Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
Hi all! I too have begun to wage war on the few Aiptasia I have, as I don't want them to over run my humble 40 gallon. I am now following along with this thread, and I'm definitely interested to know how the Peppermint Shrimp work out.
I've done some of my own research on this and I recently came across the following article describing how to administer a lethal dose of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) to the pesky buggers. I am wondering if anyone has any experience or incite to this method? It sounds very easy to me, and I have no problem finding or working with the NaOH, which can be rather caustic and must be handled with some caution.
Link to the article on Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH):
http://www.reefscapes.net/articles/breefcase/aiptasia_control.html
I'll add some of my own thoughts/experiences on this subject, for what they are worth. I tried two Peppermint Shrimp even before I was concerned with Aiptasia, but my Pseudochromis just made an expensive snack out of them! Opps.... So, becuase of my Pseudochromis, I can not go the Peppermint Shrimp route now.
I tired a Copper Banded once before because I think they are a great fish, plus I was told he would eat the Aiptasia that were just starting to crop up at the time. He ate frozen mysis like a champ at the LFS, and he ate great for me for about a week, but was just suddenly dead one morning :-( At that time, my tank may have still been a bit too immature for such a delicate fish, but I'm still not sure what happened to kill him so fast, and as far as I know, he took no Aiptasia out with him.
So I'm six months or so past that sad CBB incident, but I'm still hesitant to try another. I have considered the Bergia route before, but I'm not sure how I feel about a $30 specialist feeder that will slowly die once it eradicates the Aiptasia. I have not tried any other natural predators of Aiptasia.
I purchased a product similar to Joe's Juice at my LFS, I forgot the name of the stuff I got, but I haven't tried it yet.
I recently tried, and have seen some success with, the lemon juice method. I tired three days ago to inject four of my largest Aiptasia with concentrated lemon juice delivered with a needle and syringe. Out of the four, two were absolutely disintegrated in no time. The other two retracted too far into their rock for me to stick them properly with the needle, but I gave them a good shot none the less, and they are definitely very grumpy for the experience. They since have not extended to half of what they were before. I was going to wait for them to extend out a bit more before trying to juice them again. I just don't see this method being very efficient for the smaller Aiptasia that may not be visible to me. I'm also concerned I may spread them by sticking them without killing them.
So can anyone comment on the use of the NaOH? Has anyone else seen long term success with the lemon juice? And could you please keep us posted on the Peppermint Shrimp for those that are not housing Pseudochromis fish ;-)
Thank you, and good luck!!
RCF