starmanres
Premium Member
My RC Friends...
After years of fighting Aiptasia, the solution was finally found.
I have tried it all:
Joe's Juice in the chops - Good for 2 weeks and they always came back.
Give 'em a mouth full of Kalkwasser - Same result as Joe's Juice only cheaper.
$100's of dollars in Peppermint Shrimp - The shrimp quickly hide in the rocks ingore even the smallest Aiptasia and are missing after a few weeks.
Needle nose Pliers at the base - Remove only small sections of them and then spread the demon kind in other sections of the tank.
Take rock out and dip in vinegar - Kills everything else on/in the rock but the Aiptasia still pop up a few weeks later.
Baking the Rock at 200 degrees for 3 hours - Now there's a smell and still marginally successful.
So what's the final solution?
An insulin shot of lemon juice!
Yeap, just go to your local pharmacy and buy some insulin syringes ($2.68 for 10 at Walgreens). They will ask you what you're planning to do with them and when you tell them the look is priceless. Then buy one of those plastic lemons at the grocery store with lemon juice (.89 at Super Wal-Mart). I used the stuff made from concentrate.
Squeeze some lemon juice into a small cup and then fill the syringe with lemon juice. My syringe held about 5 ml. When the Aiptasia is fully extended, just stick the needle into the stalk - not the mouth. The Aiptasia will shrink up at the entry which actually helps the process. Try not to go all the way through and out the other side. Mine took several doses as I couldn't always see if I got the bugger in the stalk or the needle just went through it or I missed completely. If you don't get it correct, they pop back out in a hour or so.
Inject 1/2 ml -2 ml (depending on size) of lemon juice into the parasite. You're done when a small puff of white "smoke" will come out of its mouth. Remove the syringe and it will shrink completely back into the rocks to be seen no more - ever!
The lemon juice can lower your PH if you use too much in a nano so be careful if you have a ton to kill. I saw zero effect in my 120 gallon and I had 20-25 Aipstasias but I suggest taking it in stages – bigger one’s first and then get the little guys. I have been watching mine for 4 months - just waiting for them to pop back out... Nothing. Nada. Zip. Gone.
This is an inexpensive solution that seems to actually work. Nothing else in my tank was affected or damaged - even other softies that were on the same rock as long as I didn't poke them with the syringe.
Fair warning - sticking yourself with a syringe filled with lemon juice hurts like... Well, lemon juice in a cut so be careful! :worried:
I've been looking for the silver bullet for years to rid my tank of this scourge - it seems the secret was a little lemonade for the Aiptasia.
HTH
After years of fighting Aiptasia, the solution was finally found.
I have tried it all:
Joe's Juice in the chops - Good for 2 weeks and they always came back.
Give 'em a mouth full of Kalkwasser - Same result as Joe's Juice only cheaper.
$100's of dollars in Peppermint Shrimp - The shrimp quickly hide in the rocks ingore even the smallest Aiptasia and are missing after a few weeks.
Needle nose Pliers at the base - Remove only small sections of them and then spread the demon kind in other sections of the tank.
Take rock out and dip in vinegar - Kills everything else on/in the rock but the Aiptasia still pop up a few weeks later.
Baking the Rock at 200 degrees for 3 hours - Now there's a smell and still marginally successful.
So what's the final solution?
An insulin shot of lemon juice!
Yeap, just go to your local pharmacy and buy some insulin syringes ($2.68 for 10 at Walgreens). They will ask you what you're planning to do with them and when you tell them the look is priceless. Then buy one of those plastic lemons at the grocery store with lemon juice (.89 at Super Wal-Mart). I used the stuff made from concentrate.
Squeeze some lemon juice into a small cup and then fill the syringe with lemon juice. My syringe held about 5 ml. When the Aiptasia is fully extended, just stick the needle into the stalk - not the mouth. The Aiptasia will shrink up at the entry which actually helps the process. Try not to go all the way through and out the other side. Mine took several doses as I couldn't always see if I got the bugger in the stalk or the needle just went through it or I missed completely. If you don't get it correct, they pop back out in a hour or so.
Inject 1/2 ml -2 ml (depending on size) of lemon juice into the parasite. You're done when a small puff of white "smoke" will come out of its mouth. Remove the syringe and it will shrink completely back into the rocks to be seen no more - ever!
The lemon juice can lower your PH if you use too much in a nano so be careful if you have a ton to kill. I saw zero effect in my 120 gallon and I had 20-25 Aipstasias but I suggest taking it in stages – bigger one’s first and then get the little guys. I have been watching mine for 4 months - just waiting for them to pop back out... Nothing. Nada. Zip. Gone.
This is an inexpensive solution that seems to actually work. Nothing else in my tank was affected or damaged - even other softies that were on the same rock as long as I didn't poke them with the syringe.
Fair warning - sticking yourself with a syringe filled with lemon juice hurts like... Well, lemon juice in a cut so be careful! :worried:
I've been looking for the silver bullet for years to rid my tank of this scourge - it seems the secret was a little lemonade for the Aiptasia.
HTH
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