Killing off a large Aiptasia outbreak -my strategy

[waverider]

So I let my 65 Gallon Reef go... aiptasia took over and killed nearly all my coral except some GSP. But my fish are doing well and tonight I began rehabilitating my reef.

I started with cleaning everything spot clean -my sump, skimmer, glass...etc. I got a large rubbermaid garbage can on wheels, filled it with 30 gallons of RODI water and I mixed up about 30 gallons of fresh saltwater. Its mixing now.

Next, just before the water change, I am going to remove the rock. Scrub it and rinse it. Meanwhile I am going to vacuum out the sand bed. -Finally a big water change.

Once the tank settles over a few days or so I plan to add a File Fish and about 10 Peppermint Shrimp and a cleaning crew of hermit crabs and snails.

I also have Aptaisia X on hand to manually zap the Aptasia as the come back -which they undoubtably will try.

What say ye?

I have about 90 pounds of Live Rock and Im not about to boil it or set it out in the sun. This is the best plan I have.

Thanks guys for comments and help!

 

[Garf]

So I let my 65 Gallon Reef go... aiptasia took over and killed nearly all my coral except some GSP. But my fish are doing well and tonight I began rehabilitating my reef.

I started with cleaning everything spot clean -my sump, skimmer, glass...etc. I got a large rubbermaid garbage can on wheels, filled it with 30 gallons of RODI water and I mixed up about 30 gallons of fresh saltwater. Its mixing now.

Next, just before the water change, I am going to remove the rock. Scrub it and rinse it. Meanwhile I am going to vacuum out the sand bed. -Finally a big water change.

Once the tank settles over a few days or so I plan to add a File Fish and about 10 Peppermint Shrimp and a cleaning crew of hermit crabs and snails.

I also have Aptaisia X on hand to manually zap the Aptasia as the come back -which they undoubtably will try.

What say ye?

I have about 90 pounds of Live Rock and Im not about to boil it or set it out in the sun. This is the best plan I have.

Thanks guys for comments and help!

You got a pic of the tank? Personally I’ve tried filefish in 3 different tanks and given a few weeks it’s a 100% hit rate, without messing with rocks.

 

[CasperOe]

I will be looking forward to hearing about your progress

While mine have not quite been taken over yet, it's well underway. I have just ordered a Pearl Scale Butterfly, a Molly Miller Blenny and a file fish from my LFS that I hope will work!

If you have access to an Australian Stripey they should be weapon no. 1 in the lifestock department..

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Raccoon butterfly fish, great personality, deadly weapon. Used one on my 40g before I put any corals in, all aptasia was gone. Didn’t see one again for months. Adopted him out when his job was done.

 

[skydirt]

I used pearl scale and klien butterfly fish. Pretty and effective. Tried file fish and peppermint shrimp but i have way to much flow in the big tank so they didn't do much.

 

[bakbay]

I’ve gone the Klein butterfly route — I’m 99% aiptasias free - I light spot 1 or 2 if I look hard enough.

 

[saltypepper]

Raccoon butterfly fish, great personality, deadly weapon. Used one on my 40g before I put any corals in, all aptasia was gone. Didn’t see one again for months. Adopted him out when his job was done.

I agree about the Raccoon Butterfly fish. Put one in ten years ago in my 90 gallon DT that had Aptasia all over. It mowed thru them fast, then he moved on to my only coral I had back then, GSP. Never took him out because I was more into fish then corals back then.

 

[Luis's Nano]

 

[Luis's Nano]

I took the route with the Nudis as well from the video above. I have 32 gallon tank so not much room for trying new fish. This worked for me. Good luck!

 

[waverider]

So far I've had great progress rehabilitating my reef and killing the Aitasia off. Here is what I've done so far with great results: First I cleaned my entire system including filtration and skimmer. Got the skimmer tuned in and running slightly wet to bring nutrients down, followed by a big 50% water change with spiked Alk and Ca. While the tank was half empty I removed the rock and bathed and scrubbed it in clean saltwater. Did the water change and began dosing to raise Alkalinity and Calcium. Couple days later about 1/4 of the Aiptasia started coming back. Zapped them all with Red Sea Aiptasia X. Next, a trip to my LFS found a nice colorful File Fish. He is on duty now. He was observed eating Aiptasia on his first day in! Next, I began adding a Clean Up Crew: 20 mixed hermits and 20 mixed snails -they are cleaning the rock up nicely. As of tonight the tank is looking great and chemistry is stable at 9 dKH, 400 ppm Ca, 1450 ppm Mg.



Next Im adding a dosing pump to start dosing Tropic Marin All for Reef, and will add some Pepermint Shimp.

It took alot of work to turn the system around but its looking nice in just under a week.

Hope this helps someone else who let their tank go!

yes..there are some Aiptasia here in the foreground, but they are doomed! I will zap these guys on my next tank maintenance night