Killing Aptasia or Sterilizing Rock
 

What is the best way to destroy all of the aptasia on live rock? I have an aquarium full of live rock that has a fairly heavy infestation of aptasia. I want to move the rock to my new aquarium but I don't want any aptasia in the new tank. There are some really nice big pieces so I would like to reuse it. I was considering removing each piece and boiling it in a big pot to sterilize it. I understand that it would kill all the good stuff but that is a price I am willing to pay to get rid of the aptasia.

Anyone have any better ideas?

drops of lemon it helps!!! :razz:

I did a lot og googling on this last month when my tank cracked and all my live rock got "deaded". I am NOT recommending this, but I Found this thread interesting... It's about bleaching rock.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-roc...ock-37810.html

I vote to boil it... I had the same issue and as long as you have some other live rock that is healthy you can just seed it one piece at a time in the new tank. I decided it is not worth the headache and extra maintenance trying to control infestations. Maintaining the tank and livestock enough as it is, don't want to add more work if it can be avoided from the start.

I boiled mine in a 5 gallon bucket, left in fw for a day and then did another round of boiling to make sure. Make sure you do it in the garage or outside, cover your mouth with something and dont breathe it in... it will smell like something died and probably not to good for your health as well. It kept a lot of color surprisingly, but some parts are mainly white. I just started adding a rock every few days to the display tank to not cause any spikes.

hmmm, that bleach option sounds appealing for all the rock in my current system when I trade up. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with 100 pounds unusable aiptasia spawn, but that sounds like a fast way to get the rock completely clean.

I have tried boiling rock before, but only in small pieces.

theres a guy on here his name is "themaster" he will trade you good rock for rock with aiptasia he farms nudibranchs.

another idea is like i did is use a file fish and in a few weeks will completely clean your tank out:) cheers:)

another option is to toss it outside for a night , one night in albertas cold and it will be as dead as can be:):)

I would try some of that Tailor Aquatics Aptasia X,if you have a small tank or tub you could take out a few prices of rock at a time and dose them. This way it would not pollute your tank and it would save the good stuff on your rock.

aptasia
 

i find the berghia work the best-but you will never really be free of aptasia.after my move i put my live rock out in the elements for 6 months while i was rebuilding my fish room,after 5 months of my 220 running again-i have aptasia from my old rock.it will go in cycles-berghia will eat the aptasia then starve(loan them out)then the aptasia will grow back.the bonus is that you can sell the new berghia.i didn't have to pay for anything for 7 months while i was doing that at my lfs

When I bought my rock with lots of aptisia on it, I didn't care if it was live or dead. I put it all in the bathtub and filled it full of fresh water. I scrub it 1 a day and changed the water 2 a day. For the first few it did not take very long for the water to become gross and full of dead things. I would rinse it and fill the tub full again. Some of the life that was on it took a couple of days to kill off. If I was to do it again I would do the same, but after a couple of days in fresh water I would put it outside to freeze.
Or call the guy up in Edmonton that is looking for aptisia and trade him pound for pound or loan it to him.