New RSM Reef Tank w/Aiptasia

[lpsluver]

I am at the tail-end of cycling my new Red Sea Max tank with 40 pounds of mixed LR. I have one aiptasia on one piece of rock. I've been lucky over the years and have never had to deal with these things before. I read a bunch and know there are several effective methods. What is the best way of removing it? Joe's Juice? Red leg hermits (Dardanus megistos)? Pulling it off (out of the tank of course)? How do you assure yourself that you've gotten every last rotten bit of it? Peppermint shrimp? I am not a big fan of these. Had one that ate all of my featherdusters before I was able to catch and feed to my trigger in a different tank. Aiptasia predating fish are not an option nor is the aiptasia eating nudibranch. Now is the time to take care of it, before I set the tank up with the new inhabitants (hopefully a very successful clam tank).

Thanks, in advance, for the input,

Bob

[omni2226]

Burn it. Use a candle or a charcoal lighter and cook it til it turns crisp. Rinse with clean water.

[lpsluver]

Gotta be honest... this is one method that I never read about, heard of or even thought of. It really works? No babies? Seems too easy to be true ;)

[jerryreefrigger]

Be happy that you only have one. Unfortunately, there's probably more. And IME, manually attempting to remove them under water produces more. The ONLY success that I have had with aiptasia control once they're in your system is natural predation. i.e. CBB or peppermints.

I would remove the rock that its on as there are probably others on the same rock that you don't see....yet.

[lpsluver]

Sorry. I should also have stated that throwing away an $60 piece of cured live rock is also not an option. A CBB will get far too large for a 29 gallon tank.

[drstupid]

peppermint shrimp would work well for you in a 29.

i just give them a mouthful of kalk slurry, you should be watching a ph meter while you do this if you're taking out a bunch of them to make sure you don't spike your ph too much .

in general i don't worry about these too much, once a week or so make up a little glass of slurry and nail a couple of bigger ones. like bubble algae, as long as they aren't everywhere a few of them don't bother me too much.

[jerryreefrigger]

I understand about the rock $. The kalk slurry does work as long as you don't have too many to begin with. I've used it. I just was never able to keep up with them, and a lot of them were not really reachable with a syringe.

[tprize]

Joes Juice works great for me. Once you control most of them down, your pepermint shrimp should be able to take care of the small ones.