Protopalythoa - poisonous stuff

[flinterman]

I have quite a lot of Protopalythoa in my aquarium. These polyps contain a poison called Palytoxin. This has been discussed on this forum quite extensively.
However; I would like to know how to get rid of these polyps.
They have grown on the glass of the tank. About 20 by 20 cm.

I am thinking of lower the water, and scrape them off with a sharp tool.
The fish would still be in the tank. Not sure if this is clever.

Any ideas?

 

[greenbean36191]

[welcome]
The polyps on the glass can simply be scraped off with a razor blade. There is no need to lower the water or remove the fish. Any remaining polyps can be treated with kalk paste or Joe's juice like any pest anemone. Just be sure to wear gloves.

 

[flinterman]

Thanks,

Will do. But I have no idea what that paste is. Is it allowed to mention a productname? I live in the Netherlands. So any ' typical' US product could do as we basically seem to have al sorts of European products (mostly German it seems).
But at least I get an idea of what sort of stuff that paste is.

 

[greenbean36191]

Kalk paste is just a thick paste of calcium hydroxide (kalkwasser or limewater). I imagine any European fish store should have it or you can find it sold as pickling lime in the canning section in the grocery store. You can make a paste about the consistency of toothpaste and use a syringe to inject any leftover polyps or just smother them with it. You just have to be careful not to get it on anything you don't want dead because it's very caustic. You can also use vinegar or lye if you have too, but lye is more dangerous and vinegar isn't as effective.

 

[corbett_n]

will joe's juice kill yellow polyps?

 

[MrPike]

Joe's juice does not have ingredients on the bottle so its difficult to say. I suspect its also just kalk paste and maybe some other filler, but who knows.

I imagine if its strong enough to kill aptasia, its strong enough to kill the polyps.

 

[lilmonkey]

I stopped using Joe's and switched to Kalk Paste (kalk mixed with RO water) because as soon as I open the bottle, all the "kalk" precipitates out before the next time I use it. Every bottle I have ever had of Joe's (no matter how tight I screw it down) gets all crusty before the next time I need to use it. Kalk is also much cheaper to mix up yourself. I know Joe's runs about $15 here at the LFS. You can make a lot of your own juice for $15 worth of Kalk.