High Tide Aquatics

Need some aiptasia advice

When I got my anemone on a rock, it was filled with aiptasia. I have a pair of peppermint and they ate all of it. It took like 5 minutes for them to get to the rock , then they started eating them one by one. There was a big one about 1/4 of an inch , they didnt get near it . so i made a chopstick and rubber banded a nail, and poke the hell out of it, then the peppermint shrimps ate the carcass.
 
I've tried peps in the past. They don't seem to do well in my main tank. ie; they live for a few days then I never see them or their carcasses ever again. Probably a water quality issue.

I need to really get a better feeding routine in for the fish, and get a good water change routine going as well. Once that is fixed, I'm hoping GHA algae problem will fade, then I'd focus on the aiptasia, though I know killing them will cause water quality problems.

The best strategy for aiptasia is of course to get them down to a controllable population. Over feeding (with flake!) will cause them to explode in populations. I've learned the hard way!

V
 
Mike I just zapped an aptasia with .5m NaOH, it was right on the edge of a clam right by its mantle. The clam retracted a bit (it opened back up just fine after maybe 30 mins), but the aptasia just melted.
 
OK, being the cheapo that I am, instead of buying some Aiptasia-X to try, I figured I'd give good ol' kalk paste a try again.

Instead of mixing kalk powder with RO water, I mixed it with tank water and I put the (tightly closed) container of kalkpaste in my sump so that it would reach tank-water temp.

I then used a syringe (actually a baby medicine dispenser) and hit a CRAPLOAD of aiptasias in my tank. I started with the HUGE ones (huge meaning heads the diameter of a nickel!) then moved onto the easy to reach ones.

I didn't do ALL of them, for fear of spiking the ph of the tank too much.

The aiptasia DID NOT SHRINK AWAY from the kalkpaste! I think that using tank-temp tank water instead of RO helped with that.

Most of the ones I hit are DEAD. Though, given my previous experience with Joe's Juice, I wouldn't be surprised if each dead monster aiptasia site become a ring of tiny new aiptasias. However, I've decided that I can live with the fact that occassionally I can re-kalk the survivors if I can keep the population from being insane.

Some people mentioned using NaOH. Isn't this the main ingredient of liquid drano? Also, isn't that Lye? Who sells lye? I hear it was pulled from Lowes and HD because people were MAKING CRYSTAL METH with it. Stupid druggies, always ruining things for other people!

Any good source of NaOH without having connections? Do you think liquid drano (in very small quantities of course!) would be effective...or would it carry too many other tank-killing ingredients? I know that the powder used to have chunks of aluminum in it to make it foam up when mixed with water.

Thanks!

V
 
Hmmm... I see you can get "food grade" Sodium Hydroxide online http://www.aaa-chemicals.com/2-12-pounds-food-grade-sodium-hydrox.html

Any local sources?

V
 
Sodium hydroxide is used to make some food...just like Calcium Hydroxide is used to make crisp pickles, sodium hydroxide is used to make;

soap (OK, not food)
Lutefisk ("lye fish")
Hominy grits
Thousand Year old Eggs (those gross black Chinese "delicacies", whcih my Mom loves)
Pretzels (similar to how CaOH is used to make crisp pickles)
Chinese noodles

(all stolen from wikipedia, btw)

It's interesting stuff, I thought the way Drano worked was just that the NaOH mixed with bits of aluminum shavings would produce heat and bubbles, which would cut through drain gunk. But the NaOH actually converts grease into soap (lye + fat = soap) which then makes the grease water soluble, and it dissovles the protein that keeps human hair in one piece (this, plus the heat and bubbles).

I'm still kalk pasting the aips in my tank, but wanted to try NaOH if it's easily and locally available.

V
 
Ok, I've got some Aiptasia-X seems to work great on the Aiptasias, they grab onto the stuff great, and a bit later they're completely dissolved. You do need to keep your pumps off though or else you get a snow storm. Only time will tell if it's killed them for good, but either way it didn't take long to nuke a dozen or so aiptasia that were grating on my nerves.
 
I used it to kill some big ones. My tank is still infested. It doesn't seem to work as well on the little ones, oddly. Either that or my "imploding" big ones exploded out some spawn.

Not as super effective as I hoped, but better than kalk. I'll probably go and nuke the baby sites with kalk. So it works OK, but it's not a miracle cure. I've treated the tank 4-5 times now with it...meaning I hunted down even the smallest one I could reach (the back of the tank is probably a forest) and dropped a dollop on each one. The bigger ones are easier to "feed"

Some places are completely aiptasia free now, some others are not quite. I think the rocks with many crevices are the ones that I'm having trouble with, and I can't tell if it's the same small aiptasias surviving, of if, deep in the crevice there is a Mother Aiptasia (like in Aliens) that is just spawning them.

I don't think I'll ever be clear of them, but I'll probably keep using Aiptasia-X to get the ugly, stingy ones that I can reach. Maybe I'll stick in a peppermint or two later to see what they can do.


V
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=4925.msg62868#msg62868 date=1226087783]
yeah I like how they call it "imploding" strange if I poke an aiptasia it "implodes" as well :D

[/quote]

Actually, when you apply it to a big one it does sort of "implode" but it's looks more like they are suddenly barfing, but their mouth is glues shut! I think it's keep to get the mouth glued on your attack otherwise it WILL barf out babies. I hate them so much.

V
 
Yeah, my big issue with the aiptasias are the ones that are growing between a couple corals in such a way that they're not an issue now, but as that coral grows... who knows (I'd rather have dead coral flesh from in-coral fighting than aiptasia stinging). However it seemed to kill them quite effectively and doesn't leave the big glob of white chunk there for weeks on end, so it's good enough for now. And like you said, just nab them as you see them chalk it up to standard tank maintenance.

I do have a lone peppermint in the tank, but I don't think he does squat, he prefers real food to aiptasia, however he's super bright red not quite fire shrimp red, but red enough, hides like a fireshrimp though so I call him my fire shrimp on a budget :D
 
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