.

damn we wasted the whole thread on almost everything but the issue.

sorry


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

Anyway, back on track now....I've been battling the aptasia with this Joe's Juice and it seems that they are starting to build an immune system towards them. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it isn't working like it did at first! Anyway. I've killed about 100 of them and I've got probably about 50 more to get rid of. Joe's Juice has worked the best so far, I think if they rest won't die, I will pull them out and torch the crap out of them!


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

depending on how far along your tank is and if you have any corals sprouting on your rocks a alternative to torching them would be to take the rock out and run it under tap water and let it completley dry

this would kill your lverock to though ut depending on how far along your tank is your live rock would start sparking coraline algae quick, that's one of my favorite things to watch grow. Something new every day.

just a suggestion


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## Leo10988 (Feb 8, 2005)

this is so funny quoting trillion,

"ok soon as rbp answers my questions

people take over my threads all the time, and if you wanna get mad at some one blame rbp not me, he was the one that went completley off topic."

how do you expect rbp to answer you, if you just stabed him in the back.


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

So, Trillion, what you're saying is that. If I take out my live rock and run it under tap water and let it dry....everything will die, but coraline algae will grow on it and take it over?


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## Guest (May 8, 2006)

I would suggest using Joe's Juice, then doing a quick freshwater dip. Allowing the rock to dry will not only kill the Aiptasia, but will also kill all your bacteria, thus making your Live Rock into Dad Rock (aka Reef Bone).

Also, several species of inverts and fish will actually eat the Aiptasia. For example, Scarlet Hermits (or Red Legged Hermits) and Peppermint will eat small heads.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

but your coraline algae would grow back on the rock fast depending on your water chemistry, and lighting I do believe.

Dannys way is probably the easy way out, and mine and whoever told you to torch the would be the for sure way.

I ran my live rockwith apstasia under water and let it dry for a week and about 3 days after I put it in my clown tank, It started turning purple I swear, is been about a week now and its not showing any signs of slowing down


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

maybe I'll just run the really infested live rock chunks under tap


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

Personally, i think running your liverock under tapwater and killing off your bacteria is stupid. Not only will you have wasted all that money buying 'live'rock when you could have just bought ocean or tufa rock, but you will also be destroying your filtration. If its only a tiny bit of rock and you dont mind wasting money, then yeh go for it. But if its large pieces you could be setting yourself up for disaster. I know that if I removed a significant amount of liverock from my tank it would f' it all up. I'd just buy alot of peppermint shrimp.


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## Guest (May 8, 2006)

Trillion said:


> but your coraline algae would grow back on the rock fast depending on your water chemistry, and lighting I do believe.
> 
> Dannys way is probably the easy way out, and mine and whoever told you to torch the would be the for sure way.
> 
> I ran my live rockwith apstasia under water and let it dry for a week and about 3 days after I put it in my clown tank, It started turning purple I swear, is been about a week now and its not showing any signs of slowing down


Actually, my way allows your bacteria to live, and fixes the problem. Your way is a drastic attack and leaves your tank vulnerable to spikes







Torching is ok, but you have to by precise unless you want to waste all the good stuff ou pay for when you buy Live Rock.

A quick freshwater dip will not kill of all your bacteria on the rock, but it will kill the weakened Aiptasia and clean the Joe's Juice off before reintroducing your rock to the main tank.


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## Raptor (Jan 3, 2003)

I wouldent run it under tap for sure, and i would be leary of dipping it fw if you have a stocked tank.
You will get die off and an ammonia spike. Your rock will eventually come back around, But its a pita.
You could use the torch and joes juice. Just be carefull on the amt of joes juice because that will spike your ph being its basically kalkwasser.
peppermint shrimp and a copperbanded butterflyfish will eat them.
Even berghia nudibranches will eat them.


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

in other words everything but what I recommended will work.

I was just telling you what I did to rid my tank of the son of a guns, personally I would rinse with tap and let it completley dry before I torched them. But that is of course my opinion

how ever I do agree with who ever said if they are BIG pieces of livr rock don't do it because that could be contributing to a major part of your filtration.

Didn't think of that, but as long as they aren't your biggest pieces of rock.

dip them.

I take that back, you have gathered all from us and all of or methods, the choice is odviously up to you.

But if I was you I'd dip my little pieces, and get peppermint shrimp for all the big boys, that is depending of course if you have anything in your tank that's gonna eat them.

then there those red legged crabs that raptor or some one was speaking of


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## B. Rodgers (Jan 20, 2005)

I have juiced them all and the ones who survived have gotten the gun lighter! there are a few left, but I have had a major victory over the battle. I just transfered all of the rock to my 29 gallon. I'll post a pic as soon as I get my camera back!


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## Trillion (May 10, 2004)

congrats are in order man, its been a long time comin









Now if I can sneak in a peppermint shrimp while my trigger is a sleep we will be in business


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