Aiptasia! Trying Kalk Mix solution

[marvelfan]

I went to check on my 30 gallon aquarium over at my fathers last week. I'm about a month or 2 away form moving all my live stock over to my new 120 gallon. I was going to grab a couple pieces of Live Rock out of the 30 gallon to help seed the 120, but I got over to his house and found Aiptasia. About 4 smaller ones, one bigger one. No new additions to the tank in months.
Not sure where they came from!
Last weekend I added 3 peppermint shrimp, but I have seen no reduction in Aiptasia.
I'm thinking tonight I'm going to try the Kalkwasser solution. Mix up a paste and drop some on there oral discs. I'm hoping it will kill them off or at least cripple them for the peppermints.
Been reading all afternoon about solutions and this one seems like a good choice since I already have fresh kalkwasser mix in my inventory. Anyone do this recently?
I'll let you know how it goes. If I can multi-task I'll try to get some pics or video.

 

[marvelfan]

So... i get over to my fathers. I walk in ready to kill some aiptasia. Walk over to the tank and find not one sign of the pest anywhere. I'm looking high and low. Since I put my 3 peppermint shrimp in the tank I have only seen one of them once. I figured they either died or were not interested in the aiptasia.
Looks like me not feeding the tank for a few days got them hungry, because it appears the aiptasia was obliterated from the tank. Besides removing my GFO/Carbon reactor from tank a couple days ago, nothing has changed environmentally.
I'll keep an eye on it and see if they start to pop back up. I'm hoping that was the last of them. I'm tempted to move some pieces of LR out the 30 gallon to seed the 120. I think I may grab a couple small pieces that formerly did not show any signs of infestation and move them into the 120 DT to help seed the colony.
Crossing my fingers that its all gone!

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/393988/aiptasia-trying-kalk-mix-solution#post_3506390
Crossing my fingers that its all gone!
Hope so. They are a pest that's for sure. Do you know what type of aiptasia they were?

 

[marvelfan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Quills http:///t/393988/aiptasia-trying-kalk-mix-solution#post_3506421
Hope so. They are a pest that's for sure. Do you know what type of aiptasia they were?
Not sure.. but this is exactly what they looked like. Clear like glass.

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/393988/aiptasia-trying-kalk-mix-solution#post_3506429
Not sure.. but this is exactly what they looked like. Clear like glass.

Looks like the common glass anemone. I had a pretty bad infestation of those as well. Initially it was a few, so I tried to treat them with aiptasia X (or something like that). Then it was a few dozen so I added a peppermint shrimp in the 50g tank. It took about 2-3 weeks before the shrimp gobbled them up and I didn't see anymore. Not too much longer after that the shrimp died (disappeared never to be seen again). Once he was gone they came back in full force.
I've practically become convinced that once you have them then you never truly get rid of them. But I believe you can manage them (respectably) as long as you don't lax on the means to do so and let them get too far out of control like I ultimately did.
Good luck.

 

[marvelfan]

yeah.. i've heard horror stories. I'm going to watch the 3 pieces of LR I just put in my 120.. If I see any pop up I think I may just take them out and bleach the rocks. Re-cure them. I'll end up doing that to the rest of the LR in the 30 gallon before it goes into the 120.
I'm not sure if they need light, but the 120 will have no light for the next month or so. so maybe that will kill them off, unless they just go dormant. I'll have to read about them.

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelFan http:///t/393988/aiptasia-trying-kalk-mix-solution#post_3506464
yeah.. i've heard horror stories. I'm going to watch the 3 pieces of LR I just put in my 120.. If I see any pop up I think I may just take them out and bleach the rocks. Re-cure them. I'll end up doing that to the rest of the LR in the 30 gallon before it goes into the 120.
I'm not sure if they need light, but the 120 will have no light for the next month or so. so maybe that will kill them off, unless they just go dormant. I'll have to read about them.
Before I took my 50g down I had the lights off for nearly 3 weeks. Didn't seem to effect them at all. You may be ok and hopefully got those 3 pieces out of there before they had a chance to spread to them.