At the End of My Rope

[Earthgirl]

I"m at the end of my rope folks!!!
The darn Aipstasia battle!
I've lemon juiced it
I've started Torching it last night
And the F*@#ing bastards keep coming back
The salt is fine
Everything is fine, I just can't kill them!!
I have a 55 gallon with the 2 peppermint shrimp and of course some hermits
Should I get more?
I have never been so frustrated in my life with a tank before and I did have before a 230 gallon with stingrays that I had trained to eat worms out of my hand!
Please
Please
Please help!
what do I do next?

[mr_alberta]

Any corals like zoanthids? If not then a Matted Filefish may be your best friend. Bergia Nudibranchs are great too if you can find some.

[Earthgirl]

Candy cane, sun coral, frogspawn, torch coral, and starting a montipora (reddish) piece, pulsing xenia
Can't seem to keep the darn zoos alive, though I really love them
Oh and I have a feather worm
I don't want to buy anything in case of the darn apistasia killing or harming it!
And who may have a matted filefish?
Ill buy one tomorrow!
I called about the nudibranchs, $24 a piece and they don't live long

[abcha0s]

Berghia Nudibranches work for some. They didn't work for me though.

http://www.saltyunderground.com/

As suggested, a matted filefish might also work.

Instead of 2 peppermint shrimp, you could try adding 10 more for a dozen or so total.

Whatever approach you take, it's a numbers game. You need more predators than prey, so to speak.

I solved my problem by throwing out all of my live rock (150 pounds) and starting with new base rock. So far, the strategy seems to have worked. Honestly, the financial loss was worth the end result of being aptasia free.

- Brad

[toxic111]

I have 2 peppermints in my 30 & haven't see one in ages. I had them going crazy in my 12gal JBJ, put a peppermint in, and then had a Bergia Nudibranch show up (friend borrowed one of my rocks to feed some he ordered). That one cleaned my tank clean in 3 days!

[Aquattro]

The first time I bought a filefish, as soon as I dropped it out of the bag it started eating the aptaisia. I had about 200-300 of them, and they were gone in about a month. These are now standard fish for all my tanks.

[reefermadness]

Berghia worked great for me.......

good to hear about the success with filefish though.

[chandigz]

If you have peppermint or cleaner shrimp and most wrasses they will often eat the bergia nudis. Not all peppermint shrimp will eat aptasia. Only certain species.

[Proteus]

my peppermints havent touched the aptasia

but what i found that works is nitric acid

i tried the lemon juice and sure it kept it at bay for a day or two but always to return

i use standard issue general hydroponics ph down it has a ph or 3 so its pretty stong apply the same as lemon juice

hasnt hurt anything yet i did have a large aptasia on one of my clams and the clam wasnt bothered when i shot the aptasia full of nitric acid

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Titus99

but what i found that works is nitric acid

I'm not sure what nitric acid dissociates as, but I'd guess not something you want in the tank. A better choice might be muriatic acid (diluted hydrochloric acid), as it dissociates as H and CL ions. Both harmless in the tank (within reason, don't use a pint of it ) I've used a couple of small syringes at a time without affecting pH in a 155g tank.

edit: looked it up, N becomes NO3 in water....HNO3(aq) + H2O(l) --> H3O+(aq) + NO3-(aq)