Hey guys, I have a 12 gallon nano cube dx nano reef. Its got a clownfish, and a yellow watchman goby. As for corals, I've got some red sea xenia, zoanthids, candycane coral, mushrooms, and some frogspawn. I dose calcium twice a week and do a 10-15 percent water change per week. I feed my corals and fish marine cuisine frozen food twice a week, usually on the days I dose calcium. My water parameters are normal. It is the stock lighting for a nano cube dx, two 50-50 18 watt (I believe) pcs. I have the stock pump which is 106 gph and an extra powerhead that does 240 gph.
Now to the point right? I was taking some pictures of my candycane coral today, and I noticed there was this little brown thing growing on the skeleton, so I looked a little closer and it has little brown tentacles coming out from the middle. It is sort of a light brown, and it is tiny. Probably like 1/16 of an inch across. Since it is so small, I couldn't really get a good picture of it, but what I was wondering is, is this aiptasia? If so, what should I do about it? Should I let it grow a little bigger and take a pic? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As I'm sure you all know, I don't think anyone wants their tank to be overrun by aiptasia...
Also, I don't know where it would have came from, because I haven't noticed it before until today, and I haven't added any new corals lately. the latest addition to the tank is the yellow watchman goby, last saturday. I didn't think that aiptasia could hitchhike on fish, but whatever.
Thanks in advance.

I had some aiptasia in my 29g biocube. I recently added a peppermint shrimp and he's been keeping the aiptasia in check very nicely!

Okay thanks. I think I'm going to try that, because even if it doesn't eat it, I will still get a shrimp out of it. :D

Hi,

Are you watching your numbers on the calcium? Don't just blindly dose, I say that as a precaution...not saying I think you are doing that, just making sure. With such regular water changes you should not have to dose the tank. Are you using regular salt mix or a
mix for reefs?

I agree Peppermint shrimp are the very best critters to fight aiptasia

Yeah, right now I am just using the directions on the bottle, but I am planning on getting some test kits as soon as the aquarium fund is restored. I ended up having to buy a whole new hood and ballast because it is the older version and the ballast stopped working and the new ballasts don't work with the old hoods. That costed $160 and took out all my free money.

And thank you guys for all the helpful replies. I got a peppermint shrimp and a skunk cleaner shrimp and by the next day the aiptasia was gone.

Hi,

Until you get the test kit do not dose your tank at all. The directions on the bottle are for once you have determined through testing that you need to up your calcium. You are doing what we call blind dosing and it could be a disaster in a small tank where things can go bad fast.

ok.