Lemon Juice

[hunt]

The setup,
2-3 gallons of tank water with a small heater and thermoneter with a floresent light in a 5 gallon bucket. Ill start dosing in 10 min because moving the rock to the bucket kinda sppoked the aiptasia.
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(sorry my rooms a little messy)

 

[hunt]

Attachment 238841
Attachment 238842
dont squeeze lemons and limes with a cut on your hand

 

[hunt]

DAY #1
I dosed with lemon juice lime juice and boiling water. After i dosed with lemon the anenome seemed to be eating it and then realized what it was and shriveled up in his hole without many physical effects exept curled up tentales. With the lime juice, i dosed it and it seemed to eat it, realize what it was and do the same as lemon, exeot this ones tentacles were curled and it has a wide gaping mouth now. The hot water i used the same ammount as the lemon and lime wich i dont think was enough because it retracted in right when the water hit him and i squirted the rest in its whole, with not many side effects at all. So far the lime juice seems to be the most effective, then lemon juice, and then hot water.
This is how much of each liquid i used
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before lemon juice
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after lemon juice
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Before lime juice
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After lime juice
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Sorry some pics are fuzzy and that i dont have any of the water but there wasnt much to see.

 

[hunt]

I looked at one of the aiptasia and it was barely hanging on so i sucked it off with the seringe and there was a second one under it that got some of the lime on it and that came off to. As for the others the boiling water is back to normal and the lemon one looks like its also about to fall off pretty soon.
I think if you use it in your tank where there is plenty of flow a may not be effective, if you shut the things in your tank off that make flow and do it it may work better.

 

[hunt]

Whats just for margaritas now Spanko

 

[hunt]

Just curious, how do you raise Ph? Just for kicks i tested the water in the bucket, and the Ph was extremly low in the bucket.

 

[meowzer]

You could buy a buffer, or use baking soda....there are charts somewhere around here about that

 

[hunt]

Good to know

 

[meowzer]

Here's one I had saved
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

 

[hunt]

Ill have to save that incase a problem occers in the future.

 

[rlablan]

this is a great experiment that you have done. I am glad to see that one of the juices worked for you. I have some large aptasias, so maybe I will try to get them with the fresh squeezed lime.
These pictures and info you put on here will be a great resource and I for one think that it should be stickied so that people could look at when they ask "how do you kill an aptasia".
haha margaritas

LMFAO that is something spanko would say... and then joe would say something terrible back. lol good times (-:

 

[hunt]

Thanks, I went and squirted a few others with lemon and lime, in the tank with no flow. after a half hour i turned it all back on and it seemed to be very effective. I sucked of all of the ones i squirted with a siringe and i smothered all that was left with coral fragging putty(its actually really effective in killing aiptasia. Thanks for all the kind words everyone and i will update if anything pops up, But i think i finally have my aiptasia problem under controll

 

[hunt]

-OK Just to Sum all of this up for people who dont like reading,
*i took a live rock from my tank that had a lot of aiptasia on it, put it in a 5 gallon bucket of tank water with a heater, thermomerter and floresent lighting. I then waited ten minutes for the anenomes to settle down. Then I freshly squeezed a lime and a lemon and boiled some water, squirted each differant liquid on a large aiptasia to see which one was most effective. In this experiment i found that lime juice was the most effective, then lemon juice, and then boiling water.
*If you try any of these methods in your tank you should shut off anything that causes water flow so the juice sticks to the anenomes and increase effectiveniss of the juice. Wait at least a half hour to kill the anenomes and then it should be ok to turn the equipment back on.
*be very careful with how much lemon or lime juice you use. The reason for this is because Lemon and lime juice is very acidic and will lower your Ph.
*It is not nessissary to do this in a bucket. you can do it in your tank. I only used it in a bucket for a controlled environment.
* If you use boiling water, you are going to want to use a lot more than you would lemon or lime juice or it will hardly damage the anenome.
*i would suggest doing these thing right before doing a water change so you can fix the Ph easier if you lowered it too much.
Thank tou everyone and I hope this helps you with your aiptasia problems, sincerly
Hunt

 

[hunt]

Just an update of what ive done, i went and injected two more with lemon and lime juice in my tank, and i didnt syphon them off this time so they started growing back but they are severly damaged but regenarating. So whenever you do this, i would suggest syphoning them off the rock as best as you can for maximum effectivness. THe original ones are gone and the one that was injected with boiling waer is back to normal. I would still reccomend lime juice, just syphon them off before they get a chance to recooporate.

 

[rlablan]

Super.
Maybe that is why I had problems because I didn't suck them off after I injected the Lemon juice.
I have a few that are starting to get larger so I will use the baster and remove them.
Thanks for the info!! This is really helpful.

 

[hunt]

Make sure you get the entire mass of flesh off or it will most likley regenarate.
Maybe next time that i have the time and $$$ ill see wich brand works better, Joes Juice, aiptasia X, or some off brand from my LFS.
But ill leave that to another day.

 

[rlablan]

That would be cool too.
I am liking all of these little experiments that you're doing. lol Helps me out.

There is nothing better than a good old fashion experiment with a controlled environment to tell the winners from the losers.