Need Recommendations: Unwanted Aptaisa in sump/refuge

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by parkinsn

Last time I checked the diet of a peppermint shrimp wasn't solely aiptasia. So worrying about them not surviving long term is not an issue. If you are that concerned about them long term throw them up to the DT when they have done their job in the sump. Im with fkshiu, I would throw a few pep. shrimp in the sump and when they do what they need to do throw them in the DT or back to the LFS

That is what I thought of doing, but with all the pumps I have going. 1 return, 3 reactors, 3 on the skimmer (ReCIRC), most likely they will get zapped by on of them. At $10-12 bucks a piece, it can get costly.

Hmmm, what to do? I have blown some Kalk paste on them, will see what this does. Then look at other solutions. I was going to leave them, but again, don't want them in the DT.

[parkinsn]

You could set up a egg crate baffle on the bubble trap, alternating the egg crate to create smaller holes that the shrimp cant make it through without restricting flow. Let the peppermints do what they have to do and deal with them later.

Also, Im not too sure they would get sucked into a pump they may have small brains but they are smarter than that. I have had various shrimp in the past go down my overflow into the sump. I fished them out months later when I cleaned the sump as I thought they were dead. (trigger and dotty back were not so nice to small shrimp) Its a gamble but I bought 15 peppermints from RC and got a good deal on them for buying quantity.

[fkshiu]

No, I actually mean camel shrimp. It was an article I saw on the zeovit forums that I can't seem to find now. They placed a piece of live rock infested with aiptasia but also encrusted with some coral. Camel shrimp are know to be reef unsafe because they will actively pick at corals causing coral death. However (the article noted) that the camel shrimp ate the aiptasia first. The rock was then quickly removed before the shrimp got a chance to attack the coral. They tried this with a few other rocks and the same pattern emerged.

At the end of the day, since it's in the sump you could use either peppermints or camel shrimp. The bottom line is that you should deal with the aiptasia before they have a chance to spread to the display tank. The shrimp will simply scavenge whatever else is in the sump when the aiptasia are gone. Throw in a bit of mysis every few days, for example.

[Jeff_]

The other choice is put in a UV sterilizer on the return pump line (depending on the flow) so any aiptasia clones don't make it through into the Display. I remember an article a while back where the tank had a cryptic filtration zone (no light) and they had a UV sterilizer to get rid of the budding aiptasia. Apparently they make pretty good filters just like sponges.