What would you do? v. Aiptasia (1 Viewer)

[Tenny]

So I had a bit of an Aiptasia problem before with my tank. I managed it for a bit with the various methods out there (Nudibranches, Franks F-Aiptasia, CBB). When I got my Waterbox 130.4 I decided it was time to get rid of Ich completely and in that process try and get rid of Aiptasia as well.

So I bought 20 Peppermint shrimp, and threw them in the old fishless tank with all the corals in it and only one rock, I reduced flow greatly and almost added no food for 76 days. Within the first day or two of the peppermints being in the tank, all the visible Aiptasia was gone and I haven't seen any since then. Skip forward to 76 days later, I moved a lot of corals over to the main tank that were in this tank and the remaining peppermints (5). I was very cautious and cutting off frag plugs, and cutting the LPS down to where there was minimal stony portions left. This was all in hopes of reducing the possibility of Aiptasia moving to the new DT.

This brings me to the one rock that is covered with Zoa's (pictured below). While the other frags and LPS I moved over I am confident I did at least a decent effort at reducing the chance of Aiptasia moving into the DT... with this rock there really isn't any good way.

So I have two ideas I can go forward with.

1. Move the rock and just monitor closely and hope for the best.
   1. Pro - Rock looks great, corals will thrive in new DT.​
   2. Con - Higher Potential of bringing Aiptasia into DT.​
2. Move rock into the Coral QT tank and monitor.
   1. Pro - Allows a longer observation period without any Aiptasia predators so I can verify that no Aiptasia is on it.​
   2. Con - Coral QT Tank isn't doing very good, most corals are surviving, but many are also dying. Zoa's seem to "barely survive"​
   3. Con - New Corals could transfer Aiptasia onto the rock while they are in observation.​

I am still considering trying to get another CBB or filefish just as a proactive measure in case any Aiptasia pops up in the DT, but I haven't had much success with CBB's. I can get them to eat, but in the feeding frenzy of the DT they don't do well enough to survive.

Rock in question (looks much better in person and with the lights not so red):

 

[DwPolcyn]

I would get your QT tank situated then throw the rock in for a month or so of observation. All I have in my 5gallonQT is a heater and HOB filter that only uses filterfloss, weekly 2.5gallon water changes are all it needs.

 

[Tenny]

I would get your QT tank situated then throw the rock in for a month or so of observation. All I have in my 5gallonQT is a heater and HOB filter that only uses filterfloss, weekly 2.5gallon water changes are all it needs.

Yeah I don't know what the deal with this QT tank is. It's a 12g cube, skimmer, AI Prime HD. I try do about a 3g water change weekly. There only thing in there is LR, Corals, and Anemone. I rarely feed the corals, there's a bit of algae but not much. A couple snails and pods. Some corals do fine, I had a Scoly in there that looked good. Anemone looks fine. Acan's look good. Zoa's survive barely, most sticks die a few have done ok. It's been up and running with no real changes for a year in July. I think the problem could be lack of nutrients.