How I Finally Eliminated Aptasia

[geridoc]

I returned to my office after being out for 2 hours, to find a flooded rug, and the sump under my 40 gal reef filled. It was filled with RODI from my ATO, which had stuck in the on position until the timer cut it off. However, it pumped enough RODI to reduce the specific gravity to 1.019. Everything in the tank looked horrible, including my prized Borbonius anthias, and all of the corals were fully closed. After several water changes over the next two days, I got the sg up to an acceptable level, and then noticed that while the corals looked terrible, there was no, absolutely no, aptasia left in the tank. It is now a week after the disaster and there is still no aptasia to be seen (also, no more candy cane or zoas either), but the rest of the corals seem to be coming back slowly. The only clear victor is this mess is the Kenya Tree, which has used the lack of competition to infiltrate all over the tank. So, if you have as a goal ridding your tank of aptasia (and some other corals, too), and growing Kenya Tree in commercial quantities, this is your method. Otherwise, keep your eye on your ATO

 

[meowzer]

How weird.....Never realized a quick drop in sg would do that

 

[flower]

1.019 is not all that low, although corals like it at 1.026
1.019 is often what coral is shipped in...I would think either it was the time line of how fast it changed, or something else was going on.

 

[reefkprz]

I had a serious ATO failure in my previous tank. which is why I wont run one on any of my new tanks. I didnt get off as lightly as you did it wiped out everything. its such a shame.
I hope the majority of your stuff survives, good luck.

 

[snakeblitz33]

That's interesting. I hate that it happened to your tank, but you may have discovered something. Thanks for the information and I hope all gets well with your tank.

 

[geridoc]

Update: As of this morning most of my lps are coming back, although they are still a little shrunken. The candy cane is completely gone, as are 90% of my zoas. The ricordea are all reduced to about 1/4 normal, and the Kenya Tree continues to flourish. Still no sign of aptasia though. Given that I have been at the front lines of the aptasia wars for over a year, this is a good thing and almost worth the aggravation.