First, Terry you were right on with your answer. Those three, plus
Joe's Juice, are the best options.

Caution with the Copperband, it is hard (read-almost impossible) to get
this fish to feed on manufactured or cultivated non-living food.
Please don't use this fish unless you have the matured and lightly fish
loaded reef tank with refugium to support it. Most people don't.
Course, correct me if I'm wrong and there is a good way to feed this
butterfly.

The nudibranch
(http://www.seaslugforum.net/factshee...ase=bergverraq) Terry
mentioned is awesome! Except it won't eat the largest aiptasia and
will eat it's food source completely if given the chance. That being
said, I used it in a 54 corner so maybe with the larger tank you may
have a sustainable aiptasia crop. But that's what you're trying to
avoid right?


The peppermint shrimp. (Note the website at the end that will keep you
out of future trouble by making sure you know what this one looks like
and not the phony.) This is your best option. (I'm going to assume you
have only mushrooms, the afforementioned fish and approximately 1-1.5
lbs of liverock per gallon, also all the normal operating equipment)

First use Joe's Juice to knock all the aiptasia that you can see.

Now you want to limit the organics in your aquarium. This is going to
help the peppermint shrimp decide to eat your aiptasia. So, after a
few days blast your live rock with a powerhead or turkey baster to
suspend any detritus. Immediately perform a fairly significant water
change (30%-50%). (However with a water volume change like this you
must ensure that your replacement water matches the tank water (temp,
ph, sp. gravity)).

24 Hours or so later you're ready to introduce your peppermint shrimp
(remember to SLOWLY acclimate them to the water conditions). As far as
a number, I'm not sure there is an accepted answer, however you have
some nice advantages with these shrimp. They work well in colonies.
They are easy to feed. And they do a fairly good job of keeping the
live rock detritus free. I'm not going to give you a number. But I'll
tell you that I had 3 in my 54 corner and did the above process, the
aiptasia is now gone.

Some times Aiptasia can be an indication of a different tank problem,
namely dissolved organics. When was the last time you did a serious
full spectrum water test? (pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Alkalinity,
Phosphate, etc...) That being said... Aiptasia are very effective at
pulling nutrients from the water and are even used in filtration
systems similar to an algae scrubber...

Best of luck...

Russ

PS. Make sure you get the right shrimp...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/in...epshrpfaqs.htm





On Oct 21, 8:33 pm, George Patterson wrote:
MarkW wrote:
For a 120 gallon tank how many Peppermint shrimp would I need?I would also be interested in an answer to this question, just in case. I think
I don't have any aiptasia yet, but I've had to deal with it in the past and
don't want to use a butterfly again.

George Patterson
All successes in conservation are temporary. All defeats are permanent.