Hornet's 150 gal Ocean

Another thing about plucking aiptasia is when they feel threatened they release thousands of spores.Those spores then turn into more aiptasia.
We've been using Aiptasia X at the LFS.It seems to wipe them out quick.Its actually a food that the aips will actually eat,then it hardens inside them preventing the release of the spores.
 
Thanks yote.

I'm kinda bummed out about this. I moved some rocks around so I could see them better and let them get some light and I found another rock that has a bunch of Aiptasia all over it. I'm thinking I will pull the rocks out that have Aiptasia on it. Kinda sucks because I'm going to need to tear down my aquascaping to get to one. Not that big of a deal but annoying. I'd rather get this dealt with now than down the road. These things are so small I can guess it's going to be a pain feeding the treatment to each of them.

Do you guys think I should leave them in the tank and treat them there or pull them out? I willing to kill the rocks if needed. They have coralline on them but I'd rather not have these things popping up later.
 
is your tank cycled yet? if so go and buy 3 or 4 pepermint shrimp. but before you buy one look and what they look like and what camel shrimp look like sometimes they get sold as pepermints. you can treat them in the tank it will be fine. just get joes juice or the aptasia x that yote is talking about.
 
I wouldnt pull the rocks out.Aiptasias are to easy to get rid of to kill the rock.
Just do like James suggested and get a few pepperment shrimps.Only I'd for,,say 10 of em.
 
Thanks guys

The tank is not cycled yet I just started cycling this week. I'll go by the LFS tomorrow and see if they have 1 of the 2 treatments.
 
Sorry that you have pests :( Unfortunately, they are really common pests. Or, maybe fortunately, since I can guarantee that 99% of us have been there and done that. There are a lot of ways to kill them, so if something doesn't work, don't get frustrated, just move on to the next killer. But peppermint shrimp are by far the best "natural" method to control them.
 
How long should it take for a raw shrimp to give me an ammonia spike? I started off with one shrimp then I threw 2 more in the mesh net the next day for a total of 3. They have been cooking in the tank since Thursday. The highest my ammonia has been is .025 for two days now its back down to 0. Dumb me I did not check nitrite on those 2 days when ammonia was up. But I did check nitrate which were 10 mg/l.

I just checked my parameters again and Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, and Nitrate = 5. Salinity 1.025, temp = 79.5 and ph = 8.18
 
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Looks like you may have had a small cycle.Which is possible,especially if you used established rock from another tank.
 
I had a little over 100 lbs of cured live rock. But the rest (about 125lbs) was dry base rock. I was also using biozyne for a couple of days before I added the shrimp. Instructions say use it for 7 days for a new setup but the one bottle I bought only lasted for 4 days due to the amount I had to use for my water volume. After reading a few posts via google I decided that I was probably wasting $ so I just went with the shrimp. I'm in no rush, but do you think I should remove the coctail shrimp or let them stay in the tank for awhile.

I'm kinda wanting to buy some peppermints to tackle the aiptaisa.
 
I would leave the shrimp in for a few more days, and test every day. If they continue to rot, but your ammonia and nitrites stay at zero, I'd say that having the cured rock took care of it.
 
sounded like the shrimp were in a net or something, just drop the shrimp on the sand bed and spread out. just leave in until gone. the bacteria will build up to deal with the cocktail. should take several weeks at least, dont do any water changes until you have cycled, then start a maintenance program with regular water changes and add some clean up crew and a fish or two to keep the bacteria going. hope this helps. there also are some very good articles in our article forum listed at the top on new start ups and seasoning a new tank. good luck.
 
Thanks jhnrb. I've read most if not all the articles as I've been lurking around here for about a year.

I put the shrimp in a mesh bag to make it easier to get it out. I figured it would not make much of a difference but I'll dump it out on the sandbed. I also threw a couple of cubes of frozen brine shrimp I had in the freezer the first few days. I'm kinda thinking the 100lbs of live rock is doing some work but I'll definitely keep monitoring things. I'm seeing quite a few bristle worms moving around the sand bed where the mesh bag was laying. Earlier today I moved it to the other side of the tank and I saw a little worm come out of the rock near where I moved the bag too.

I know some say you can run the skimmer but I turned my skimmer off on Friday to let things cook a little more. Sat. morning I could smell the difference :pooh:.

I'm fine with letting this thing cook as I'm planning on taking the family away from a few days next month and I'd prefer to wait till I get back before I even consider my first fish purchase.
 
If you can smell the system and it is not a fresh salty smell, turn the skimmer back on it will tend to take out the excess proteins and keep your system from fowling. just my thought. the reason for out of the bag is that as the meat breaks down it will disperse throughout the tank and seed more of the substrait. I would also consider putting in some squid or mussle in a nylon near the rocks and leave overnight and take out in the morning to reduce the bristle worm population and catch any fireworms that may have gotten in by mistake, use a nylon untreated and their extentions will get stuck in the nylon and you can just pull it out in the morning and throw away, do not reuse. just a thought.
 
Update:

Tank seems to be coming along well. I've been checking my water parameters every day. Ammonia & Nitrite is holding strong at 0. The 3 coctail shrimp I had in the tank have disappeared since I removed them from the bag. Nitrates had also dropped to 0 then I threw a brine shrimp cube in and the next day they were back up to 5 or 10.

I went ahead and picked up 3 peppermints yesterday during lunch from the LFS. I got them added into the tank last night before bed. I went home for lunch today and I could not spot any aiptasia anywhere. I had one rock that was covered with the little buggers and there were a few anemones scattered around in other places. All are now gone :bounce:. Hopefully they will stay gone. I had picked up a box of Aiptasia-X but never opened it because I was not thrilled about individualy applying the stuff to bunch of anemones scattered around the tank. I'll try to take the aiptasia-x back to the LFS for a refund or credit.
 
yote said:
Now thats the kind of updates I like to read.
You know theres no turning back now.Right?:D
Click to expand...

Yeap me and my wallet both know there is no turning back. I will post a possible fish list soon for opinions.

I still won't be adding any fish till around mid April but I will be picking up some more snails soon to help with the algae. I forgot to mention in my last post that I picked up two turbo snails along with the shrimp. They are mowing as fast as they can, but there going to need some help. I thinking about getting some Ciriths, Astreas, and Nassirius. I will not be getting what some would call a full CUC, but enough to mow down the growth and keep the sand stirred a bit.
 
Glad to hear you got rid of the pest. Your doing it right by adding a small CUC at first. You can always add more if needed. Keep up the patience.
 

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