[dinor2]

I have two peppermint shrimp that are doing a great job of eating all these anemones in my dt; however, after shining a flashlight down my overflow, there is a garden full of them in there, small ones! The only thing I can think to do is scrape them off and let the peppermint shrimp eat them after the pump puts them back into the dt.... but does anyone have another fix for this?

Thanks!
Dana

[Tonz of fun]

Scraping them off will only help them. Pores from the Aptasia will burst spreading them to several other spots. That bad. I have a question. Does your overflow have a lid? I am not sure about my hunch but eliminate the light for them and see if they die off. I have a feeling it wont be that easy but let us know.

[mtfabel]

Nah just leave them alone. Aiptasia are incredibly good at polishing your water. As long as they stay in your overflows there is no reason to bother them. I have dual overflows on my tank that is full of them. My water is crystal clear all the time. As long as you dont bother them they will stay in your overflows. The aiptasia grow in there for a good reason. That is where all the left over food goes and they get to catch it as it goes by. If you start bothering them it will cause them to repopulate in your DT.

[aquasalt]

What is the protocol for removing food in the overflow?

[robe25m]

Leave them...They do polish the water and really are no harm there..

I have the same issue, I use a kalk mix to rid my display tank..

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by dinor2

I have two peppermint shrimp that are doing a great job of eating all these anemones in my dt; however, after shining a flashlight down my overflow, there is a garden full of them in there, small ones! The only thing I can think to do is scrape them off and let the peppermint shrimp eat them after the pump puts them back into the dt.... but does anyone have another fix for this?

Thanks!
Dana

You lucky dog!!! Leave em in there!!!

[Krazy]

Originally Posted by mtfabel

Nah just leave them alone. Aiptasia are incredibly good at polishing your water. As long as they stay in your overflows there is no reason to bother them. I have dual overflows on my tank that is full of them. My water is crystal clear all the time. As long as you dont bother them they will stay in your overflows. The aiptasia grow in there for a good reason. That is where all the left over food goes and they get to catch it as it goes by. If you start bothering them it will cause them to repopulate in your DT.

This is great advice!

They also like to build up in size down in the sump, good stuff as long as they stay out of the display tank!!

[dinor2]

Ok, that's very good information, thanks so much!

I DO have quite a few in my dt as well, the two large ones my peppermint shrimp ate but I am considering getting a copperband butterfly to help with the rest of them, or one or two more peppermint shrimp but I'm not sure.... I know my 55gal. dt isn't going to be big enough for the butterfly and eventually he'll have to find a new home but they're supposed to love eating those buggers!

What would you all do? Oh, I have left the ones in my overflow alone, I just finished adding 50lb more of lr to the dt a week ago and need to get a few cerith snails to take care of my lawnmower blenny's poo since it's making the nitrates go up.... But I REALLY want to put corals in there before more fish! Would that be ok or should I get rid of the apastia first? They DO kill other corals, right?..

Thanks for you help!
Dana

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by dinor2

Ok, that's very good information, thanks so much!

I DO have quite a few in my dt as well, the two large ones my peppermint shrimp ate but I am considering getting a copperband butterfly to help with the rest of them, or one or two more peppermint shrimp but I'm not sure.... I know my 55gal. dt isn't going to be big enough for the butterfly and eventually he'll have to find a new home but they're supposed to love eating those buggers!

What would you all do? Oh, I have left the ones in my overflow alone, I just finished adding 50lb more of lr to the dt a week ago and need to get a few cerith snails to take care of my lawnmower blenny's poo since it's making the nitrates go up.... But I REALLY want to put corals in there before more fish! Would that be ok or should I get rid of the apastia first? They DO kill other corals, right?..

Thanks for you help!
Dana

Your thoughts on the Butterfly are correct...and after the Aptasia are gone Copperband Butterflys can be very finicky eaters. Mine cleaned what I thought were a million pods out of my tank in a month. Fortunately he ate with the other fish at feeding time so I lucked out.

If the Shrimp are eating the aptasia whats the problem? They will get it cleaned up in time.
If you have a ton of them still in your tank then thats a different story but if you have less than 10 and the shrimp are feasting then Kudos to you!

I would be more concerned with the Nitrates you say you have. With such a new tank you could be experiencing another cycle and I would caution you to wait till Amonia, Nitrites, Nitrates are at 0 before adding more animals. If you think its your Blennys "poo" is making your nitrates high I would consider increasing flow inside the tank and making sure my skimmer was working well.

Either way Id get those nitrates in check and all other params acceptable before adding any corals.

[dinor2]

Thanks jimw639, that is very logical advice which I will take! However, I DID do a no-no and got three nassarias snails to help with stirring the sand and eating the detrius... and two more tiny peppermint shrimp so there's four of those guys now and YES, there are TONS of those anemones ALL OVER my dt!

I keep telling myself that I know this hobby requires patience but when I decided to get the two more shrimp, I felt it made sense since even after they get those aptasia under control they're great for eating leftover foods as well.

As for my nitrates, I am pretty sure that my tank is just going thru a second cycle; even though I cured the new batch of 50lbs lr before adding it i'm sure that has something to do with it all cycling again, and so far it's not going above 20ppm and my cuc seems to be hanging in there. The one I'm worried about the most is the blenny, he seems fine at times then stressed out at others.

I'm going to go out on a limb and see what happens if I leave the water alone for five days while testing the nitrates each day. If this is indeed another cycle, I'm guessing removing bacteria with the water changes isn't helping it cycle any faster.

Thanks so much for your advice, not even dreaming of adding corals till the nitrates are down and aptasia are gone. (Although, I'm still dreaming of what corals to put in and where they'll be in my dt!).

Thanks again,
Dana

[rlcline76]

There is something worse than 20ppm nitrates.
What is your equipment?

[dinor2]

Overflow box in dt with mxj 900; 2 mxj 1200 in dt and berlin turbo skimmer, rated for up to 250gallons... I do have a nifty ammonia alert thing I found at the store. For $6, it sticks in your dt and tells you when ammonia starts to show up and works for a year! So, no ammonia, yet! THAT is what would worry me more than the nitrates!

~Dana

[dinor2]

Ok, nitrates are now under control after adding a dsb and lots of water changes. It now holds steady at 5ppm, all other levels are great and stable as well.

So, I only have a percula clown now, I beleive I lost my angel because of whatever chemical was used to catch him, he was perfect until he just up and disappeared one day....

Anyways, I would love to get these dern aptasia under control, and want to get a copperband butterfly. I completely understand they can be finicky eaters and my plan is to get one from the lfs I go to (not the same one I got my angel from btw) that i can actually see eating mysis or whatever they get it to eat.

Any suggestions/advice on caring for this butterfly other than the food? For example, is our cat, who likes to jump to try to catch the fish, going to scare it to death or am I going to have to break out the water bottle to squirt the cat?

Thanks!