New used tank setup questions

[David55]

I was just the lucky recipient of a free 75 gallon reef tank with a 30 gallon sump, protein skimmer, ATO system, RODI. filter system, metal halide and LED lights. Basically everything except the fish that I had to rehome. My question is what is the best way to clean the whole setup and get rid of the aiptasia outbreak on the live rock that came with it? It has about 80lbs of live rock I really don't want to waste but I also don't want to setup a tank and have it overrun with aiptasia from the start!lol Thanks for any advice! I have a successful 75 and 55 gallon freshwater so I'm not a total newbie, but this saltwater stuff can get complicated and potentially expensive!lol Thanks in advance

 

[jay0705]

Do u have the rock in water? You have a few options. Dry out and recure rock w ap on it. Try chemicals like apatasia x , or peppermint shrimp will eat it if its not too big

 

[bang guy]

I once solved that issue in my lagoon. I set up a single bright light at the peak of the live rock and kept squirting the Aiptasia with boiling water using a turkey baster until they stopped crawling up to the light. I didn't mind a few but this process eliminated about 99% of them.

 

[David55]

Yes, it's in a heavy duty garbage can(clean) with about 40 gallons of the original water. Cleaning the tank and leak testing right now.

 

[pegasus]

I'd set the tank up and throw in a few peppermint shrimp. Don't feed them anything, and they will learn to eat the aiptasia. This worked great when I had an outbreak in my refugium and tank. I started with them in my refugium, where they had no other food source. After they cleaned up the refugium, I moved them to the main display. Once they have eliminated the majority of the aiptasia, they will continue to eat any new growth of this pest. The larger ones can be a bit difficult for them to consume, but can be killed easily with Aiptasia-X. Just my 2c...