Aptasia won... How do I start over?

I've been neglecting my time for some time now because I could not get a handle on a aptasia outbreak. It's time to just empty out the tank and start all over. I have tried all the aptasia predators and it has never worked.

I have a acrylic tank and was wondering what I should use on it to cleanse it? Bleach? Ammonia? Muriatic acid?

I have a foam wall(great stuff) built into the back of the tank wall, should I rip that off too?

Any advise is appreciated guys.

You ever use aptesia x?


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Yes, I was doing good for a while until we went on vacation for a week. All my progress for 4 weeks down the drain as it seemed that they doubled when we came back from vacation.

what about peppermint shrimp? I had a good 20 aptasia, threw a couple in and within a month got rid of all aptasia.

Berghias didn't work?

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Peppermint shrimp were a bit n miss. If they did go after the aptasia, they would only eat the small ones.
Berghias? I bought 8 of them at one time and I never seen them after I out them into the tank.
I'll be draining the tank tomorrow and cleaning out everything.

What about a copperband or kleins butterfly? Or a filefish.

hey ed.... didn't know you still had a tank... LOL... i would rip out he foam wall completely... start all over again... dip the rocks in acid and junk... the tank, if it has heavy calcium deposits, might have to be polished again.... but you posted no pics, so i can't say for sure... LOL...

Grenade... Pull pin, wait 10 seconds, Aptasia gone.


You might want to leave the room though.

Issue with using aptasia x is that you have to turn off all flow inside your tank and make sure you cover the entire aptasia with the paste. If you let the aptasia *pop* then it'll release a bunch of spores and create a bigger problem.

I had luck with filefish and copperband butterfly fish.

What a couple others said about Filefish and Klein's Butterfly. Those 2 will wipe out aiptasia really fast. But if you decide to break down and start over you can use white vinegar to clean it. Bleach and ammonia are both bad for acrylic and mess it up. Sprayway is great for wiping it down on the outside. Do you have any fish in there? If not, or maybe a couple that aren't heavy eaters, either of the above fish really will wipe out aiptasia. Even better if you don't have to feed other fish so they go straight for it. Or cut off feeding for a coupe days to get them started. But Klein's are Ich magnets just like some Tangs. Just forewarning you.

Bergia work....period. That noted there are some conditions which must be met for them to live and consume the aptasia. On that note, think about it. Bergia eat only aptasia. That is their only food and their diet is exclusive to aptasia. No aptasia and they die out quickly. Also the aptasia x and joes kill the ones you hit, but my experience is for every one you kill within weeks 5 new ones grow out.

Anyway.....for the bergia to work, you need all wrasses and peppermint shrimp gone. Period. One wrasse or peppermint will wipe out 30 bergia s in a day or so. Even the leopards. The peppermints wipe them out almost as fast and worse they hit them at night when the bergia are active. I have a coupe large tanks and one had a few thousand aptasia at one time and learned this process the hard way. I placed 25-30 bergia each time. Each time I lost bergia to peppermints that I could not catch, then to wrasses. I ran interceptor to kill shrimp and caught the wrasses. Then the wrasses need to stay out a couple months until the aptasia is gone. Last is the water perameters......need good water. High nitrates will also kill the nudis.

Get these right and there is zero chance the nudis will fail. Fail in any of these perameters and the nudis are simply dead one way or another.

Last is the number you need and how to place them: five is fine for a small tank or a few aptasia. I was working with 25 at a time in one tank and about 12 in another tank that only had 50 or so aptasia rather than 1000 or so aptasia. If you hav e only a few nudis in a large tank they can simply die of starvation before they find them all. When placing shut pumps off. And place them NEAR the aptasia, not on the aptasia. If you place them on the aptasia they will actually get stung and/or eaten and again, they are gone.

Do it right it is a natural fix, but it takes time and all of the above to be successful. On a positive note if you have a lot of food for them in less than a week you will see nudi eggs and they will reproduce in your tank if they sense there is enough food to support a larger population......