Aptasia in my refugium

[monkjim]

I just set up a refugium and found that the algae I got for it has some Aptasia in it. I only see 2 of them in the refugium. I was just wondering if I should try to get rid of them or if it is ok to have them in there. I am thinking of putting a peppermint shrimp in there to get rid of them and after the Aptasia is gone just take the shrimp and put in the display tank. I do have a cleaner shrimp in the display tank already. I have a 50 gallon cube tank and its set up like a big nano tank, with the overflow going into the back of the tank. The refugium is the first section of the back section of the tank. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help.

Jim

[Boonjob]

I personally would remove them if they are easy to get to without disturbing much.... or take the algae out of the tank and then remove them... A buddy of mine had a single Aiptasia from a frag he got... now he has 15+ after deciding to not bother with the initial one. My tank is riddled with them from this terrible rock and they are very hardy and plenty annoying. But that's my opinion...

I forgot to add that I put in 3 peppermint shrimp to deal with my problem and they cleared maybe a small handful of aiptasia from one rock(near the cave they picked) and then as time went on they began just eating other things(flake, all my feather dusters, etc) and left the aiptasia alone... then my wrasse found them...Best $25 meal he's ever or will ever have....

It's been a battle and they are winning... I say get em while they are weak lol

[monkjim]

lol I decided to take your advice. I hopefully got the aptasia out. I guess I will find out sooner or later. The only thing I have going for me is if they make it into the display part of the tank I can easily take rocks out to kill them, but I hope it doesn't come to that.....

[muttley000]

In Calfo's book of coral propogation he suggests using aptasia as purposeful nutrient removers like the algae in your fuge.  I have 2 pepermints in my 29 gal display.  I have tens to a hundred maybe aptasia in my sump and fug.  They rarely show up in my display, and are taken care of overnight when they do.

[Kenn]

In Calfo's book of coral propogation he suggests using aptasia as purposeful nutrient removers like the algae in your fuge.  I have 2 pepermints in my 29 gal display.  I have tens to a hundred maybe aptasia in my sump and fug.  They rarely show up in my display, and are taken care of overnight when they do.

+1 

[harleyrider]

+1

[larrynews]

i keep mine in the fuge,

[monkjim]

Yeah I read that they aren't bad in the refugium. I just didn't know if people actually did it. lol I was a little scared. I took them out just to be safe, but if one pops up I might leave it if people have had success with it. thanks for the input. 

Jim

[Boonjob]

I guess mine are everywhere and so annoying that I personally don't wanna risk even leaving one alone.

[monkjim]

Yeah I don't blame you. My brother is starting to use Aptasia X. His friend has had great results with it.

[Boonjob]

I have done 3 full dosings of aiptasia-X it works for about 2-3weeks and only permantely rids about 20% of the current aiptasia, but when they come back they come back in pairs so you end up picking them right back up plus buddies.

I'm still waiting on my Zapper, should be here shortly. I am gonna do a review/write up on it for the newsletter as far as it's effeicency, and then if any member wants to borrow it(provided it actually works as advertised) they can.

[DarinSchmidt]

its almost liek you need something that will just suck their butts right off of whatever they are attached to to get rid of them. I have a few and use that chemical stuff. But it's been keeping them under control.

[monkjim]

Yeah I heard that about that Aptasia X stuff. I guess my brothers friend has done mutiple treatments in the same area even after he killed the intial one. He also sucked up any of the dead aptasia off the rock. I had one growing on part of my rock so I just took it out and took a screw driver to it and flushed it with fresh water for awhile. It broke some of my rock but it felt good detroying it. lol

[starfishprime]

Kalkwasser works really great IMO. Good luck

[Boonjob]

my problem with physically removing them, is I have extremely pourous rock, and about 80% of the aiptasia I have are inside of the rock a good ways and stick out through the pours, so mechanically removing them is near impossible and if I leave any of them behind they just regrow in a matter of weeks.

If the zapper doesn't work I am gonna bleach my rocks out, put some acid on them and restart the whole system, cause the amount I have is truely annoying