effective way to kill aiptasia (now with moar lasers!)

Delphinus · #1 12-13-2011, 05:30 PM

Saw that last week as well. Looked into buying one even, found a few suppliers.

In my case though, with pets and small kids in the house, and all the males in the house with the exception of the cat being huge science and sci-fi nerds ... this would be one horrible purchase to make (to be filed alongside other epic mistakes of judgment such as "bought the 6 year old a real lightsabre and he accidentally cut his grandma in half" http://youtu.be/TXMX_xm7IRo ).

Obviously you have to be extremely cautious: reflections from the glass are possible so nobody can be in the room with you, including pets; steps to be taken to keep fish away from the spot so they don't get instantly blinded or burnt .. and so on.

I'm also curious if the beam passing through the glass might do some residual damage there as well, perhaps creating a weak spot?

Cool idea though in theory! Come on, it's freakin' LASERS!

lastlight · #2 12-13-2011, 05:39 PM

I'll admit I wanted to see what my frontosas would think of a laser pointer once. They took immediate notice and went crazy trying to get it!

I am not sure how you could have that thing shining in there that long and not have a fish notice (see) the end point. Equal parts awesome and risky here.

Nano · #3 12-13-2011, 08:47 PM

wow some of you guys have some real horror stories!! I guess I have been lucky in that department so far. I had a manjo, and about 10 aiptasia, all on one piece of LR when I was first cycling the tank, I almost thought of just removing the rock, until I noticed, there were about 6-8 more through our on other rocks, So i had heard of aiptasia x, but couldnt find any at that time, so I went with tropic marine aiptasia killer. it said to inject it directly into the polyp.. well if you've ever tried this, you know its next to impossible, I managed to get one this way but the rest would suck inside themselves. so I just stabbed the Sh*t out of them with the needle while they were close and filled them with the tropic marine, havent had an aiptasia in 3 month except one on a frag of zoo's recently, no that one I was scared to inject for fear of killing the zoo's but I was lucky to get the aiptasia only in this instance. nasty little buggers. but so far I count myself lucky!

lastlight · #4 12-13-2011, 08:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanomano

so I just stabbed the Sh*t out of them with the needle while they were close and filled them with the tropic marine

you sir, need a job writing the instructions on these products

Nano · #5 12-13-2011, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

you sir, need a job writing the instructions on these products

lol yes blunt and to the point

thats what I figured the pests deserved though as sadistic as it is

Money pit · #6 12-13-2011, 09:17 PM

Once the aiptasia are dead, you can always get your kicks by frying the claws off hitchhiker crabs

Wait for them to molt and do over

Nano · #7 12-13-2011, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money pit

Once the aiptasia are dead, you can always get your kicks by frying the claws off hitchhiker crabs

Wait for them to molt and do over

And I thought what I said was sadistic!!

Madreefer · #8 12-13-2011, 08:51 PM

I'm usually one that jumps on the new and latest. Not this time, i'm going to sit back and wait for one of the members on this site to try it first. Who's it going to be?

lastlight · #9 12-13-2011, 08:53 PM

somebody with more money than me.

to which life's search engine is saying "Please narrow your search... returned too many results"...

BigAl07 · #10 12-13-2011, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I'm also curious if the beam passing through the glass might do some residual damage there as well, perhaps creating a weak spot?

Cool idea though in theory! Come on, it's freakin' LASERS!

It has zero effect on glass. None what so ever. It "works" from heat and this heat is "absorbed" by darker materials. The darker the material the faster and more intense the heat. The "Beam" passes through the glass as if it's not there at all. There are lasers that can cut glass but they are a highly specialized system and I suspect some other "Trade Secrets" are involved in that endeavor. That's why many of your production glass cutting systems use water-jet rather than laser to cut their projects.

Yes this is a VERY risky process and truly no one else should be home let alone in the same room or in an adjacent room where the beam could be reflected to.

The 2 people I've talked with indicate that something makes the fish "not interested" in the end-point (sound of the boiling flesh maybe?) but none the less precaution needs to be taken to help ensure you don't have a stray "Swim By" event. Lucky for me my tank in question only has 3 fish so putting them in "Time Out" wont be a huge matter.