Aptasia filter

[WDLV]

I'm considering adding an aptasia filter to my newest system. I was wondering if anyone was running one or had run one for any length of time and what their results were.

For those unfamilliar, it's intent is to remove large particulate matter before it breaks down into POM and DOM.

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I don't think there is much to gain from an Aiptasia filter even in principle. Yes, to some extent they would filter the water and remove large particulate waste. However, most of what any organism ingests is excreted out as waste anyway. The rest goes to building biomass. You aren't actually removing nutrients from the system unless you plan to physically remove the Aiptasia. Furthermore, Aiptasia will devour beneficial microfauna, such as copepods and amphipods. Of course, there is also the problem of having the Aiptasia spread to the rest of your system. You'll have to plan the design specifically with this in mind. Personally, I wouldn't even attempt it without an in-line UV filter. In the end, it seems like a lot of hassle and potential risk for little reward. You'd be much better off with a well designed refugium.

[WDLV]

Refugium is taken care of, but I don't run it like most people do. I run it as a criptic zone. I keep 200-300Lbs of liverock where bristleworms, feather dusters, various copepods, ghost shrimp, mini brittle stars and a few other critters are permitted to flourish. I have a massive cyclops population. I could probably put clown fry in there and leave them past meta and never have to lift a finger. I was thinking of putting an aptasia filter in as a prefilter for this setup. I think I posted this before I really started thinking about the benefits I already reap from the existing setup.
I am in the process of setting up a new system and have a hundred ideas floating around in my head....

Anyone ever try this?

[Reefer Brian]

I personally would not any aptasia in my system at all. All it will take is one to seed the display tank and then it will be ruined......good luck if you decide to do this...JMO.

[coralnut99]

I personally would not any aptasia in my system at all. All it will take is one to seed the display tank and then it will be ruined......good luck if you decide to do this...JMO.

+1

I think you'll be asking for trouble as well. I've read stories of folks using Xenia for nutrient export, but there was much debate over the true effectiveness.

[tabwyo]

I have literally 100's, if not 1000's, of Aptasia between my overflow, sump and refugium. Yet I've never had a problem with them in the DT. I have a couple in there but nothing close to the plauge porportions that people worry about. As for the bennies of haveing an Aptasia filter. Some will argue a good skimmer is the way to go. If you like the idea of a more biological vs tech approach I can't really see where you are going to go wrong by using one. If you have the room then go for it. Extra volume never hurts.

[WDLV]

I just got rid of a 100 gallon tank that had 1000s of them. It was daisy chained with two other 100 gal sumps. It was the first in line but there were very few in the subsequent systems. With the way I have in mind to do it, only one or two per year should ever make it to the MDs. I think getting frags from other people is the bigger threat personally. I plan to quarrantine frags anyhow. The main function of most of my MDs will be clown/anemone species tanks. So no big deal if one slips in from time to time. Nothing a little kalk can't kill.
I do plan to remove them from time to time and give them to a friend who grows berghia nudis.

So, yours was just a tank that had a lot of them, not really an intentional propagation? To your knowledge, are there any designs out there for such an application? I'm looking to do a very wide but shallow tank. Probably even as a cover/lid to the cryptic sump.

BTW, the xenia as a filter doesn't work for $%!# in terms of nutrient export. I plan to keep some purple xenia, anthelia and some other "plagues" in my displays just 'cause I like them and they won't sting my nems. I've kept majanos on purpose because I like them. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e92/walterlaroque/OldBackupDisk433.jpg
Majanos might even be a better choice because they're easy to kill.

[aninjaatemyshoe]

Well, I guess the question is what particular benefit you expect from it. As I stated earlier, most of the food that is eaten is excreted as waste. You aren't avoiding the POM or DOM from this. Do you plan to do regular manual removal? If you want a nutrient export mechanism, chaeto is much more effective. If you want something act as a mechanical filter to remove particulates, invest in a better protein skimmer.

[Reefer Brian]

If you are trying to export nutrients, try a water change more often. Xenia, aptasia and majano's love dirty water. Having them is an example to having a dirty tank. Keep it clean....

[tabwyo]

So, yours was just a tank that had a lot of them???

Nothing in my system was deliberetly designed to culture Aiptasia. But they seem to have their favorite places regardless. They do seem to preffer the higher flow narrow areas . Probably has more to do with the fact that 100% of the returned volume is passing through a narrow area thus condesnsing the particulat vs actual flow. But they seem to really like the overflow compartment in my DT. They also populate my fuge wich is fed directly of the DT overflow and the compartment of the sump (especially the narrow area in the baffles used to reduce bubble) where my refugium overflows to. The refugium sits bellow the DT but above the sump in a seperate tank. The sump is set up to recieve the refugium overflow on the opposite end as the DT overflow. The DT overflow side passes through a filter sock. The DT overflow side of the sump is where my skimmer is returned as well. There are no Aiptasia growing in the DT overflow end of the sump. Most likely because the water is mechanically filtered of most everything big enough to be consumed by the Aiptasia via the filter sock and the processed cleanish water from the skimmer return.

[WDLV]

I'm not interested in this for nutrient export as much as nutrient prevention. The main interest is is catching uneaten food before it makes its way to the sump. I don't like filter socks because they tend to collect stuff and allow it to rot and my wife hates when i put them in the washing machine. My skimmer is plenty efficient and I do plenty of WCs. I just like trying new things from time to time. I've been reefing for a dozen years. I know how aptasia reproduce, how they eat and how to kill them. With all respect to previous posters in tact, I am not looking for bashers of the idea. I'm looking for others who have actually tried this method and either liked it or didn't and why.
I get that there are risks. Thank you for your concern over my welfare, but it's OK. I've been familliar with aptasia for a long time and they haven't killed me or any of my reefs yet. ;)

I saw this some time ago... I think in Borneman's book and I have an opportunity to try it out. If there are others who have a decent method that I can use or improve upon, I'd like to hear from you. If you have tried this and it was terrible or just mediocre, I'd like to hear from you about your setup too.


tabwyo,
Thanks for ellaborating.

[tabwyo]

I am all for tryng it out. In my opinion Aiptasia are facinating little critters. GSP's in my system are 10,000 times more a nuisance than Aiptasia. As have never had to scrape mats of Aipt's off my starboard bottom... or from the glass... or from overtaking other invert colonies... or........

If biodiversity is the goal then I'd say Aiptasia certainly have their place in a system. So long as you are willing to deal with the occasional wayward nem in your DT (or possible overwhelming infestation no matter how remote the chances).

[JHemdal]

Protein skimmers do a great job at removing POC of a wide variety of sizes, from organic molecules up to zooplankton. Why not just run a wet skimmer and handle the nutirent export directly?

Jay

[jenglish]

I think as long as you had a biological control like a peppermint in your DT it could be stopper from spreading.

I wonder if you could have a modular system where there were removable plates so you could periodically harvest a section to fully remove some bound nutrients and replace it with a clean one to be colonized.

If there was anyone wanting to culture berghia, this would be a good setup to supply food for them :bigeyes:

It may not be the most straightforward way to remove particles, but I am always interested in the unconventional.

[phobos2deimos]

A macro tank would be far more efficient, up to the point that you may need to start dosing NPK depending on the Macro stock and the system size.
I love alternatives to the standard but aiptasia wouldn't be high up on the list.

[CLINTOS]

you could try a raceway setup with water going left to right down thin lanes of shallow water and maybe add kenya tree's too as extra nutrient export

if your interested I seen this nutrient scrubbing race way in anthony calfo's book

[WDLV]

I think as long as you had a biological control like a peppermint in your DT it could be stopper from spreading.

I wonder if you could have a modular system where there were removable plates so you could periodically harvest a section to fully remove some bound nutrients and replace it with a clean one to be colonized.

If there was anyone wanting to culture berghia, this would be a good setup to supply food for them :bigeyes:

It may not be the most straightforward way to remove particles, but I am always interested in the unconventional.

Nice idea. I was thinking I might use glass for the mounting plate so it's easier to scrape them off. I do have a friend locally who is raising berghia. That's part of the appeal.


you could try a raceway setup with water going left to right down thin lanes of shallow water and maybe add kenya tree's too as extra nutrient export

if your interested I seen this nutrient scrubbing race way in anthony calfo's book

Like the idea. Why Kenya trees? Is there some research indicating that they're better than other softies. Most are not too impressive for nutrient export.

[CLINTOS]

A while back a ran a 20G for a year with 60 kenyatrees on plugs no refuge/skimmer and mass dosed nanno phyto @ 1 cup daily it was the only filtration besides 5 lbs of rock and 3" dsb and a filter with carmic bioballs cylinder's

I had no visible detritus,no aptasia,vary light frosting on the glass that I scraped weekly to feed the fish and unbelievable pods/crustation/sponges/slugs it was by far my favorite tank out of my last 10 systems and seemed to keep the tank clean from the phosphate/nitrate in the phyto and the K-tree's themselves realy reacted to the phyto along with every other creature

[WDLV]

Good stuff.

[eco-tropic]

I realize I’m a little late to this discussion. I have tried this filter in the past. I’ll need to dig for some pics. It was a pre-filter to the wet/dry system of a 220 gallon clownfish broodstock system. It worked well for locking up uneaten food. I had small trays fabricated out of acrylic. They measured 48x24x7. Each contained a glass plate as was previously described. Flow to the wet/dry split to service the filters and then converged into a 40 watt UV. In looking back I would have to say the major benefit was the fact that much of what was not eaten by the fish was eaten by the aptasia. There was a noticeable drop in the amount of #!*% on the filter plate floss. While memory escapes me about overall improvement in water quality I can say that it cut out some of the time and money spent replacing floss. The draw back was the additional electrical requirements for lighting the aptasia and running an additional UV. Hope this helps. Let me know how it works out for you as I’m setting up two 300 gallon broodstock systems and have been toying with the idea myself.

[WDLV]

I broke down my old sump on Sunday. This 100G sump had been choc-full of 200-300Lbs of LR for two years. I was expecting a 3" layer of detritus mud and a bristleworm farm as I have fed very heavily on this system.

There was next to no detritus and I only saw two bristleworms in the whole sump.

Based on that I'm not entirely sure it would be of any use to me to set up the Aptasia filter. That said, I'm still interested in this option for one of the other systems I'm planning.

I don't think that lighting is high on my list of concerns since I can grow them under a shop light without issue.

Thank you for your input. If anyone else has experience with these, I'm still looking for input.

[eco-tropic]

I don't think that lighting is high on my list of concerns since I can grow them under a shop light without issue.

I guess it depends on how much you are running, but at Kalifornia's rate of ¢25 per kilowatt at tier you can see where an extra 160 watts makes a difference in overhead. In any event...best of luck.

[WDLV]

Yeah, I have $550 electric bills as a norm, a couple bucks doesn't phase me. LOL!

[eco-tropic]

I keep waiting for the DEA to kick my door in. HA!

[SFeST]

I have an unintentional aiptasia farm in my sump and overflow. My small army of peppermint shrimp keep them out of my display and I don't see any negative side effect to them being in the system. The ones in my overflow catch a good amount of food that goes over into it so that is at least one good thing I see them do. Other than that, I'm not sure they do much at all.

[WDLV]

Any of you have pics?