aiptasia and bubble algae

[SHELL]

I bought a small coral frag and didn't see that the frag had a large lump of bubble algea and some aiptasia, whats the best way of getting shot of these as i don't want to have the tank over run with these!

Cheers
Shell

 

[chkltcow]

Bubble algae.... remove it VERY gently from the tank without popping it. It's the easy one to get rid of.

Aiptasia... you have options, but none work very well.

A) natural predation.... either a peppermint shrimp or copper banded butterfly fish. The copperband will eat other polyps though.
B) chemical removal.... inject the base of it with vinegar and wait till it disintegrates. Careful in a small tank as vinegar can affect pH
C) chemical removal part 2.... kalk/Joe's Juice. No injecting here. just get powdery kalkwasser at the mouth of the aiptasia and it will overload it... and it curls up and dies. No fear of dropping pH.... worst that happens is you put more calcium in the water
or D) thick cyanoacrylite superglue... like people use to glue frags to rocks. Put some on the end of a toothpick or something and stick it to the mouth of the aiptasia... simply glue it shut.

I've tried Joe's Juice and the peppermint shrimp personally. And, if you can, I'd recommend the peppermint shrimp. They're brutally efficient... and on top of that, they're cute

 

[ostrow]

My peppermint shrimp only like fried aiptasia. That is, after I zapped it good they would swoop in. There are aiptasia eating nudibranchs. If you can get your hands on them, the Berghia Nudis are awesome. They'll starve, though, once they finish their work.

It took me 4 or 5 times to get t he Joe's to kill the anemones. A thick kalk mixture works better. But you do need a syringe to get the kalk into the mouth. And, in fact, too much kalk at once in a nano can spike your pH pretty drastically so you do have to be careful.