Aiptasia Removal - What's Your Preferred Method?

By Shane Graber - Posted Apr 14, 2011 11:00 AM

Aiptasia are a royal pain in the you-know-what. What is YOUR preferred method for fighting this scourge of the reef tank?

Aiptasia Removal - What's Your Preferred Method?

Photo by byteorder, flickr

At some point we've all had the problem - Aiptasia growing out of control in the tank and attacking other corals in the general vicinity. A recent post on Reefs.org started me thinking about the different methods devised over the years to fight back against encroaching Aiptasia:

Commercial chemical products: Joe's Juice, Red Sea Aiptasia-X
Electrical: Aiptasia Zapper
Home-made: saturated kalkwasser paste, lemon juice
Natural: Berghia verrucicornis nudibrachs, Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni), Copperband Butterflyfish (Chelmon rostrata), Raccoon Butterflyfish (Chaetodon lunula), Long-nosed Butterflyfishes (Forcipiger spp.), etc.
Un-natural: Fire (torch), boiling water

Before going on, please for the love of God do not try the un-natural methods. While they might work, they will also aerosolize organic material in that general vicinity and could lead to inhalation of all sorts of nasties as one reefkeeper learned the hard way leading to an emergency room visit. Granted, he wasn't specifically trying to eradicate Aiptasia, but the potential still looms with this method.

What camp do you fall under for Aiptasia removal? Chemical (commercial or homemade), electrical, or natural? Sound off in the comments below.

(via Reefs.org)