How sterilize macroalgae frags of aiptasia?

[taricha]

@WheatToast my interest, FYI, is that many nuisance single cell algae (dinos except prorocentrum) are immediately killed (cells visibly ruptured in seconds) under fresh water.

 

[WheatToast]

Update:
After about 10 hours, that algae has not changed much, though the freshwater cups now smell strongly of Caulerpa insides:

Tapwater:

RO/DI:

Saltwater:

The Aiptasia hasn’t really moved. Maybe I should poke it to see if it responds:

 

[paparoof]

This is interesting. Thanks for doing this.

 

[Tired]

Huh. It looks much less dead than expected. Maybe pop it back in some saltwater and see what all keeps growing and going on as normal?

 

[mkreef]

Do a double salinity bath for a while. You need an alkanity swing. The aiptasia won't survive long.

 

[staylor1490]

Any updates on the experiment?

 

[WheatToast]

Any updates on the experiment?

No pictures right now, but I think the algae in freshwater didn't turn out that bad. They are currently in a cup in my refugium with saltwater. The saltwater algae are also in a cup in the refugium. The Aiptasia cup smelled like death and the anemone was covered in mucus, so I chucked the anemone and dried the shell.

 

[staylor1490]

No pictures right now, but I think the algae in freshwater didn't turn out that bad. They are currently in a cup in my refugium with saltwater. The saltwater algae are also in a cup in the refugium. The Aiptasia cup smelled like death and the anemone was covered in mucus, so I chucked the anemone and dried the shell.

Awesome, thanks! Let us know if the macroalgae in the freshwater end up making it. How long did you run the experiment for? 10 hours?

 

[WheatToast]

Awesome, thanks! Let us know if the macroalgae in the freshwater end up making it. How long did you run the experiment for? 10 hours?

I kind of forgot about the algae during the day, so it lasted about 24 hours
I forgot to add that the Aiptasia cup already smelled pretty bad by 10 hours

 

[staylor1490]

I kind of forgot about the algae during the day, so it lasted about 24 hours
I forgot to add that the Aiptasia cup already smelled pretty bad by 10 hours

Did the freshwater macroalgae end up making it?

 

[WheatToast]

Did the freshwater macroalgae end up making it?

While it is still holding its shape and color, the freshwater Caulerpa smells pretty awful and falls apart when I touch it (so it has now been trashed). Even if I did pull it out after 10 hours, I doubt it would have survived, since not much changed between then and 24 hours after the experiment began when I actually removed the algae.:

The marine Caulerpa has not changed at all, is odorless, and looks perfectly healthy.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

One thing I did way back to kill aips as to overload the holding tank for the rocks with nitrate. I dosed enough sodium nitrate to get the brute can to 500 ppm nitrate. Aips melted in a few days. I left the can like this for a week, ith a powerhead and heater. Those rocks then were taken out, put back into a new tank and there has been no aips since. This was done for a friend of mines FOWLER tank as a last ditch effort to not kill the rock while he was treating the fish for ich. I will say that pods had no issues and exploded during that time in the tub lol. Other critters like dusters and such did die. It also killed most of the vermatids he had. But that could have been, no food being added to the water. The GHA and some other macros on the rocks were damaged a little, but it appeared more like damage from no light and it all rebounded once back under light.