Blowtorch Aiptasia...

[brandon429]

something has to explain the effectiveness however for as many years as Ive used it, its the best method


-denatured proteins cannot regenerate. if some came back, we missed em first round or they are xfers from another infestation site in the tank imo. burning a nano reef organism always kills it. if some were in the rocks that couldn't be had, they would appear on other treatments as well im thinking

this way is just fast and thorough, a great way but Im sure there are limitations not found yet.

-no burn mark exists, only the material

in my pics two weeks apart there are no black marks. since I was going to be burning near my sps, I decided to frag it to other parts of the tank. enough survived the blasting to recolonize.


burned nuisances can be wiped off the rock easily. even if you had a burn mark to recalify, is that better than a string diatom invasion or a red algae outbreak common on about 15000 threads. In this case I find a pico reef incredibly helpful to large tank science because of the concentration testing that has ran across organisms. if it doesn't poison a delicate one gallon tank, burning cant hurt a 30+ in good faith...


I had red crust algae breaking out on my reefbowl it had to be removed. A short blast with the torch, the micro one above, made it turn loose and one wipe with a papertowel took it back to clear glass. without the fire, it has strong grip and is subject to fragmentation while removing in pieces. I pulsed the fire with many quick bursts, burned it directly on thin non reeftank glass and it was still okay yet killed the worlds most evil algae long before it could start an infestation, the 100% exclusion practice to algae control:

 

[T Diddy]

Thought I'd give a little update...All of the little guys that were well exsposed (and a couple that were not) are toast. One of the big guys that was deeply embedded within the rock is beginning to come back. I'm going to hit it again...I think there was just too much flesh for the short duration of torching. I'll give another update after this second dose of dragon's breath :furious:

 

[T Diddy]

you can actually see some flesh that I missed in the first of my torching pics. Look closely at the burn to the left

 

[chetwest]

I've had success with my blow torch too, but I wish I had one of those mini-torches. Mine is a bit bigger. It works, but a warning that the heat will kill lots of stuf around it too. Plus, I didn't like the black marks too much. This time I actually tried my old soldering iron to minimize the head spread. I'll let you know how it worked after a few weeks.

 

[dogstar74]

Try a brazing torch. It uses butane, you can get them at Bed bath and beyond and such. It's for brazing desserts and it's flame is tons smaller than your normal soldering torch.

This would help spot weld the little suckers. I can see the missed tissue. I'm sure you need to get all the organics killed to nuke these things.

Cheers,
Aaron

 

[dogstar74]

Like this one

 

[Meus]

I found the easiest way to kill an aptap was to cover it with a dead head(Bleached Coral, Dead Rock, etc.) so it would be forced to move from its hiding hole, then as it moves around you just keep covering it with that dead head until it crawls up and you can remove it and leave it in a bowl of fresh water for a few hours... Thats how I killed mine, nothing else worked for me. Plus, there is no colateral damage to your rocks or inhabitants.
Hope that helps someone.

 

[brandon429]

wow thanks for the tip on alternate flame sources bb&b would have never thought


has anyone done updates to their tanks we can see thanks for posting those T diddy about your comeback aiptasia bet round two works.

 

[T Diddy]

I got a little busy since my first torching. The one big guy came back as previously mentioned, but has decided to evacuate the premesis. That;s good for the cyphastrea, but I'll have to wait and see where it pops up again to determine whether or not I can torch it again. :thumbsup: