A simple, effective Aiptasia control method

[randy holmes-farley]

Breefcase:

<, The intense boiling "heat of dilution" of the concentrated solution as it enters the tank water, coupled with the chemical burning action of the highly basic solution, kills the entire Aiptasia quite handily.>>

I don't deny that the aiptasia are killed by the high pH, but I am skeptical that there is much heat of dilution involved. After all you are only going from 2 N to about 0.5 N salt at full dilution. IMO, that isn't enough to generate much heat.

If there is substantial heat generated, it will, IMO, be coming from the heat of neutralization of the hydroxide by bicarbonate:

OH- + HCO3- ----> CO3-- + H2O

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: Randy Holmes-Farley ]</p>

 

[Bodine]

A quick question and if this was mentioned in thE thread I apologize at my laziness and poor reading skills.
I battled the pest for years(peppermints finally worked for me) and tried this type warfare.

I first used muratic acid to kill a a pest that just refused to go down. Acid dissloved the rock(when do outide tank) so I tried drain opener AKA Red Devil Lye.
A drop of this caustic solution did the job with no harm to rock. The can says this is NAOH and is cheap.
Could this work instead of the mention solution that may not be availible and what of concentration?

 

[Chucker]

FWIW, a friend of mine provided me with some freshly mixed 2N NaOH, and it was used last night on another buddy's system. The pH was 8.52 when we started killing, and we shut all of the pumps down for about 30 minutes. We used 10 mL of solution. Precipitate did form, and drifted around the tank rather easily when his sailfin (mean 7" SOB) would cruise past the creivces where it had been injected. 30 minutes after we turned all of the pumps back on, the pH was 8.57. We did not check for any salinity change.

One of the Aiptasia sp. we zapped was anchored on the underside of a small rock. When he began to squirt it, it retracted so rapidly that it lifted the rock off of the sandbed. We flipped the rock over for better access, and gave it a good dose. By the time we turned the pumps back on around 15 minutes later, roughly 75% of the tissue had disintegrated, and the 25% remaining was a white lump of partially denatured goo.

I hope to take pictures to document the process when I do the same in my tank.

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Bodine:

It's the same thing. I don't see any reason to go out and buy chemnical grade NaOH for this use. Lye disslved in water is the same.

Note that it does get very hot when dissolved.

If you want to mimic Breefcase's solution, 2N is about 8 parts of lye to 92 parts water.

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Chucker:

<< We used 10 mL of solution. >>

How big was the tank?

 

[randy holmes-farley]

Chucker:

That's not unreasonable then in that size tank.

Ten mL of 2 N NaOH would boost alkalinity by 20 meq, which spread over that size tank is only 0.03 meq/L, a trivial amount.

I'd be more worried if that had been done in a 20 gallon tank

 

[M.E.Milz]

Hmmm, could one briefly dip each aiptasia cover rock (assuming that the rock has no coral colonies on it) into a bath of this soultion, and then quickly drop the rock into a garbage can of freshly mixed saltwater? I know someone that will be taking down a tank where the rock is just covered with the stuff. I don't want to add the rock to any other system, and I don't want to toss the rock out.

 

[liquid]

If you don't mind killing everything on the rock including any coralline algae, bristleworms, etc, then I guess you could do it. I'd rather target each Aiptasia tho... Setup a dedicated tub where you can nuke them all slowly over time.

Shane

[ February 19, 2002: Message edited by: LiquidShaneo ]</p>

 

[M.E.Milz]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

If you don't mind killing everything on the rock including any coralline algae, bristleworms, etc, then I guess you could do it. I'd rather target each Aiptasia tho... Setup a dedicated tub where you can nuke them all slowly over time.

That was my assumption. Unfortunately, time is a what I do not have (multiple moves with multiple tanks between multiple locations). This rock may be heading for the trash - what a shame.

 

[Chucker]

Doh! Totally forgot to mention that! Total system volume is roughly 175g.

 

[jrodrig692]

Had a piece of live rock that had a bunch on it. Got my hands on some 6M NaOH, and removed it from the tank. I thought that i got them all, but I didn't, but I can say, the ones that I get were destroyed. Also did a job on the corraline that it touched. Thanks for the idea.

 

[uptown112]

Dude, if your gonna trash the rock send it my way!!

 

[DEQbob]

I just tried the NaOH method and it worked out just great!

I used 1 Normal sodium hydroxide (1N NaOH) liquid reagent in a tuberculin syringe. This reagent can be found in most laboratories at universities, high schools, and hospitals. It is caustic since it is very alkaline and can cause burns. Handle it carefully like you would Kalk.

I put it in a small tuberculin syringe with an attached needle. Some Aiptasia was a direct inject (~0.2-0.3ml or cc) and others just in the same hole where the aptasia hid. All that was left was dissolved tissue floating around!

 

[rayjay]

I have a 25 kilo bag of Sodium Hydroxide so I guess I can go on the worlds biggest spree......if mine ever get that far out of hand.
(I use this to recharge one of the resins in the TWP)

 

[cubera]

What's the Patent number?

 

[MadMorf]

Bob said:
I used 1 Normal sodium hydroxide (1N NaOH) liquid reagent in a tuberculin syringe.

And Randy Said:
2N is about 8 parts of lye to 92 parts water.

I like the idea of using the weaker solution.

So, can I assume that a 1N solution is 4 parts Lye to 92 parts water?

Or, 1 part Lye to 23 parts water...?


Chuck - Not a chemist, a Network Engineer. Ask me all the computer questions you want...

 

[MedicineMan1]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by MadMorf:
<strong>Randy Said:
2N is about 8 parts of lye to 92 parts water.

I like the idea of using the weaker solution.

So, can I assume that a 1N solution is 4 parts Lye to 92 parts water?

Or, 1 part Lye to 23 parts water...?
</strong><hr></blockquote>

If 2N is 8 parts lye to 92 parts water, 1N would be 4 parts lye to 96 parts water (8% vs. 4%).

 

[MedicineMan1]

And BTW, I'll have to try this!! I have some severe aiptasia problems.

One that bothers me most is growing near the foot of a clam. Any ideas on getting this bugger??

 

[liquid]

MedicineMan wrote:

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

One that bothers me most is growing near the foot of a clam. Any ideas on getting this bugger??

Maybe carefully???

Good luck!

Shane

 

[beemert]

i tried this last night. my wife brought home some "ph up" from work. is around 2N.
got a long tube and attached to the end of a 5ml syringe. got it right up to that bugger and gave a gentle squirt. it grabbed what was right in front of it and receeded into its hole. time will tell. i did 2 of them (the biggest ones). hope this works as it is really easy.
thanx for the tip.
bruce