Killing aptasia with lasers

greeniejr

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#1
Hello everyone,

I'm fairly inactive as far as contributing goes, but a few of you may have seen me post before, or met me at sps while i was working for a little while, but i was wondering if any of you have experience killing aptasia with lasers. What wattage to you recomend, what brand, and what color, but more specifically would there be any issue using a green laser of high wattage? they seem to be a tad cheaper.

thanks everyone.
 
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#3
i use this one:
http://www.survivallaser.com/Survival_Laser_I_445nm_Laser/p556088_2498177.aspx

works well, but it doesnt kill them. Your basically roast the tentacles, for some reason the body doesn't burn well. So they will get bummed, retract for days, and eventually grow tentacles back and return. I dont think I can say that I have actually killed permanently a single aptasia.

It is not a viable permanent control plan, as aptasia are capable of reproducing far faster than you can zap them. Much like Joes Juice or Aptasia-X, I think none of these methods are really the weapon that will win the war.

For what its worth, in my experience, nudibranchs dont do a darn thing. I spent $140 on 10 and I am pretty sure they didn't do anything other than hide and eventually die. I only ever saw one on two occasions actually moving in the tank. Total waste of money.

Now I am onto peppermint shrimp, I bought six. I actually witnessed one eat an aptasia, that was real progress. They aren't scouring my tank clean and they aren't saving the day or anything, but maybe over time...

So yeah, laser is fun, laser is dangerous (seriously, you can blind yourself, your fish, your pets, or others before anyone can even blink) so wear eye protection at all times, but laser is not a great way to kill all aptasia.

The only thing I really use it for now is if one particular aptasia is bothering a coral I like, ill nuke it repeatedly to give the coral a shot.
 

reefhound

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#4
inject with lemon at the base.. just get some insulin needles from wallgreens, and a bottle of lemon juice.
always works for me.. as long as you inject the base
 
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