Aiptasia and freshwater

Hey guys! Longtime reader and finally joined! I have a 180g that is infested with aiptasia and i have been fighting a losing war with them for the last year or so. The tank is FOWLR but there are a few softies here and there. Ive tried just about everything and i am finally gonna say screw it and kill off the LR. My question is how long will they survive freshwater. The plan is to take out my eel, softies, and whatever critters (hermits, brittlestars etc) i can, move them to my QT, and run the tank as freshwater for awhile. That way il be sure to get them in the filters and piping. How long should i leave it fresh? Any better ideas maybe? Thanks in advance for all your help and i look forward to my time here!

 

Welcome to 3reef

I have not heard of using that method but I suppose it could be effective. I would keep it as FW for a week after I saw the last one to be safe. Just guessing here and hope to err on the side of caution.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

By running the tank as fresh water you are effectively killing those beneficial bacteria that are specific to a SW system. You will have no biological filter left and will have to recycle the tank prior to returning the fish.

Other methods may include the use of peppermint shrimp while the fish are absent. Do not feed the shrimp so they only have the aiptasia to eat. The use of Berghia Nudibranchs.

Quite frankly if you are going to nuke the rock I would just nuke the whole tank by drying it out giving it a good cleaning, let the rock dry and clean it. Then recycle the tank.

JM2C

 

+1

Not long enough to make it worth all that effort-- they should be dead before the rocks are even reusable (due to other organic die-off and decay). You will also get pH buffering from the rocks that might not be suitable for very many freshwater fish.

Is there any way to remove one rock at a time a hit the Aiptasias with a torch? That works quite well without destroying your bio-filter.

As for the filters and plumbing, you could disassemble those and run hot freshwater through them long enough to kill and flush them out.

 

They should be dead by then haha! Maybr i should pull out a small rock, place it in a container of freshwater and see how long it takes. I was figuring around that time frame though. It seems they can survive almost anything..

Aware that i will have to restablish my biological filter and cycle the tank again but im at that point where as long as the nems are dead thats fine. I can always speed it up by reseeding the filters with media from my other tanks. Would have LOVED to get my hands on some peppermints but sadly they are not allowed here. I dunno if my eel would let them live though. She doesnt seem to like shrimp in her tank. As for berghia, i am restricted to what ever the local divers can bring in annd most here do not really look for nudis. How long do you think i should dry out the tank if i go that route? I would imagine every little damp pocket will have to dry.

Oops wasnt clear enough! I was simply gonna fill the tank with freshwater and let everything die off for awwhile. After im sur ethey are dead, i was gonna do a bunch of system flushes do try and get out as much decaying organics as possible before i ad salt again. Rock removal was another reason for the FW fill. Many are connected together as arches and caves so i cant really take them apart. The eel was toppling all the rocks so i had to go with something a little more permenant.

Thanks for all your help guys! Any other ideas would be appreciated. Jus trying to feel out other options just in case.

 

Ok, well I figured you would use the peppermint while there were not fish in the tank but other inverts to treat this pest is not an option.

Not sure how big your fish load is, or what product you could use to speed up the cycle.

Basically yes fresh water should kill off the aiptasia after a few days. You take one small section of rock or piece with an aiptasia and put it in FW and see how long it takes to completely kill it.

If you are fish proficient maybe consider placement of a FileFish. Let it do the work while the other fish are placed in another tank.

Reefkeeping Magazine - Fish Profile

You wanted ideas.

 

if you do go the FW method, after the aips are dead, brush any remaining parts of them off the rocks.

 

FWIW, I would try to do it in not such a drastic way....I would try what corailline said and look at a file fish. That sounds like so much work to take the whole tank completely apart, run it as freshwater and then start all over but I guess if you're so frustrated - drastic may be what you're in the mood for at this point. Could you possibly just take out the rock not piece by piece but in larger pieces if they're connected and torch them and then flush out everything? That way you don't lost your bacterial filter - if you start all over again, you'll have to go through all of the new tank issues and blooms. You'll have that even if you speed up the cycle....

Also, out of curiosity, where are you from?

 

Haha that i did! Thank you. Fish load is just the one maybe 28" eel. Would have loved to go with the peps, cooperbands, or the acreichthys, but what im worried about using predator control is when the time comes for the eel to go back in ill have to take the fish back out. Somehow, and i could be wrong, i cant see how they could permenantly get rid of the nems. I would think that after they came out, whatevers left of the nems will grow back. Plus i have so many haha! Theres well over a thousand nems in the tank! Thanks for all your advice and suggestions!

If i go this route, will do! Thanks!

I'm from Hawaii. Yea, def in the mood to see those suckers shrivel up or rather explode from the freshwater. Yea it would be alot of work to take apart the tank, thats why i was just gonna empty, then fill, then flush a few times. If they were less of them and they were just on the rocks then i would take them out. They are EVERYWHERE! some rocks are covered with them, their on the glass, in the sump, in the overflows, its like a plague haha!

On a side note, anyone tried hyposalinity treatment. That might be less intrusive but i havent really seen to much info on it. What salinity would i have to lower to i wonder. Anyways, thanks for all your responses! i really appreciate it!

 

This was my experience. Had a couple pieces of live rock in a QT. I tried kalk paste, torches, etc. and the buggers always popped up in a different spot. I ended up boiling the rock for 20-30 minutes and then letting it dry for a month. It's back in the QT now and cycling.

If your methods of control are limited, I wouldn't risk it and would look at starting over with new rock. You have to re-establish the biological filter anyways.

I don't know if they can be killed. ;D