Total overrun pest infestation, advice?

Lee

Lee

Member
catran said:
He means it's on the branches of your frogspawn and mushroom colonies. Wow, that is bad. I would cook the big rocks that are covered with it and zap the colonies or use Aiptasia x on them, but that's just my opinion. I thought that was all star polyps or gsp. I have a little tan gsp, or I guess you would say tsp..
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Honestly, the Apstasias are thus far only visible on otherwise unoccupied rock. There are none on the torch corals, and very few on the mushroom rock. Its the empty rock that are infested.

Regardless, two points about that: #1; the part that I can't control is the rock. If a few crop up in other places later, I can deal with them just like anyone deals with Apstasia. The problem now is there are too many to control on the plain rocks, and #2; I need to get rid of literally 90% of my Torch coral. It is expanding at such an exponential rate right now that my entire tank will be consumed in probably 6 months. Once I get the rock cleared, any lumps of coral with any traces of apstasia will get tossed without second thought
 
foxsavage

foxsavage

Member
I have no doubt that a filefish will eat all the aptasia pretty quickly, I've got 2 of them and whenever I put a rock with aptasia in their tank it's all gone within a couple of minutes. It always comes back though if I put the rock back in the other tank, Bergia Nudibranch's can completely get rid of them but they take a long time. The filefish love the torch coral too and will probably go for that once the aptasia is gone. I had a hair algae problem and I put a sea hare in there and he's eaten all of it within a couple of weeks.
 
F

Fishwhiz

New Member
I've never had an aiptasia come back after injecting it with aiptasia x. They will sometimes survive if you smother them with it instead of injecting the animal, but I learned they won't survive the direct injection.
 
Lee

Lee

Member
Fishwhiz said:
I've never had an aiptasia come back after injecting it with aiptasia x. They will sometimes survive if you smother them with it instead of injecting the animal, but I learned they won't survive the direct injection.
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The problem isn't the apstasia coming back, its the numbers that they exist in right now.
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
Well since the Torch has a more potent sting than the aiptasia you could use it to control it, I know there was a time people use to use Elegance corals to do that...lol

Well since your feeding schedule doesn't appear to be the problem than the period of neglect probably is the cause, I can relate to this unfortunately. I would opt for the fish and look to invest on a more powerful skimmer IMHO.
 
Lee

Lee

Member
cheeks69 said:
Well since the Torch has a more potent sting than the aiptasia you could use it to control it, I know there was a time people use to use Elegance corals to do that...lol
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That's a good point, the Apstasias don't grow near the torch coral!

Well since your feeding schedule doesn't appear to be the problem than the period of neglect probably is the cause, I can relate to this unfortunately. I would opt for the fish and look to invest on a more powerful skimmer IMHO.
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Oh yeah, my tank is exactly why its important to stay on top of things, because the laws of exponential growth kick into effect very quickly. It starts with 2 branches of torch coral and 2 apstasia, but each one grows and spreads at the same rate, so you double the amount each month. The first month you have two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then 32, 64, 128, etc...

Regarding the skimmer, thus far I have been space limited, but for my new tank, I will have unlimited space, and plan to use a much larger sump tank. Do you have any skimmers that you recommend?
 
Lee

Lee

Member
cheeks69 said:
This is a dangerous question since you didn't mention your budget...lol
If I had the cash I would go with the ATI PowerCone 200 Protein Skimmer
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Haha, well my basement project is going to cost my entire disposable income for the next year at least, so I really don't have a budget so to speak. I don't remember what my Aqua C Remora cost... I'm guessing $100 or so. I figure for double that, I should be able to get something nice

But now that I click your link, I see that maybe that isn't the case...
 
Lee

Lee

Member
cheeks69 said:
Looking at the prices of some of the top skimmers can be humbling...lol
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I will put a higher capacity skimmer on my list of things I need for the new tank. The Remora was purchased for my first tank, a 75, and I believe it was rated for 100 gallons. Now its on my 90 gallon, so its probably a little undersized (even though its still technically oversized)

Also, would UV or ozone be beneficial for any of these problems?
 
sasquatch

sasquatch

Brunt of all Jokes~
PREMIUM
if you have room you might get away with just adding another skimmer with the remora, uv wouldn't help, ozone indirectly but its more stuff to deal with
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
The Remora was purchased for my first tank, a 75, and I believe it was rated for 100 gallons. Now its on my 90 gallon, so its probably a little undersized (even though its still technically oversized)
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Many companies can be quite generous with their ratings and maybe for a lightly stocked tank it would be enough but I can assure you that if you invest in a good skimmer with some of these newer pumps the difference in performance can be dramatic !
 
Lee

Lee

Member
sasquatch said:
if you have room you might get away with just adding another skimmer with the remora, uv wouldn't help, ozone indirectly but its more stuff to deal with
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I don't have room in my current setup; actually that's why I have the Aqua C, because its the only one that would fit. My cabinet is not very space efficient...

I'm totally not ready to move the tank downstairs, as its still a construction zone, but I might have to move up my timetable a bit for the sake of the aquarium
 
Lee

Lee

Member
cheeks69 said:
Many companies can be quite generous with their ratings and maybe for a lightly stocked tank it would be enough but I can assure you that if you invest in a good skimmer with some of these newer pumps the difference in performance can be dramatic !
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Yeah, I'd like to upgrade. Like I said, my current system is space limited, but my new system in the basement will have virtually unlimited space.
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
Are you getting thick "gunk" from your skimmer now? If not, maybe a good clean and readjustment can make it more efficient??
 
Lee

Lee

Member
I did a close examination of the tank, moved some rocks around, injected some apstasia with lemon juice, and I realized that the infestation was really limited to 7 rocks in total (3 rocks were removed a month ago and boiled). The rest are covered with coral or blocked from ample light, which the apstasias appear to require

I've decided to take the following approach: First, I removed 6 of the 7 rocks that were covered in apstasias. One rock is covered in star polyps on one half so I did not remove that rock. I then rinsed and scrubbed down the rocks clean; I removed everything that was clinging to the rock; apstasia, mushrooms, bubble algae, hair algae, etc. Those rocks now appear to be free of Apstasia and they are in a curing bin. So about 95% of the problem has been quarantined.

The remaining apstasia in the tank number in the 20's or 30's at most. I should be able to eliminate these in the next week or so using lemon juice injections. But as an insurance policy, I purchased two peppermint shrimp this afternoon to aid in the removal process.

Since the infected rock are in a curing bin where I can change the water easily, I can easily spend 20 minutes injecting apstasia, should more show up, without worrying about dropping the pH, since its just a curing tank and I can dump the water in two seconds.

Now the only real remaining problem is the hair algae that seems to be growing rampant lately.
 
Cloudburst2000

Cloudburst2000

Member
Has removing so many rocks at once caused a problem in the tank? You did just remove a large junk of biological filter with the rocks. Keep an eye on your parameters and make sure you don't see anything resembling a mini-cycle.
 
Lee

Lee

Member
Cloudburst2000 said:
Has removing so many rocks at once caused a problem in the tank? You did just remove a large junk of biological filter with the rocks. Keep an eye on your parameters and make sure you don't see anything resembling a mini-cycle.
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I doubt it. That was only about 20% of the rock that's in my tank, so I think it should be fine.

Also, I've only got 5 very small fish, so the bioload is very small, and there's still about 100 pounds of rock in there...
 
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