Refugium question- aptasia reproduction

[tidalsculpin]

I have a 20 gallon refugium sump setup with my 60 gallon tank. It has been running with a 24h 65w 50/50 pc coralife for 5 weeks now. chaetomorpha spiralis growth is great. Pods and amphipod growth is increasing rapidly.
Three questions:
1. How often should I trim the chaeto and will this effect macroinvertebrate reproduction?
2. Aptasia appear to be forming on my sump grate and heater setup. Will they eat up all my pod production?
3. Will these pods provide any measurable amount of food for 7 small fish or is it only for nitrate extraction?

[andy]

I'd be worried about those aiptasia spreading to the tank.

[Michael7979]

My $.02
1 - trim it when it gets full to give it more room for growth
2 - aptasia should not harm your pod population
3 - some fish will eat pods, they will pick them off the rocks but its not enough to be the only food source for most fish

I'd get some Joes Juice or a couple Peppermint shrimp to take care of the aptasia before it becomes a problem. It could spread to the display also.

[CCR]

It will spread in time, to the tank, pods are good and some will get sucked into the return, and the fish wil love it, keep cheato cut back. You want it to grow, as it sucks up the bad stuff, but you want to keep it trimmed out each week, to keep it growing strong, using up the excess crud

[tidalsculpin]

I'll try the Joe's in the sump. I am wary of putting a shrimp in the refugium since it is a predator.
Thanks for the tips. Sounds like I am on the right track.

[fly guy]

peppermint shrimp are not a fix for aiptaisia IMO. Sure they can work sometimes but a bottle of Joes Juice is a necessity for any reefer i think. As you add stuff to your tank aiptasia and majanos are just part of the game. Joes juice will kill them without messing with your wter qualtiy like some of the other methods........there will be more aiptasia and majanos i promise and joes IS the solution.

[WAVES]

I dont think I agree flyguy, I think Joe has himself quiet the empire in construction. I agree Joes Juice will whip them out, but I dont think it destroys them enough to keep them from coming back. It seems one aip nuked with Juice turns too 3, nuke those when they are small and all the sudden you have 5-10 aips to nuke every weekend. To me that is NOT the answer.

There are two kinds of peppermint shrimp, one eats aips one doesnt, as far as I know there is no way to tell them apart, at least not quickly visually.

honestly, I would consider getting your hands on a aip eatting nudi, if you can isolate your fuge, drop one in with maybe an airstone for circulation ( pumps eat nudi's) and let it go to town. THen once they are gone, make a post and I am 100% sure someone would LOVE to buy the nudi from you.

Berghia verrucicornis nudibrach actually CONSUMES Aips, they scrape them off at the base and dont leave anything behind. This is what I would recommend.

[fly guy]

Fair enough. I have never personally seen a success story using peppermints when we are talking about a signifigant number of majanos or aiptasia. I also think that very few people use Joes Juice to its potential. I have found that if you shut off all flow and fill their entire mouths up with the stuff...it kills them dead and they do not return. They readily eat as much as you will give them. If you have lots of flow in your tank and just feed them a little bit, they will come back but it has been quite a while since i have used it and it hasnt killed them dead not to return.
I will admit that i simply havent experienced peppermints being completely effective and it sounds like they can be....i just havent seen it. Being as i have witnessed Joes being 100% effective its easy for me to say what i did. : )

Kind of a funny somewhat related story.....when i got my first reef tank handed down from a friend, there were all these cool different little anemones in it. My wife and i thought they were kind of pretty and would feed them regularly and were amazed at how fast they multiplied...........

lol......ill spare you the rest but Joes did get rid of them all majanos and aiptsia alike......and they were EVERYWHERE. We did a great job of empowering them to take over. (laugh)

[nu2reef-n]

I've personally had very good results with pickling lime. I shut down the pumps and use an eye dropper.

[tidalsculpin]

Well, now I am not sure what to do. But i do need to do something. I guess my plan will be. Finish up the Joes juice I have got. Then, try a nudibranch in the refugium. Pickling lime sounds interesting. I assume that it effects alkalinity a bit. Does anyone have a suggested dose?

[andy]

I picked up a couple of Peppermint Shrimp to nip the aiptasia in the bud. They're definitely Peppermints, not Camel Shrimp, but they must be of the non-aiptasia-eating variety Joel mentions above :( There is an aiptasia growing on the rock right outside their lair, still DOH!

[Michael7979]

I think what Joel was talking about was that peppermints from the Carribean (I think) will eat aptasia and peppermints from elsewhere won't. AGAIN I THINK THATS IT. I know you should find peppermints with the latin name (L. wunderii) I believe.

[tidalsculpin]

So, do lfs generally know what species of peppermint Sh. they receive? Or do ask where they came from to get the right species? Obviously it is preety hard to tell by looking.

[andy]

Oh, I thought Joel was just making a joke about how some Peppermints eat aiptasia and some don't, thus splitting into two 'varieties'. The only true 'Peppermint Shrimp' are L. wunderii. The look-alike is the Camel Shrimp, Rhynchocinetes durbanensis. The Camel shrimp has a pretty noticeable hump on it's back.

Peppermint:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/OPG/pennekamp/photos/visitors/JKC-PeppermintShrimp-MichelleWisniewski.jpg

Camel:
http://www.marinecenter.com/media/photos/F6BEF2C4E750452CB7B701AA0F7D4FB4C.jpg

[WAVES]

there are peppermints that dont eat aips, it wasnt a joke. But they arent camels either. Just like Andy said, he recieved true pepps but they arent eatting aips.

I believe its what Mike said, it depends on the location they are harvested, I dont know if its actually a different species, but just that there are for sure some that munch it big time, and some that dont touch it.

[tidalsculpin]

So, buy one at a time to see if it eats aips, preferrably from different shipments. If I find a good batch maybe get one more of them? Sound like a slow but steady reef-like plan to you guys?

[andy]

I doubt that they 'batch' like that. What I've taken away from my experiences and this conversation, is be happy if you end up with an aiptasia-eating Peppermint -- but don't plan on dealing with aiptasia problems by just using them.

[blown65]

Ya, Ive gotten two pepermints in the past that dont eat asp at all. My moms poor nano is getting overrun with them.

If anyone finds a good place to get them and they are the right ones, I wanna get one also.

[reefboy]

one of the biggest resons some dont eat the apps is if there getting other foods ive pulled peppermints that i know have cleared my bins of them in clients tanks but instead of doing there job they were scavaging the missed food of the fish so you gota feed slower so fish get most all of food or feed less.

[blown65]

one of the biggest resons some dont eat the apps is if there getting other foods ive pulled peppermints that i know have cleared my bins of them in clients tanks but instead of doing there job they were scavaging the missed food of the fish so you gota feed slower so fish get most all of food or feed less.

Alright, well next time you have one to get rid of that you know is eating asp, I want it. :)

[reefboy]

lol got four right now lol done there job id be willing to part with them gota feed them now i have one tray with apps still in because i have tewlup anenomes in so i take some and put in trays fun to watch them tear them up lol

[blown65]

damn. Ok well maybe this weekend unless your busy.

[reefboy]

nope should be around

[Ronjunior]

Here is what I ran across to kill Aiptasia Anemones, but where the heck can you find pickling lime around Portland? I haven't found anywhere yet.
GARF describes 2 options:
1: Copperband Butterfly fish or
2: their homemade recipe is:
Prepare stock solution

1. 1 tsp. pickling lime - food grade calcium hydroxide
2. 2 tbls. tap water.

boil water and lime in microwave for 40 sec.
keep closed plastic container in cool place.
You will need a vet syringe from a pet store that sells vaccinations (I got one from the nurses at the hospital :)

This mixture comes out of the needle very thick. You do not need to inject the Aiptasia.
Just release a small amount on to the aiptasia and it will take it in. This mixture seems to stick to the anemone, but it does not stick to the other inverts. We also use this mixture on problem hair algae.

We have killed 20 or 30 at a time in 55 gallon reefs and it did not hurt anything