Dipping macro algae’s in fresh water won’t kill Aipatasia

[sixty_reefer]

There is a big trend in dipping or to place algae in fresh water with the hope to kill Aipatasia, and other pests.

Other pest is questionable, besides Aipatasia a fresh water dip will kill most life on the macro algae’s and most of them are highly desirable these days. The main pest that everyone trying to avoid is Aipatasia and there is no way to kill it by dipping it on fresh water before it kills the algae.

To prove this, as part of another test I’ve done recently. I did submerged a rock with Aipatasia in a bucket of fresh water for a period of 8 minutes. Even though the Aipatasia wasn’t happy with the shock from the fresh water they did recover pretty fast from it, in a period of around 8 hours.
What I’ve noticed was that all other life did in-fact died from the shock, these were copepods and amphipods that in a normal reef they are highly desirable and free if coming with the macro algae.

The best way to quarantine macro algae’s to avoid Aipatasia is to make a small tank for them and observe for a period of 4 to 6 weeks, using a small light, trace elements and nutrients like f2 fertiliser will ensure your algae will be fine for the full quarantine process.

in conclusion:
the chances of you killing anything bad for your reef are minimals using this method of dipping algae in fresh water.

pictures before and after fresh water submerge for 8 minutes

 

[Subsea]

I have never considered Aipatasia to be a serious pest that hydrogen peroxide and a tooth brush didn’t eradicate.

While fresh water dips might eradicate some undesirables, I agree with your generalization about not eradicating aptasia. I have had live rock in an unlit cryptic refugium for 6 months with Aiptasia surviving in the dark.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I have never considered Aipatasia to be a serious pest that hydrogen peroxide and a tooth brush didn’t eradicate.

While fresh water dips might eradicate some undesirables, I agree with your generalization about not eradicating aptasia. I have had live rock in an unlit cryptic refugium for 6 months with Aiptasia surviving in the dark.

I have grown to live with them myself, I wouldn’t be to worried if did see one or two coming with some algae, I would just trim the affected part and observe the rest for a few days, the main goal here is to inform members that the practice of dipping macro algae’s under fresh water is for the most part useless to remove most reefers main fear (Aipatasia), I have here piece of live rock as a example as it was part of another test I’ve done recently involving loss of filtration under fresh water on live rock.

I’m just growing to believe that this practice will have more detrimental effects on the algae than to “bad pests”. Cheato do tolerate a fresh dip to a point but others more delicate display algae’s will stress, release toxins to the tank and eventually die. And as a result maybe blame the seller for the brand new algae just died.

this was the main test we’re I’ve used the live rock for the filtration purpose.

The Goods and Bad of freshwater LR Cleaning

This thread is aimed at informing members of this community the effects that you could experience and expect after you clean your tank and contents including live rock, by using fresh water as a method of choice. to create some context on the following information a small test was created to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Muffin87]

a period of 8 minutes.

8 minutes isn't really that long. You can dip chaeto in FW for 2-4 hours.

 

[sixty_reefer]

8 minutes isn't really that long. You can dip chaeto in FW for 2-4 hours.

If the Aipatasia is in the live rock as most times will be, it can, the test was carried out as part of determining the effects of freshwater water rinse on the beneficial bacteria.
2 to 4 hours freshwater rinse will kill most macro algaes

 

[Muffin87]

2 to 4 hours freshwater rinse will kill most macro algaes

What makes you so sure about that?

I found out about the 2-4 hr FW dip for cheato on Eat Sleep Reef (link with time stamp at 8:39). He seems to be successful.

Also check this out: Will Chaeto Grow in Freshwater?

The samples were then taken to a lab where they were tested under different conditions of salinity and temperature for 7 days. The study found that at 0% salinity, the Chaeto survival rate was 30% at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit).
The survival rate was 35% at 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit), and 70% at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).(study link here)

Just because I like tables:

Time	Salinity	Temperature (C/F)	Survival Rate
7 days	0 (distilled water)	20°C / 68°F	30%
7 days	0 (distilled water)	25°C / 77°F	35%
7 days	0 (distilled water)	30°C / 86°F	70%

Purely judging from the results of the study, I'd say for a marine species these are very good odds of survival for a 7 day period in freshwater.
They were cultured under a 12:12 h light:dark cycle and at 70 μmol·m-2·s-1 (i.e. PAR)

Apparently, the survival rate is 100% at just 0.1 salinity with temperatures ranging between 15°C and 25°C!
That's only 2 grams of Instant Ocean in 4.5 gallons!