$60-$100 Reef-Delete for Aiptasia?

[pendulum]

I noticed two Aiptasia have popped up in my nano tank. It got me thinking how i could manage them. One i could easily remove the rock and super glue, the other would be more of a challenge. Knowing that this won't be my last time dealing with them, i had a random thought of a "diy" Reef Delete. I have used the STERIPEN to kill viruses and bacteria in my water bottles when hiking.
Pros-

• It is waterproof
• Has safety feature built in
• It uses uv-c in the 250nm range,
• No prolonged button pressing- it has one button and once pressed continues to work for 90 seconds.

Cons-

• uv-c light goes in all directions
• unknown life in saltwater
• unknown if it will kill aiptasia

I used the Steripen adventurer. I wrapped the end with electrical tape to block the uv-c light from going where i don't want it to go and created a uv-c "flashlight"

I just got finished zapping both aiptasia and they both instantaneously curled up and retracted. Will see what they look like tomorrow and zap them again. Will also keep an eye on the corals near them to see if they experience any ill effects.

Both are in a location that are hard to get a photograph or video of, but will see what i can do with some planning.

Fingers crossed that two less Aiptasia in the world tomorrow

 

[DivingTheWorld]

I’ll be curious to see what happens. I use a Steripen as well when backpacking. My understanding is that it doesn’t actually kill bacteria, it sterilizes it which prevents it from multiplying. It’s the multiplying of bacteria which makes you sick.

 

[AFHokie]

Interesting, let’s see what happens.

 

[pendulum]

Well it appears 50-50 results. Sorry for the blah photos. Attached is a picture of the taped steripen and one of it in use. The non-photogenic aptasia (2nd one)- looks ragged and shriveled. The other one looks un-phased. Between me getting home late and the genius idea that i could better confirm the light was working in the dark, i zapped the first one for another 90 seconds and have a picture.

I will see what they look like tomorrow. the shrived one, i didn't zap today. i want to wait and see what happens if i do nothing more, if it doesn't regress, i will zap it again tomorrow or the next day. We will see.

 

[pendulum]

The picture is of same aptasia about 22 hours post uv-c steripen treatment. it is shriveled up and ragged tentacles. The other aiptasia is not visible at all. I'm going to count this as a win and a positive sign that the light is negatively impacting if not killing the aiptasia. Will continue to monitor. I may proceed with making a 3d printed sleeve to go over the light. Overall pretty cool.

 

[pendulum]

Double checking last night and this am, the aiptasia are dead and gone. I'm sure that i will get the joy of killing some more in the future. But I am incredibly pleased with this solution. Hope it helps someone else!

 

[pendulum]

UGH... Hold the phone. Two Aiptasia that looked ragged and dead that disappeared have now reappeared. Sigh. will zap them daily for the next few days and see if i ever killed them or only annoyed them enough to close up shop for a while. Will see how things go over the next few days.

 

[theatrus]

UGH... Hold the phone. Two Aiptasia that looked ragged and dead that disappeared have now reappeared. Sigh. will zap them daily for the next few days and see if i ever killed them or only annoyed them enough to close up shop for a while. Will see how things go over the next few days.

This is basically the story of aiptasia, they can regenerate from very little material and stress split like crazy.

Are you giving them the full 90 seconds? You're also losing a lot of light by using dark tape, maybe worth experimenting with wrapping in a reflective layer before the tape at a hope of getting a little more energy out of it (some Al foil?). As well as re-treating the areas where the anemone has retracted.

 

[pendulum]

This is basically the story of aiptasia, they can regenerate from very little material and stress split like crazy.

Are you giving them the full 90 seconds? You're also losing a lot of light by using dark tape, maybe worth experimenting with wrapping in a reflective layer before the tape at a hope of getting a little more energy out of it (some Al foil?). As well as re-treating the areas where the anemone has retracted.

You are spot on about them not being entirely dead. That is my theory now as well. I think what happened is that they were mostly dead and regenerated. The couple that I nuked yesterday are seemingly gone. I lit up those areas again and will keep hitting them daily to ensure death.

A tiny aiptasia was at the edge of an acropora encrusting its base. I'm "happy" to say that about 4mm of the acropora is now crispy brown from the uv-light exposure, so i am certain it is having the desired negative affect.

Yes, hitting them for the full 90 seconds. I have shortened the tape at the end so that it shields the surrounding corals but lets the light get right up to the aiptasia. I think the right reflector from a small flashlight at the tip could concentrate the beam. I may try the foil to see if i can increase the intensity. I also got tired of holding my hand in the tank and taped the unit to a plexiglass rod.

I'll keep lighting the areas up over the next week and see if they stay dead and report back.

 

[pendulum]

Update: This does absolutely work. Aiptasia gone! I did have two stress split aiptasia pop up from the process of half killing them. Lesson learned to not let up at all. That is my fault for thinking they were dead and gone. They were contracted, licking their wound and regenerating.

It is clear that to get them gone and make sure they are dead-dead-dead, they need to be lite-up serially for several days. What is the right amount of days? My guess is daily until visibly gone and then 2 additional days. I don't know, because i plan to overdue it and continue to make the bare rock glow daily for the next week!

 

[pendulum]

One word of caution that should be obvious, is to make sure the STERIPEN model is water proof. One version that I have is clearly protected with a gasket and submersible, the older version is not and required taping the battery compartment.

 

[FlyinAg]

Need a fiberoptic end cap to go over the uv light so you can really focus that energy! (Like this bore light)

 

[pendulum]

Need a fiberoptic end cap to go over the uv light so you can really focus that energy! (Like this bore light)

I had thought of trying a small flexible fiberoptic cable, but not a larger one like on a bore scope. Thats a great idea!!!!

 

[Gtinnel]

I had considered buying a reef delete but didn’t because of the price. I had never heard of steripens, but if you continue to have success with it I may pick one up.

 

[pendulum]

It is definitely working. I am having some wack a mole of a few small ones popping up days after killing their parent. It is possible they were already seeded from my original dumbness of not fully killing the first few seen. When i get some time, i will model up a holder to 3d print a light cover that should be able to adapt to fiberoptic.

 

[pendulum]

I'm definitely killing the aiptasia, but it is a game of wack a mole for sure. Kill 3, 2 pop up. kill 2, 3 pop up, kill 3 , 1 pops up. kill 1, 3 pop up. Sigh, tis the way of aiptasia. The biggest problem that i see, no different than any other localized killing method, is these little devils are darwin enough to get in harder and harder to kill spaces. I will keep killing with the steripen, but will settle on nudibranch for a lazy perm solution.

 

[DHill6]

With the second version of reef delete you can burn a black hole where the aistapia used to be. I also used berghia since I have Tonga branch and tiny ones were popping out of the holes of that rock.

 

[Vincerama2]

The problem with aiptasia and killing them is that with their dying breath, they spew out “babies”. I was using Aiptasia-x to kill a few aiptasia and they turned a few into a legion on babies.

If you only have a few now, it’s almost better to glob superglue over them and encase them like Chernobyl Reactor number 4.

 

[DHill6]

I zapped one a couple weeks ago, I don’t see anymore.

 

[DHill6]

The problem with aiptasia and killing them is that with their dying breath, they spew out “babies”. I was using Aiptasia-x to kill a few aiptasia and they turned a few into a legion on babies.

If you only have a few now, it’s almost better to glob superglue over them and encase them like Chernobyl Reactor number 4.

I agree with the legions of babies, I used large nudibrachs with success. It’s a toss up of what’s worse, aistapia or those tube snails, bumblebees have worked there. Both were out of control.