Aptasia as a natural nutrient export

[superclown]

Some of you may think I'm crazy but I had a "hmmm" moment.

Ive done everything I can think of to remove the aptasia from my display I have very little rock in my tank now. I think I'm going to get some cured base rock since I wanna re aquascape put it in a tub and get it live. I'm just going to let the aptasia spread for the time being then when it comes time to switch out the rock I'm going to take the aptasia and put it in the sump with some rock rubble.

I've been reading a lot of threads with positive results on keeping aptasia in the sump area for a natural way for exporting excess nutrients. I'm even thinking bout culturing them for my breeder tanks as well.

From what I've read they usually won't make it back into display

Anyone else had success with this or tried a aprasia scrubber?

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[dakota9]

Half way through this experiment, when Aptasia has taken over your sump and display, and covers everything, with no appreciable difference in water quality, are you likely to have a "duh? what the h*ll was I thinking" Moment?

If not, go for it, but there's other more valued ways of nutrient export, and no body would want to swap frags with you because everyone would think your tank would have cooties....

Just sayin'

 

[superclown]

Well at this point I have "cooties" anyway. Did urs spread to the display? I may try this in my breeder tanks just to see what happens since I don't use sand it would be nice to be able to up the flow a little after feeding and have something to eat the excess and keep the bottoms clean.

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[kilralpine]

Too invasive to be a logical option of nutrient export, I would think it would be of greatest difficulty to keep them out of eyesight and out of the display once theyve taken ahold of the sump tank.Decent 200$+ skimmer will way out compete their ability to freshen water, they arent really cleaners moreso converters of waste.

 

[midas]

Since you have very little rock in your tank right now, why not remove that rock and kill the remaining aptasia?

If you are encouraging growth of aptasia in one part of your system, it seems impossible for aptasia not to spread throughout your entire system. They produce sexually and asexually, so sooner or later they will migrate to your display..

 

[rjrgroup]

Everyone poops...even aptasia. There fore...no export.

 

[sewer urchin]

Everyone poops...even aptasia. There fore...no export.

If you light grid (or anything for the aptasia) in the sump and change it out every so often, that could count as export. But i would imagine that it would have to have a bunch of aptaisa. If one got suck into the pump and the impeller shredded it you would diffidently have some "vegetative" asexual reproduction going on.

I remember reading about The Smithsonian using Xenia and algae scrubbers as export mechanisms back in the 80's.

You know you could always redesign and do it this way

The Pest Tank

<div class="gc_ifarem_title">Night time in the pico reef pest tank! - YouTube</div>

 

[rdnelson]

That is actually a pretty cool looking tank if you ask me. Might be fun to do someday.

 

[rjrgroup]

Perfect for a mantis.

I'm still not seeing the logic behind a aptasia scrubber. They are still going to introduce waste via digestion. Algae is a plant and benefits in an opposing way to the animals. That to me is like dropping in a bunch of tangs to export nutrients. As long as they are in the tank, they consume and produce waste. Remove them and you are none the better. I would try an algae scrubber way before I spent my time proliferating aptasia.

 

[darth reefer]

Lol, I never thought all the stuff I hate and try to avoid would actually look good together. Not a bad looking tank.

 

[kilralpine]

Ive seen a few pest tank threads floating around lately, some very interesting stuff

 

[frantz]

I read an article or maybe in a book that some people actually built a sump with back and fourth runners (to increase exposure time for water) and had aptasia in there for nutrient export. I myself have some very healthy specisimens in my sump and they haven't taken over the sump yet and none survive the display because of a healthy population of peppermint shrimp. I find aptasia attractive when it colors up, it's just hard to control in a display.

 

[thesilence87]

Hypothetically, wouldn't it be possible to prevent them from entering into the display with an oversized UV unit? If you fry everything going from your sump back up to your display, you can't get aptasia, right? Someone correct me if I'm off base here.

 

[rdnelson]

thesilence87;824561 wrote: Hypothetically, wouldn't it be possible to prevent them from entering into the display with an oversized UV unit? If you fry everything going from your sump back up to your display, you can't get aptasia, right? Someone correct me if I'm off base here.

I would assume that is correct if ALL water goes through the UV and at a low enough speed to allow extended exposure and if the UV were intense enough. But then everything else such as PODs would also suffer. Guess it would be a trade off.

 

[frantz]

you could divide your sump and have a "aptasia chamber" which only exports through the UV to the main sump. Then you would maintian the pod population.

 

[superclown]

I have plenty of nutrient export in my tank I run a skimmer along with other equipment. I was just curious and while a inline UV would work it would probably make the return flow less than desired

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[falos]

they aare used in nps tanks nearly a must have. but to they will invade a dt there is no way around it so nudis are neaded to controll, just nead a pair to start with after a few months dt will stay clear . aptasia and tomato nems are good for removing large particulate from the water.you have to run them before the sump and filter socks. aptasia and sponge filters are great at maintaining nps tanks so they should also work in a non ulns system

 

[thesilence87]

Instead of using aptasia, what about using corydactis anemones? They are far less invasive and look way cooler.

 

[falos]

thesilence87;824594 wrote: Instead of using aptasia, what about using corydactis anemones? They are far less invasive and look way cooler.

you could use eny form of nem as long as you have enuf ofthem and a way to kill them in the dt

 

[thesilence87]

That was the reason for the corydactis anemone suggwstion, they only really grow on the underside of rocks, they dont like the light, which means they wont directly compete with photosynthetic corals for real estate. couple that with their weak sting and it shouldnt be a big deal if they're in your DT.