Aipstasia. My area of expertise
Kevan, these things really are the spawn of satan and must be delt with. Those who know me know I have been fighting Aipstasia from day one. I started with about 120kgof live rock, and it was infested with Aipstasia. I did nothing and thought it would sort it self out. It won't.
You must get in there and do it yourself. Copperbands work sometimes, as do some wrasses, but other than that there are no real predation options in NZ (there are some shrimp and some nudi but none are available here and the importers can't be bothered trying).
I actually killed some more last night. I have the numbers in my tank down to single digits. Infact I am only aware of 4 in my tank after last night, but I am sure there will be a few more.
The trick is to kill them weekly. I often killed heaps, then left it for a month, giving them enough time to breed and spawn and create more. You need to keep pressing the attack, making an effort to get each and every one until there are none left. I have been doing this since christmas, started of killing dozens a night twice a week. Now I get less than 10 every 2 weeks. And I hope soon less than 5 once a month...
How to kill them? I have tried everything, lime juice, hot water, copper wire and Kalkwasser. I havn't tried hydrochloric acid but some do use it.
I needed a soultion that I could use in the tank. Ultimatly the Kalkwasser paste works best for me.
How to use it? Get a small glass (I use a shot glass) and put some Kalk powder in there, then mix in some RO/DI water until its a thick liquid, not quite paste (I find this works the best). Not really runny, but not as thick as say toothpaste. Just a very thick liquid.
I then have a 10ml syringe with a piece of plastic hose on it (the stuff from hospitals they use for drips, but any hose thats thin and will fit the end of the syringe will work), its about 2mm diamater. Suck the kalkwasser mixture into the syringe.
Turn off ALL circulation pumps and wait for 5. Get lots of towels and rags
Depending on the size and configuration of the tank you may need help, my partner Jane often acts as a spotter for me as it can be hard to do both. Locate aipstasia. Squeeze a little kalk out onto the aipstasia, it will eat it, often wrapping its tenticles around the paste and drawing it into its mouth. Depending on the size and position of the Aipstasia I try and cover the little bugger with a lump of kalk. This stuff burns the aipstasia to death melting it away.
WARNING - If the kalk mixture touches anything else, clam, coral, sponge etc it will burn it too so be carefull. I use a turkey baister on standby, if I drop some on a coral I use this to blow it away.
Continue this method until there are none visible. Repeat every week.
If you have an infestation like I had, limit the number you do in one sitting as the PH will spike very high with too much kalk mixture in the water. I use no more than 2 10ml syringes per sitting in my 900 litres of water, this spikes my PH to about 8.35 from 8.3.
If you can use some filter wool, then put some in before turning the pumps back on as the water will be milky for a few hours.
I often kill some before a water change. So I kalk them, then I use a syphon to suck out the lumps of kalk before I put fresh water back in. Just helps stop the PH spike.
This method works 14/15 times. Ocasionally you have to attack the same aipstasia twice. I have killed hundreds of Aipstasia and am confident that I now have them under control. Not sure if I will ever be free of them, but I will get their numbers so low I will only need to kill a few once a month, which won't be to bad.
Good luck and if you need any more help let me know.
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