fangelillo01
Member
I'm gonna be moving everything from my 20 to my 40 soon and wanted to take are of these demons before i move everything. How many peps should i put in the new tank once i kill the ones from the old one??
Aiptasia Question
- Thread starter fangelillo01
- Start date
king_neptune
Active Member
Originally Posted by Jstdv8
http:///forum/post/3268726
you might get lucky if they ingest enough they might kill themselves. The paste I make is made of pickling lime
how do you turn pickling lime into paste?
http:///forum/post/3268726
you might get lucky if they ingest enough they might kill themselves. The paste I make is made of pickling lime
how do you turn pickling lime into paste?
J
jstdv8
Guest
How to kill aiptasia with pickling lime or kalkwasser mix
1.) Mix 1tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon of Mrs. wages pickling lime with 1 1/2 Teaspoons of water to make a nice paste. The paste should not be running, but it also must be thin enough to get injected through the syringe.
2.) Apply a layer of the paste to the oral disc of the aiptasia. Sometimes you can get them to think its food by teasing their tentacles a little and then injecting the paste onto the oral disc. If they suck back into their hole right away just cover the hole with the paste.
3.) wait 45 minutes to an hour
4.) suck out the paste and the aiptasia with a turkey baster and dispose of them.
I bought 100 lbs. worth of live rock from a fellow reefer who was tearing down her tank. The rock was covered with aiptasia (estimating over 300). Some of the rocks also had some corals on them (mushrooms, green star polyps and Kenya trees)
I put the rock on a 55 gallon tank that I used as a holding area while I treated the rock before putting it into my display tank.
I mixed up a small batch of the lime paste and started injecting the aiptasia with the method used above.
I recommend doing only a few at a time as the paste can cause a PH spike in your tank if you do too much. Keep in mind Pickling lime and kalkwasser are similar products that are used for correcting alkalinity and calcium problems and can be used safely if in small doses.
Be sure to cover the whole face of the aiptasia with the paste to ensure that it cannot release its seed into the tank and make more aiptasia later. You also must get it out of the hole as even a small piece of aiptasia can grow into a whole one over time. Do it right the first time.
Other methods that work include Peppermint shrimp, Copper banded butterfly, joe's juice, aiptasia-x, vinegar, boiling water or just leaving the rock out in the open air for a couple of days(killing everything on it.)
Peppermint shrimp work well as long as they don't have a different food source they like better. It is also very important to get the correct shrimp as there is an imposter shrimp that doesn't feed on aiptasia that looks very similar. When you are buying the shrimp ask for L. wurdemanni. Do Not accept the shrimp if it is a L. californica.
Peppermints will also not attack a large aiptasia so these will have to be removed in another way. There is also no guarantee that the aiptasia will not release its seed into the water which they tend to do when in danger. This will cause more to pop up later.
The Copper banded butterfly's require an established tank to safely house one (preferably 6 months or longer). Some for whatever reason don't prefer aiptasia though (the upside here is that these ones are reef safe)
If you choose this method you risk the fish devouring other corals in your tank that you wanted to keep once it has eaten the aiptasia. And again, there is no guarantee that they won't release their seed into the water when attacked.
Aiptasia X is similar to the paste that I described above and it comes in a nifty little syringe with a straight and an angled head for getting at aiptasia in hard to reach places.
The downside here is the cost. At 20 dollars a tube it gets pretty costly, especially if you have a lot of aiptasia to treat. A jar of Mrs. Wages pickling lime costs about $4 at Wal-mart and you will have a lifetime supply.
Boiling water, vinegar and Joe's juice all have been known to work but as with most methods are very hit and miss. While one person says they had great success the next may say it didn't work at all.
Best of luck to you and good hunting!
1.) Mix 1tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon of Mrs. wages pickling lime with 1 1/2 Teaspoons of water to make a nice paste. The paste should not be running, but it also must be thin enough to get injected through the syringe.
2.) Apply a layer of the paste to the oral disc of the aiptasia. Sometimes you can get them to think its food by teasing their tentacles a little and then injecting the paste onto the oral disc. If they suck back into their hole right away just cover the hole with the paste.
3.) wait 45 minutes to an hour
4.) suck out the paste and the aiptasia with a turkey baster and dispose of them.
I bought 100 lbs. worth of live rock from a fellow reefer who was tearing down her tank. The rock was covered with aiptasia (estimating over 300). Some of the rocks also had some corals on them (mushrooms, green star polyps and Kenya trees)
I put the rock on a 55 gallon tank that I used as a holding area while I treated the rock before putting it into my display tank.
I mixed up a small batch of the lime paste and started injecting the aiptasia with the method used above.
I recommend doing only a few at a time as the paste can cause a PH spike in your tank if you do too much. Keep in mind Pickling lime and kalkwasser are similar products that are used for correcting alkalinity and calcium problems and can be used safely if in small doses.
Be sure to cover the whole face of the aiptasia with the paste to ensure that it cannot release its seed into the tank and make more aiptasia later. You also must get it out of the hole as even a small piece of aiptasia can grow into a whole one over time. Do it right the first time.
Other methods that work include Peppermint shrimp, Copper banded butterfly, joe's juice, aiptasia-x, vinegar, boiling water or just leaving the rock out in the open air for a couple of days(killing everything on it.)
Peppermint shrimp work well as long as they don't have a different food source they like better. It is also very important to get the correct shrimp as there is an imposter shrimp that doesn't feed on aiptasia that looks very similar. When you are buying the shrimp ask for L. wurdemanni. Do Not accept the shrimp if it is a L. californica.
Peppermints will also not attack a large aiptasia so these will have to be removed in another way. There is also no guarantee that the aiptasia will not release its seed into the water which they tend to do when in danger. This will cause more to pop up later.
The Copper banded butterfly's require an established tank to safely house one (preferably 6 months or longer). Some for whatever reason don't prefer aiptasia though (the upside here is that these ones are reef safe)
If you choose this method you risk the fish devouring other corals in your tank that you wanted to keep once it has eaten the aiptasia. And again, there is no guarantee that they won't release their seed into the water when attacked.
Aiptasia X is similar to the paste that I described above and it comes in a nifty little syringe with a straight and an angled head for getting at aiptasia in hard to reach places.
The downside here is the cost. At 20 dollars a tube it gets pretty costly, especially if you have a lot of aiptasia to treat. A jar of Mrs. Wages pickling lime costs about $4 at Wal-mart and you will have a lifetime supply.
Boiling water, vinegar and Joe's juice all have been known to work but as with most methods are very hit and miss. While one person says they had great success the next may say it didn't work at all.
Best of luck to you and good hunting!
fangelillo01
Member
HAHA you are the Aiptasia masta. I cant wait to go kill these
[hr]
al though i hate killing living things its gonna be well worth it. Quick question will a copperbanded be suitable for a 40 gallon if i got a juvi. I dont wanna get it just to eat these things at the expense of its happiness
[hr]
al though i hate killing living things its gonna be well worth it. Quick question will a copperbanded be suitable for a 40 gallon if i got a juvi. I dont wanna get it just to eat these things at the expense of its happiness
J
jstdv8
Guest
they move around alot so I would guess it may need something bigger than that. But im not sure. copperbands do seem to (require) an established tank though.
J
jstdv8
Guest
i should probably add in that write up that the kalk/pickling lime can spike the PH if you try to treat too many the same day. i was doing about 10 a day. It also would surely help to be sure when you turkey baste the aiptasia out of the hole that you get as much paste as you can with it. this will help prevent a PH spike. I never saw mine jump at all but I keep hearing that kalk used in excess will spike it pretty good.
handbanana
Member
I saw a tank with what has to be multiple hundreds of thousands this weekend. Everywhere, sand, glass, powerheads, even the heater. It was actullay nausating to see. The owner said shes afaraid to put her hand in the tank to try to kill them. I dont blame her.
spanko
Active Member
Originally Posted by Jstdv8
http:///forum/post/3269199
i.........Yes, there is no downside to the peppermints, only that they may or may not eat it. and you can't control future spread. If you're gonna use peppermints I believe it best to leave them in the tank permanently. The real downside is that msot of the time you never see them. They hide until its dark and come out after ligths out.
I got rid of mine when it got a taste for feather duster worms and ate all of the Christmas tree worms off a porites rock.
handbanana
Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3269866
I got rid of mine when it got a taste for feather duster worms and ate all of the Christmas tree worms off a porites rock.
I noticed my featherduster and tubeworm tubes are all empty now as well.
http:///forum/post/3269866
I got rid of mine when it got a taste for feather duster worms and ate all of the Christmas tree worms off a porites rock.
I noticed my featherduster and tubeworm tubes are all empty now as well.