Killing stuff with lasers

Mine was 1.2w last time, so I decided to grab the 5-watter. There was a 10 watt as well, but that sounds insane. lol
 
Oh I'm not gonna wear a darth vadar mask, play star wars music in the background and have tons of fun. And I certainly would rather spend my money elsewhere ... BUT, my tank is in such bad shape and over run with these things (again 3 things I need gone) that it is eaither a total tank tear down (chipping away sps, re-gluing them on to new live rock (live rock of course is not cheap) , etc , etc, etc, etc. (all of those "etc." cost money and A LOT of time, not to mention I have tried pretty much every thing out there to rid my tank of these things) ...

and with a 6 foot long, 125 gallon system, this option seems like a good way to clear things up, and then go from there in terms of better methods to get control of things and manage things from there after. Again, I am going off of several videos (melvs reef being one of them) where people HAVE had success killing off a lot of this stuff. So for me, it is worth a try.

When I clean things up (and it is bad right now) then I will go from there on ways to maintain a clean tank and deal with the problems on a much smaller level then they are right now.
Have you tried a CBB ? My tank was terrible also. This guy has all but wiped them out and is eating Mysis like a champ. Might be worth a shot.
 
For a few random aptasia I use Aptaisa-X and it’s always worked perfect
I dnt have a few random aiptasia. I have a few thousand random aiptasia. I also treid that ... no luck. If you dont get it in directly into the mouth, they release "eggs basically and they come back with vengence. For a few of them if you can get them in their mouth, then yes that may work. But I have had terrible luck with tat stuff
 
Lots of information in this thread. Let me answer some questions I noted:

Mine is 1200mw (milliwatt) so 1.2 watts. A 2000mw or 3000mw laser would be far better. My tank is a 400g tank with 3/4" thick glass, my anemone cube is 3/8" thick glass. I've also used it through 3/8" thick acrylic. You will not burn a hole through your tank. Reflections of the beam can come back to bite your hand or shirt, so be aware of those whenever possible.

I recommend doing this alone. Don't have family members in the room or pets, since they likely will not have eye protection. Will the fish be harmed? I've never shot a fish in the eye, and typically they avoided the area of crackling bacon sounds. If one swam closely, I turned off the laser for a few seconds, then resumed.

The laser will get hot. So if you are hoping to have a 5-10 minute session zapping pest anemones, that's probably not going to work out. I'd suggest running the laser about 60-90 seconds, then let it cool down for a few minutes before resuming.

I paid $225 for mine back when I filmed this video, and they have come way down. Thanks to the links posted in this thread, I'm going to order a new one tonight. I just have to decide if I want 2w, 5w or 10watts! LOL :)

EDIT: Okay, decided to get the 5 watt version. It'll be a while before it gets here. The price is so much better than my first one. Hoping for the best.

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Yah thanks my man ... the video you posted was a few years ago, but I figured if something would have went wrong or you came to not like it, you would have posted again.

And yes I am a bit interested to see what 10 watts!!!! can do. I am basically following the same routine you were using, 10-15 seconds of bacon sizzling time, followed by a break, then repeat.
 
??? Do explain
Some Paly's are quite toxic. Do a search and you'll find plenty of people that have ended up in the hospital. Zapping a bunch of them could whipe out you're tank and put you in the hospital too.

If you're going to do this with them I'd only do a couple at a time and have gac running to pull the toxins out. When it comes time to handle the gac wear gloves and put it in a sealed bag or container for disposal.
 
Some Paly's are quite toxic. Do a search and you'll find plenty of people that have ended up in the hospital. Zapping a bunch of them could whipe out you're tank and put you in the hospital too.

If you're going to do this with them I'd only do a couple at a time and have gac running to pull the toxins out. When it comes time to handle the gac wear gloves and put it in a sealed bag or container for disposal.
Well thats fun ... why must this hobby be such a pain in my [ ]

lol
 
I have 3 watt lazer that I use for zapping aptasia. Works like a charm but they need to be treated multiple times and they tend to grow back. Fwiw. With the 3w lazer you need to be very careful with reflection off the glass. You can easily start a fire by a reflected beam. This almost happened to me.
 
The only real solution with lasers would be to upgrade your tank to a 400 gallon and get a couple of small sharks, then fabricate headgear to attach a laser to each sharks' head, after which random laser exposure will remove all such pests going forward.
 
Lots of information in this thread. Let me answer some questions I noted:

Mine is 1200mw (milliwatt) so 1.2 watts. A 2000mw or 3000mw laser would be far better. My tank is a 400g tank with 3/4" thick glass, my anemone cube is 3/8" thick glass. I've also used it through 3/8" thick acrylic. You will not burn a hole through your tank. Reflections of the beam can come back to bite your hand or shirt, so be aware of those whenever possible.

I recommend doing this alone. Don't have family members in the room or pets, since they likely will not have eye protection. Will the fish be harmed? I've never shot a fish in the eye, and typically they avoided the area of crackling bacon sounds. If one swam closely, I turned off the laser for a few seconds, then resumed.

The laser will get hot. So if you are hoping to have a 5-10 minute session zapping pest anemones, that's probably not going to work out. I'd suggest running the laser about 60-90 seconds, then let it cool down for a few minutes before resuming.

I paid $225 for mine back when I filmed this video, and they have come way down. Thanks to the links posted in this thread, I'm going to order a new one tonight. I just have to decide if I want 2w, 5w or 10watts! LOL :)

EDIT: Okay, decided to get the 5 watt version. It'll be a while before it gets here. The price is so much better than my first one. Hoping for the best.

Screen Shot 2018-02-28 at 12.34.20 AM.png
I bought the same one last night.
 
I've done some searching around the net today and it seems like there is a lot of different claims all over about what appears to be the same products. I've found listings on Ebay and three other sites all showing the 5mw one lighting a match. Then looking the the one specialk posted, it looks identical to those, the ones on Ebay and Melev's post. There's one site where some DB of a guy does videos and can't even read/follow his script.


I mean listen to this guy. Says he's from France at the start of both vids, nice French accent... lol

I want to get one of these at some point but I just can't believe the spec's these sites are listing. It's all over the place, along with the pricing.
 
Would not the laser just cook the surface and then the...plancet? Not sure the name come out to make a new one?

You can buy a 6+ watt blue laser for about 100 with a driver. All you need is a battery.
Look up dtr laser. Go for anything 445-462nm. You better be careful of reflections.
You need a lens to focus as well.

The amount of heat on glass with that volume cooling waterwill never crack the glass.

I find the slurry syringe stuff works great. And.....Dino outbreaks even kill bubble algae!

Don’t ask....

Ps 10watt laser diodes don’t exist. Num44 is the most powerful at around 6w. The beam is horrible. It might use 10w power but the beamis at most 6w and the diode will die shortly as it’s being way over driven. I know A lot about lasers. It’s an other hobby. Stop over to www.photonlexicon.com if you have questions.
 
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I'm not going to know anything until mine arrives, but I can tell you my original one did the job. I just wanted something more powerful because my tank is pretty big. Unless they are right near the front glass, it was tough to target quite a few. Mine is old, and while I'm sure it will still do the job I really wanted one at a higher wattage to fry them more quickly. The batteries on mine didn't last more than 20-3o seconds, after that I just had a blue laser light but didn't hear the sizzle. So I had a bunch of batteries, and would have to rotate through them all. This is the primary reason it didn't get used very much; I kinda hope this new one will be wicked. ;) It'll be a few weeks until it arrives though.
 
I've done some searching around the net today and it seems like there is a lot of different claims all over about what appears to be the same products. I've found listings on Ebay and three other sites all showing the 5mw one lighting a match. Then looking the the one specialk posted, it looks identical to those, the ones on Ebay and Melev's post. There's one site where some DB of a guy does videos and can't even read/follow his script.


I mean listen to this guy. Says he's from France at the start of both vids, nice French accent... lol

I want to get one of these at some point but I just can't believe the spec's these sites are listing. It's all over the place, along with the pricing.
hahaha this was one of the funniest things Ihave seen in awhile!!
 
Would not the laser just cook the surface and then the...plancet? Not sure the name come out to make a new one?

You can buy a 6+ watt blue laser for about 100 with a driver. All you need is a battery.
Look up dtr laser. Go for anything 445-462nm. You better be careful of reflections.
You need a lens to focus as well.

The amount of heat on glass with that volume cooling waterwill never crack the glass.

I find the slurry syringe stuff works great. And.....Dino outbreaks even kill bubble algae!

Don’t ask....

Ps 10watt laser diodes don’t exist. Num44 is the most powerful at around 6w. The beam is horrible. It might use 10w power but the beamis at most 6w and the diode will die shortly as it’s being way over driven. I know A lot about lasers. It’s an other hobby. Stop over to www.photonlexicon.com if you have questions.

Good to know. And, as an update, just as @anit77 stated, there AREa TON of claims all over the place. I just was emailing with the company I bought mine from, and they are telling me that mine is actually only 5watts (5,000mW) ....so again, I cant get a straight answer out of some of these people, but thats what you get when dealing with companies in China.

And in case anyone is wondering (as I have been digging and scouring all over) you are going to be hard pressed (impossible basically) to find a company here in the states that sells a laser that strong. If so, many won't sell it to you due to liability reasons.

The BEST, most reputable company I have found is a company called Sanwu. Their customer service is GREAT, they have great reviews and are a trusted seller. The problem ... you are going to pay for it!! Plan on dropping about $200 for a 3 watt laser ... but again, at least you know what you are getting and get the customer service to back it up.

( I am also looking into making one on my own, as I was talking to a laser company owner here in the states and he suggessted I just make one on my own as that are not difficult at all. Some reseach found that he may be right ..

But stay tuned .. my laser is on its way (have the tracking #) so it should be here soon!
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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