[dwref]

Hello all,
I have been fighting the lovely apptasa (spelling sorry) in my 34 sps tank, well it got so bad that a buddy of mine told me to "boil" the rock & kill everything, so I did, but my rock turned "green" have re-boiled it several times, but it always comes out green.

Any ideas???

BTW, the tank has been up for 6 mths or more, coral & yellow tang are doing fine.

Thanks

 

[JIM]

If you boiled your rock it is no longer (Live) you have killed most likely any living organisms on the surface as well as fairly deep into the rock itself. What you have now is Base rock, and the green color is beyond me. Im sure someone else will weigh in on this, with further opinions. In the future for your reference, there are a few very attractive fish specimens that will completely rid your tank of aptasia.

 

[MediaHound]

Don't know why exactly your rock turned green but put it back in the tank and over time it will become alive again. Get yourself a good clean up crew to keep algae off of it (is that why it's green?) such as snails, hermits, etc., and next time you get aiptasia try some peppermint shrimp or a copperband butterfly.
Next time you do something so drastic, ask here first please!

 

[JIM]

The copperband was exactly the fish i had in mind Jarred, Thanks !! . A friend of mine who owns an aquaculture facility, has a really big one , and just moves her tank to tank to keep his aptasia under control. She is fat as a pig LOL

 

[dwref]

Thanks Jim & MediaHound,
Yes I have learned that I took it just a bit to far, I could have just soaked the rock in some mixture, like Joes Juice or even just lemon juice.
As for the green, I have learned that it is just algae, nothing can be done about that.
As for putting it back into the tank, can't do that yet, as there is a lot of die off inside of the rock that needs gotten rid of, so I am now soaking it in just plain water & changing it daily. It could be a while before I can use that rock again. Plus I am using a powerhead to make sure that the water turns over.
As for the copperband, never had any luck using one before, but I do understand the reason for it. But my tank is only a 34, so even if I picked one up, he would have to be small.

Thanks

 

[marlenez]

If you have aptasia problems again I would suggest a berghia nudibranch, their sole diet is aptasia. Depending on how big of a problem you have will determine how many berghia to get. Note however that when they have eaten all of the aptasia they will die without their food source so you should give/sell them to someone or an LFS.

 

[Imaexpat2]

Excellent advice from all, any thunder I had has been stolen.

Since you got corals though...

With Pepermint Shrimp, they are the most common critter that will eat Apitasia and one of the safest forms of control in a reef tank. But you need to add them quickly to the tank while the Apitasia is small as it usually wont eat the larger ones. If you have Yellow Polyps, be advised that they are on the menu too!

Copper Banded Butterflies can also be effective as mentioned. If you use these guys there are a couple of things you need to consider with these guys. First I would suggest a smaller one as they seem to adapt better to cativity. Get one that you actually saw eat food at the LFS. If its not eating at the LFS its likely to not eat in your tank and will likely starve. Additionally these guys will eat your fan worms and feather dusters too. They are sometimes prone to nip at corals as well especially SPS corals. They may also nip at a Clams Mantle as well, and its hard to break them of it once they figure that out.

The Berghia is excellent as well when you can find them for sale. They are pretty reef safe too. I would suggest that you screen off intakes to filter and power heads though as they sometimes get themselves into trouble by entering them. This could be a disaster in your tank should they find the impeller and be turned into "Nudibrach Puree" in your tank which is not a good thing.

In situations where you just have a few I use a syringe from the local feed store (cattle) and mix a little Kalkwasser into a slurry and inject it in a cloud over the disk of the Apitasia and this usually results in a one time dose that reliably kills them and has a minimum effect on your tank as the Kalk will disolve in the tank after a few hours. Be careful doing this though as Kalk is very caustic and it can seriously elevate your Ph to overly high un-safe levels. This ususally takes some effort though using the technique I am suggesting for nuking the onesys and twoseys that pop up from time to time.

Just some additional notes of possible interest and suggestions available to you. Dont have to use any or all of them but its good to have lots of options to choose from!