Hyposalinity & Aiptasia 10/8/05
Hello, 
<Hello Katja (unique name)>
I would very much appreciate your feedback :>. I just had a huge outbreak of tiny, clear Aiptasia (glass Aiptasia??) in my seahorse tank possibly due to excess freshly hatched brine shrimp. 
<Yikes, but are you sure that is what they are? Unlikely they would have resulted from a shrimp hatch.> 
They cover everything...glass, gravel, rocks, plastic plants. I have set up a baby horse tank so as to 
1. protect babies from being stung and 
2. stop feeding the main tank so well. 
Can I starve the Aiptasia somehow? 
<Unlikely as such, they produce much of their own food. Could try completely covering the tank so no light enters...heavy black sheet etc. I'm thinking if we take away the light source they require, they can't produce any food. Can't really tell you how long this would take.>
I cannot obtain true peppermint shrimp (only camel back), Nudibranch nor red legged hermits. Do other varieties of hermit shrimp .i.e...... very small & black help? 
<Never heard of others helping> 
I suppose anemone shrimp would not eat them 
<No>
(only shrimp safe with baby horses due to small size). Would you know of any other biological methods safe with seahorses? Chemical injection and even Kalkwasser etc methods would be near impossible due to the sheer number and
tiny size (needle pin size for most).
However if I remove my horses (I assume I would need to do this?)...how long would I need to run the tank at ca. 1.01 salinity to ensure it is effective? And given that I have live rock and associate crew, will most of the micro-live e.g. bristle worms, Brittlestars die thus causing a ammonia spike and recycle of the tank? If yes, how long before it would all stabilize again do you think? Also would my mushrooms (morphs) and one soft coral survive? 
<I don't think much will survive at 1.010. You may have to take it down lower to insure an effective kill of your Aiptasia along with any other living organisms on your live rock. If your tank is large enough, Copperband butterfly fish are good eradicators of Aiptasia but the care level is not easy.>
Maybe I need to simply start afresh i.e. strip tank...soak in freshwater for a week.. ? 
<This might be your best bet. I'm wondering if you added something else in your tank that would cause this kind of outbreak. It sure doesn't sound like Aiptasia. I know they are prolific breeders but not in the amounts you describe. James (Salty Dog)>
Thank you in advance. <You're welcome> 

Hyposalinity & Aiptasia Follow-up 10/8/05
Thank you James :>. They certainly are Aiptasia as I tried to kill an adult several weeks ago (silly me) and thus spread its tissue to happily regenerate across the entire tank. But I'll either start afresh OR try to get some Stop Aiptasia from Carol Keen in America. Cheers Katja
<OK, good luck with your eradication. James (Salty Dog)> 

Glass Anemones
Hi
<<Hi Cheryl, Craig answering for the WWM crew while they attend MACNA.>>
I have a glass anemone on one of my live rocks. (the kind that is a pest weed) I have been told to put it in fresh water for two days. Will that kill the live rock?
<<Yes, not a good plan for the rock.  Will pretty much kill it dead.   Many people inject Kalkwasser into them.>>
I also thought  I could put the tip of the rock in boiling water (the place the  anemone is) and then after 3 min. put it back in the tank. Would that kill the rest of the live rock?
<<I suppose this would work.  If you don't heat the rest of the rock too much or submerse it, only the anemone part in the boiling water would be affected. If it has coralline it will likely die off temporarily near the spot.  Probably won't take three minutes. You can poach a salmon filet in that time.  LOL! Be careful with the hot water! Craig>>

Aiptasia Removal Success (!)(? permanent)
Hi Bob,
I just want to thank the your site on the WWM on the suggestion how
to get rid of Aiptasia. I have to admit I have tried everything, for those
trying to pluck them out using tweezers you will just double their number.
What I did is used a 160" ID Teflon, polyethylene is better though so you
can angle shape to better reach the pest, then I connected a pointed tip at
the distal end, that I took from the squeeze bottle. At the proximal end I
connected a three way stop cock for easy draining to the sink, while the
other end of the stop cock was connected to a biggest syringe I could find
(60cc). I can't believe it that there were no scape for the Aiptasia, got
sucked in, I was amazed. Thanks Bob, your site is great! 
<Thank you, and congratulations on your success>
Anyway about the
low oxygen saturation I sent you last week, the current situation was, I
tried to turn off the CO2 in the redox reading was 340, but as soon as I
turn them on it went down to 290, it even went down to 250 that morning.
<No real worries here...>
I tried to lower the PSI from the regulator, which the company recommends
2-3psi, so I turned it down to 1.5psi, effluent PH was 6.9>>alk was 2.7, CA
410, PH8.1>>the redox is still low, my fish does not look sick, although
they seem to be breathing hard than usual. I even added Mg every week since
you said it might raise the CA/ALK, believe it did raise to a good level.
<Yes... keep it (the magnesium) about three times your desired calcium concentration>
I'm just worried about this low O2 sat, From today's FAQs you said not to
worry, Even running an Ozone reactor does not help, the only thing that
helps is by turning the CO2, but how can I maintain the CA/Alk when CO2 is
off. Thanks, RL
<All in balance my friend... Your readings are fine... keep going forward... and the growth of algae, photosynthates otherwise will straighten all of this out to a decent homeostatic arrangement. Bob Fenner>

Aiptasia
i read one of the questions about Aiptasia and found if you remove the rock 
from the tank and cover the Aiptasia with sea salt for about an hour then 
rinse of in R.O. water that the Aiptasia just fall of in one of my tanks i 
did this and have not had a regrowth.
>>
Thank you for your input... have heard of others "success" with real salty water, Kalkwasser... and other products... but you've got to be sure of getting every last cell... otherwise, just like an Ahnolllddd Film... "they'll be baacccckkkkk"
Bob Fenner