Aiptasia and H202

Der ABT

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Well like many i have an aiptasia problem, i have had the problem for a little over 1 year and a half now....I am looking for aiptasia sobriety, especially as i start a new life i mean tank. (couldnt resist)

So i have more of an infestation than a problem, anywhere that doesn have encrusted sps has aiptasia, even zoanthid colonies have aiptasia latching on to the sides of polyps.
I had been using kalk with limited success, but there are so many it just bacame too much.
I then tried the zapper, didnt work, and with how many it would probably take 1 year even if they didnt reproduce.

I then moved on to nudibranchs, Still have a colony going, my problems was i liked breeding them so i would pluck aiptasia from the main tank and feed them in their breeding tank. somehow it made sense to not put any in my tank and risk getting rid of the food source.:tongue:...Also the fear of a fish eating them or them finding a pump etc is what i tell myself. to this day i dont question this logic cause i really do enjoy breeding them and alot of the locals are benefiting from this.

Time has come for an upgrade (thread of the new 120 soon to come), i really like a few of the rocks i have in my tank and would love to use them again but they are covered in aiptasia.

The other day i was dipping a smaller zoa colony in some H202 to get rid of some algea from the colony falling behind a rock and having no flow and my 1 yr old daughter came in and decided it was time to play with dad..... needless to say about 2-3 hours later i went back in to feed the fish and went AHH $$$$$$!!!...there was my colony still sitting in the dip (50-60% h202 rest just tank water)

I plucked out the colony with a pair of tweezers and put it back in the frag tank (actually looks like it will pull thru though i havent seen a polyp open up yet.

But i noticed that all of the aiptasia that was on the colony (except 2) had let go and were floating in the dip water. when i went to remove the other two they came off very easily. got me thinking, depending on how long and strengths needed of h202, this could be a very good way to get these suckers off a rock you want to keep without having it sit outside for a few weeks.

this is probably best for rocks but if my zoa's make it i may try it on a few others and see how long it takes for the aiptasia to let go.
Obviously the other way is to put the frags/colonies in with the nudi's which is something i do as well.

Anyone else had experience with this or tried it (by mistake or not)?
 
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Paul_N

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I have one monster aiptasia left in my system. I tried the kalk paste that normally works but the aiptasia is footed deep in a rock and always retreats when I use the paste. I am going to try using the h202 today. I am just going to injected it directly. I'll let you know..:bigsmile:
 
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Der ABT

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When i did it it was a dip so the solution was contstant, injecting it would obviously disapate after a while, hopefully it works though. I was thinking 5g bucket and h202, dip the entire rock for a few hours. would have to remove the rock from the tank but if your doing some re-aquascaping or want to cant hurt

You could also take a ball of kalk (just a little water so its like clay) stab at the aiptasia to make it recede and cover the hole with the ball of kalk.
 

Murfman

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When i did it it was a dip so the solution was contstant, injecting it would obviously disapate after a while, hopefully it works though. I was thinking 5g bucket and h202, dip the entire rock for a few hours. would have to remove the rock from the tank but if your doing some re-aquascaping or want to cant hurt

You could also take a ball of kalk (just a little water so its like clay) stab at the aiptasia to make it recede and cover the hole with the ball of kalk.

I have used superglue gel and epoxy to cover holes with deep aptasia. My preferred method is to use the zapper. It kills most but the ones I can't get a direct shot on come back. Those I cover the hole with epoxy. It ends up looking just like the rock in time.

Der ABT, why not take the rock you like, and let it dry out, killing the aptasia and then starting your new tank with dry rock. In time it will become live again and you will have your aptasia sobriety!!!!
 
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Der ABT

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Technically i can when you put it that way.
i just came accross the fact that they release from the zoanthid colony they were almost covering and tried to think of other uses.
 

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