Normally I use kalk to kill Aiptasia , but for some reason I can not find my kalk , I have used hot water in the past too, but I have a nice piece of coral which I don't wanna harm. So I read that lemon juice from concentrate injected into the Aiptasia will do the job, has anyone done this and do they mean inject with a metal syring ? Or use the plastic syring , reason I'm asking is Im wondering should I run to cvs and get a syring .. Thanks John
Killing Aiptasia with lemon juice
- Thread starter jhart
- Start date
- Location
- Staten Island
It doesn't kill them I tried that also I used a whole lemon worth of juice and they all came back
- Location
- Queens, NY
if you cant find your "kalk", why don't you make something similar with baking soda. Just cook it in a pan (or bake) until it flows like water when you swish it around. That makes a soda ash (think that's what its called) with a pH of about 10.
- Location
- Staten Island
No I injected in the mouth basically poked right through the mouth into the stem and discharged
- Location
- Staten Island
lol well that's what happened so why wouldn't she?
lol +1 lemon juice does work but you may get returns. i used this method first with success if you have one or two it's cool. if you have more i would recommend shrimp,did the trick for me.
- Location
- Staten Island , Princess Bay
I have a small one in my tank and I did not lose my kalk . How do you use kalk to kill it?
I use to mix up some kalk and water in a dish and use a plastic syringe and release the mixture above the aiptasia and watch em melt away.
The lemon juice concentrate seemed to work great for me so far , I only had 2 but I keep up on things so I dont see no need for any other means at this moment. I think actually injecting them piercing the skin was what seemed to do the trick.
With the file fish you have to be careful because most eat Acro polyps.
- Location
- Staten Island , Princess Bay
Do you leave the kalk paste in tank?
Yea take a teaspoon of Kalk with a little water and make into a watery paste and slowly bring the needle upto the aptasia without scaring them back into the rocks
Then you feed them the kalk slow and they think they are getting some good chow (you should see the kalk go down the stem,thats perfect)then their tentacles Will wrap around the needle thinking its food. Then boom they realize it's poison and retract in a second!! Then I keep dumping the Kalk over the hole they came outta. Works great, a few may pop back out just hit em again a few days later works best to throw some peppermint shrimps in for the baby/small aptasia
This works really good for the med/lg/xlg aptasia because the shrimp can't eat the really big ones
I never tried baking soda, but it sounds like a lot of work and Kalk is dirt cheap and will last forever.And file fish eat em but also eat coral so be careful
Then you feed them the kalk slow and they think they are getting some good chow (you should see the kalk go down the stem,thats perfect)then their tentacles Will wrap around the needle thinking its food. Then boom they realize it's poison and retract in a second!! Then I keep dumping the Kalk over the hole they came outta. Works great, a few may pop back out just hit em again a few days later works best to throw some peppermint shrimps in for the baby/small aptasia
This works really good for the med/lg/xlg aptasia because the shrimp can't eat the really big ones
I never tried baking soda, but it sounds like a lot of work and Kalk is dirt cheap and will last forever.And file fish eat em but also eat coral so be careful
- Location
- Staten Island , Princess Bay
Do you cyphon out the kalk , does it impact tank parameters?
- Location
- jersey city
Shrimp n copperband ,I had a lot, I use aptasia X that didn't work some would comeback with 5 to 7 more I put in the shrimp and copperbank n got rid off all in like 3 weeks to a month
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