[DeepBlueSea]

So I'm getting back into the hobby. April 2017, I broke our of storage, a whole slew of equipment. Included in that 'stuff' was about what was 100# of what was "live" rock, that's been in storage, behind the shed, inside a BRUTE garbage can, for over 10 years. Obviously, now very dead rock. No worries, plumbed together a garbage can cycling system and let that rock cycle through. After all the crud 'burned' off, I basically had 'cycled rock' but not much really 'growing' other then beneficial bacteria.

So I purchased 3 small pieces of 'live rock' from the LFS. Just grabbed them from the bottom of the tank, as they seemed to have a good amount of small red feather dusters and I'm sure plenty of other critters to really start bringing back my dead rock to 'live rock'.

needless to say.. that rock sure did seed my tank. I was lucky enough {{JOKING}} to get 'bubble algae', coepods, plenty of flat snails, and of course our nemesis, the Aptasia.

So now my previously dead rock is now 'live again' and boy did I have an Aptasia explosion.

Anyhow, this is all in an interim system before the main display and filtration is pulled together at some point in time of the future.

Figure now is the time to try to get this under control and with any luck eradicate my rock of aptaisa before the larger system is built.

With that said, I ordered 10 medium Berghia Nudibranch from Reeftown. They were delivered on Thursday 12/28/17 and almost immediately acclimated to two separate systems containing rock covered with Aptasia.

1. A 10 Gallon system, with a heater, air bubble and a few pieces of rock with easily 15 (dime sized) aptasia growing on them (and that's what I could easily see).

2. My 29 gallon system with 29 gallon sump with a slew of rock stuck in there. This is an operating system, return pump, protein skimmer, appropriate lighting, etc, etc.

I acclimated 5 Berghia in the 10 gallon tank and 5 Berghia in the 29'r.

After 1 week, all but 1 of the 'visiable' aptaisa have been devoured in the 10gal tank. I can still see a few 'baby aptasia', but concerned that these 5 medium berghia could starve, I placed two more aptasia covered rocks in the 10 gallon and will report back next week on 1/11 what's happening.

I'm hoping, that the initial 5 berghia placed in this 10g tank will lay their eggs and in another week or so, I'll experience a 'hatching'. I may need to do a water change out of the 10 gal to the 29 to provide ample food for these newly hatched free floating nudibranch.

I also acclimated 5 berghia in the 29 gallon. 1st thing I'll mention on this is.. after acclimating the container water with my tanks water, i submerged the container that they were delivered in, against the wall of the tank and an aptaisia covered rock. In the morning, when I can down to remove the container, I was pleasantly surprised to see 2, egg circles inside the container, so these little buggers are already laying eggs. I just hope these eggs can survive and flourish in a system that's running a full filtration system.

1 week after adding 5 berghia to a 29 gallon, the rock that I placed them next to is now absent of aptasia. I've witnessed, on a number of occasions, the feeding and elimination of aptasia right before my eyes.

So right now I'm thrilled with what I've seen in a weeks time. I'm hoping to see at least 1 full breeding cycle complete itself and with it the elimination of aptaisa from my rock.

I'll keep updating with my progress.