(upbeat music)
- Hey, it's Thomas here,
and today, we're gonna be taking a look
at Frank's F-Aiptasia.
I tried it, and I'm gonna show you exactly what happened.
If dreaded aiptasia has already snuck past your defenses
and taken a foothold in your tank,
or maybe you've just discovered one hitched a ride
into your reef on a frag
and you'd like to take swift action
before it has a chance to become a real problem,
using a safe, easy solution that works the first time
preventing those harmful little anemones
from exploding all over your tank,
then checkout Frank's F-Aiptasia.
By the way, Frank, if you're watching,
I really love the name of this product.
It perfectly encapsulates how reefers feel
about that pest anemone,
and also literally encapsulates the anemone.
And I'll explain what I mean in a bit.
So Aiptasia, Majano, and other invasive anemones can be one
of the absolute worst pest a reefer can face.
Not because they're the most damaging
but because of their ability to persevere, many
of the common methods we use to try and control them.
And worst of all, actually reproduce at alarming rates
when those methods fail to do the job
I've tried just about every product out there
to deal with pest anemones.
And while they all can work to some degree,
it's usually a mixture of several approaches that ends
up being effective enough to take down Aiptasia reliably.
A one-stop single-step solution to dealing
with that Aiptasia is something that reefers
like myself have been searching for,
for what feels like forever.
But I think we may have just found that solution.
Franks F-Aiptasia is the new kid in town.
And while it might appear
like your average Aiptasia remedy at first glance,
this formula of white paste isn't meant to be injected
into the oral disk
but instead works by completely encapsulating the Aiptasia,
not only eliminating it
but also preventing it from being able to send
out its army eventful offspring that would otherwise
be left to proliferate throughout your reef.
In the box, you'll find Franks F-Aiptasia, the syringe,
a long applicator, a curved applicator, and a stir stick.
So I went through the trouble
of finding some nicely infested rocks of Aiptasia
so I can show you how this product works
with some firsthand results,
which I have to admit are actually great.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.
I've used a lot of products that look similar,
but this worked well.
So let me show you how it works and what exactly it does.
First things first, when you open the bottle,
use the stir stick to mix it up.
It's pretty thick and it separates in shipping,
so this is really important.
Next, cap it and give it a really good shake
just to make sure it is thoroughly mixed up.
Now, before we continue, it is critical that you shut
off the flow pumps on your tank
so you don't accidentally blow any of this stuff around
while you're working on those Aiptasia.
It is designed to kill pest anemone,
so I'm sure you can imagine it is also gonna
be pretty caustic for corals.
It will damage corals if it lands them.
So just be careful.
Now that the pumps are off,
you can fill the syringe with F-Aiptasia,
then choose a syringe tip
that's gonna work best for the area in your tank
that you're going to be working in.
When you're ready to apply it, get the tip of the syringe
nice and close to the Aiptasia
and gently start covering it up,
starting at the oral disk, working your way outwards
until it has been completely blanketed in F-Aiptasia,
then move on to the next one.
Once you're all done, it takes between 30 and 60 minutes
for that blanket to harden,
at which point you can turn your flow pumps back on.
And that is that, the Aiptasia is taken care of,
eradicated, bye-bye.
If you want or need confirmation after a week,
you can optionally go back in and chip away
the rocky coating of hardened F-Aiptasia
to reveal the empty space where the anemone once was,
or you can leave it be, and it'll continue to harden
and eventually grow biofilm, coralline algae,
and just become a part of the rock work.
If you do chip it away, rest assured the dust
and bits that fly off are no longer caustic,
and won't be harmful to your corals.
I was really happy to see these results,
and I would certainly recommend F-Aiptasia,
especially for taking care of any anemones
that have popped up on new coral additions
or small outbreaks.
It does take some time to apply to all of the anemones
if you have a really large outbreak,
so just be prepared for that.
Although I didn't get the opportunity to try it
on Majano, or star polyps, or Blue Anthelia,
or Xenia, or other corals that could become a pest,
I'm not at all surprised
that it can also be used to remove them as well.
There are also other holistic approaches
to defeating those dastardly pest anemones,
but there are surprisingly common mistakes
that reefers make leading to less than effective results.
Get ahead of the curve by watching this video right here.
Where Ryan and Randy go over the top mistakes
that reefers make when trying to deal with Aiptasia.
Of course, not getting Aiptasia in the first place
is always the best option.
But if you have it, you wanna make sure
that that effort you put into removing them is worthwhile.
You don't wanna, you know, waste a whole bunch
of time just to find out that they're still there
or have gotten worse.
So yeah, save yourself a whole lot of heartache,
and have a look.