Losing battle with aptasia

[trilinearmipmap]

I was reading some threads on RC about cooking live rock, I wonder if that is a viable option if nothing else works.

[Tarolisol]

Ive read about the cooking and it takes a couple months i dont think my fish and corals would be to happy with that, i have two CCBs right now so hopefully they will take a liking to them, as for my peppermint shrimp im not even sure if they are still alive, i may have to try and pick up several of them again to see if i can clear it up. Anyone see any in calgary latly.?

[Beverly]

My BB 37g monti cap tank has 175w MH, ~20 lbs lr, 4-5 snails, some non-invasive macroalgae, at least one small hitchhiker crab, and no fish. This tank never gets fed, but does get kalk dripped nightly and Mg added when necessary.

So now I'm finding aptasia growing in a few places that are hard to get to How can this stuff grow with no food?? Are they simply photosynthetic, or can they survive on detritus?

Think I'm going to get a peppermint shrimp or two to solve the problem, but am still stumped as to why they are there in the absence of real food

Can anybody shed some light on the lives of aptasia?

[Tarolisol]

I dont feed my tank either yet they continue to reproduce.

[Bob I]

I am convinced Aiptasia come from nowhere. However, to qualify that statement. In my case they always show up on the same rocks. You can wipe them out on a rock, but sometimes months later on the same rock they are back.
For instance; Yesterday I treated a rock recently purchased at a LFS for one Aiptasia. I looked at the rock today, and found five little Aiptasia. So today I treated that rock again with boiling water. I am willing to bet my last nickel that in a few days there will be more.

[outtafocus]

I think Ripley must have brought aiptasia to earth when "the company" sent the Nostromo to that planet.
Becareful, do not put your face over any aiptasia or it may jump out and attach its self to your face, and then you will end up having aiptasia burst from your chest.

I hope I dont have to explain that reference.

[smokinreefer]

i used to use thick kalk paste and try to inject the aiptasia... couldnt keep up with em.

but then i lucked out and my copperband [rip ] decided to eradicate them for me.

[Tarolisol]

I was thinking of doing some sort of kalk slurry in a seperate container for every single rock in the tank any one think this will work?

[Beverly]

Sean,

Have soaked a piece of rock in kalk/RO water for an hour or so trying to kill my snail-eating worm. Killed the bacteria, hitchhiker snails, coralline algae. Worm must not have been in that particular rock, as I did not see it come out. Had to re-cure the rock. Would probably work with aptasia, but you'll be starting the tank all over from scratch.

[Tarolisol]

so kalk dip would have the same result as boiling the piece of rock?