Vinegar and Aptasia

[Kelly]

I injected about 2 dozen aptasia with plain white vinegar on the advice of
my LFS. About 90% turned dark purple and died. That was yesterday, I noticed
that this evening one of my Damsels looks like she doesn't have enough
strength to swim on her own. She is swimming, but mostly because she is
being pushed around the tank by the current. The other members of the tank:

1 percula
2 coral banded shrimp
1 blenny
the other damsel (2 altogether)
a number of snails, mushrooms and corals all look fine.

The other damsel looks really good too. I had noticed that the one that
looks sick right now always looked a little different than the other, they
are the same kind but this ones back fin never really stood up all the way
and the color isn't as bright. Anyways right now her color is fading and she
just doesn't look good at all. To top it off the healthier one is really
picking on it which they never used to do. Could this be because of the
vinegar? or is that most likely a co-incidence? I did water tests yesterday
and besides my ph being a little high the nitrates and ammonia were fine.

I have read that peppermint shrimp will eat aptasia but I also read that it
doesn't always work out that way, anyone have other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[Steve Sells]

How much of the acid (vinegar) did you add to your tank, and What is the
water volume of your tank?

Steve



"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:v79Fb.765340$6C4.707993@pd7tw1no...
> Well in the time it took to send this email out I looked over at the tank
> and she was pasted to the powerhead. The body didn't look overly damaged.
>
>

[Kelly]

33 gallon and I added maybe around 6 or 7 teaspoons in total. Maybe 4 or 5
yesterday morning and 1 or 2 this morning.
"Steve Sells" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> How much of the acid (vinegar) did you add to your tank, and What is the
> water volume of your tank?
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> "Kelly" > wrote in message
> news:v79Fb.765340$6C4.707993@pd7tw1no...
> > Well in the time it took to send this email out I looked over at the
tank
> > and she was pasted to the powerhead. The body didn't look overly
damaged.
> >
> >
>
>

[Dragon Slayer]

"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:FZ8Fb.764328$pl3.310062@pd7tw3no...
> I did water tests yesterday
> and besides my ph being a little high the nitrates and ammonia were fine.
>

adding vinegar to your tank drives your PH down considerably, after all its
an acid. how much did you add to the tank with your injection and what is
the total volume of water in the system?

and how are you testing your PH? with a test kit? if so its most likely
wrong, I have never seen a PH test kit that was worth a dang, and a PH
monitor is highly recommended.


hth
kc

[Dragon Slayer]

your killing your tank by driving down the PH with the vinegar. that is way
to much in such a small system.

kc

"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:Xo9Fb.764404$pl3.512093@pd7tw3no...
> 33 gallon and I added maybe around 6 or 7 teaspoons in total. Maybe 4 or 5
> yesterday morning and 1 or 2 this morning.
> "Steve Sells" > wrote in message
> ink.net...
> > How much of the acid (vinegar) did you add to your tank, and What is the
> > water volume of your tank?
> >
> > Steve
> >
> >
> >
> > "Kelly" > wrote in message
> > news:v79Fb.765340$6C4.707993@pd7tw1no...
> > > Well in the time it took to send this email out I looked over at the
> tank
> > > and she was pasted to the powerhead. The body didn't look overly
> damaged.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>

[Chris Taylor]

Hi again Kelly

How much vinegar did you inject into each aptasia? What is the PH? What was
it before you started? With Vinegar being acidic the tank should have moved
toward the direction of 0 if you'd put an excesssive amount in.

I found that about 1/25th of a teaspoon of lemon juice per aptasia was good
enough to do the job. you should be able to buy concentrated lemon juice
from your local supermarket. I suspect that you've probably used too much
and it's affecting your livestock. Try using a 1 milliter syringe,
disposable diabetic syringes work well.

Conventional wisdom suggests that you should remove the affected rocks from
the tank and inject whilst in a bucket of tank water. Doing this during a
water change would negate throwing the water back into the tank.

I couldn't remove many of the affected rocks without the risk of an
avalanche and injected the an-enemy directly in the tank (taking care to use
as little as possible:- 1/10th of a milliliter per anenome) I had one
aptasia resurface; he was quickly dispatched with another jab (cue: psycho
music and tormentor with syringe).

Four new aptasia resurfaced over the last month. One, I suspect was eaten by
my two Peppermint shrimp, this is the only time I've even suspected their
presence in the tank, they hide and haven't eaten any of the other aptasia.
Another, I injected and it's gone. Another I found in the coral sand and
simply weeded out.

Of interest is the last one which appeared in the entrance to one of my blue
cheek goby's network of tunnels. His solution was pretty simple, he buried
it alive (this doesn't work on garden moles/goafers). The patch remains
covered with coral sand and I've never seen the aptasia again. Teulk (the
blue cheek goby) has a smug grin on his face every time he passes the grave
of his ex-tormentor.

I'd leave your tank for a few days and try again, taking care not to try and
do too much in one go.

Good luck

Chris



"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:FZ8Fb.764328$pl3.310062@pd7tw3no...
> I injected about 2 dozen aptasia with plain white vinegar on the advice of
> my LFS. .......

[Dan Norgard]

Last night I added one Peppermint (Lysmata Wurdemanni) to my tank to see if
it would tackle the four Aiptasia that were visible. This morning I got up
to see that they were all completely gone but the rest of the LR life
(sponges, dusters,polyps, etc) were still there. All I had was good old
Swede(the yellowtail Damsel) and one rather plump Peppermint Shrimp. Time
will tell.
Dan
"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:FZ8Fb.764328$pl3.310062@pd7tw3no...
I injected about 2 dozen aptasia with plain white vinegar on the advice of
my LFS. About 90% turned dark purple and died. That was yesterday, I noticed
that this evening one of my Damsels looks like she doesn't have enough
strength to swim on her own. She is swimming, but mostly because she is
being pushed around the tank by the current. The other members of the tank:

1 percula
2 coral banded shrimp
1 blenny
the other damsel (2 altogether)
a number of snails, mushrooms and corals all look fine.

The other damsel looks really good too. I had noticed that the one that
looks sick right now always looked a little different than the other, they
are the same kind but this ones back fin never really stood up all the way
and the color isn't as bright. Anyways right now her color is fading and she
just doesn't look good at all. To top it off the healthier one is really
picking on it which they never used to do. Could this be because of the
vinegar? or is that most likely a co-incidence? I did water tests yesterday
and besides my ph being a little high the nitrates and ammonia were fine.

I have read that peppermint shrimp will eat aptasia but I also read that it
doesn't always work out that way, anyone have other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[Kelly]

I think I will pick one up today
"Dan Norgard" > wrote in message
...
> Last night I added one Peppermint (Lysmata Wurdemanni) to my tank to see
if
> it would tackle the four Aiptasia that were visible. This morning I got
up
> to see that they were all completely gone but the rest of the LR life
> (sponges, dusters,polyps, etc) were still there. All I had was good old
> Swede(the yellowtail Damsel) and one rather plump Peppermint Shrimp. Time
> will tell.
> Dan
> "Kelly" > wrote in message
> news:FZ8Fb.764328$pl3.310062@pd7tw3no...
> I injected about 2 dozen aptasia with plain white vinegar on the advice of
> my LFS. About 90% turned dark purple and died. That was yesterday, I
noticed
> that this evening one of my Damsels looks like she doesn't have enough
> strength to swim on her own. She is swimming, but mostly because she is
> being pushed around the tank by the current. The other members of the
tank:
>
> 1 percula
> 2 coral banded shrimp
> 1 blenny
> the other damsel (2 altogether)
> a number of snails, mushrooms and corals all look fine.
>
> The other damsel looks really good too. I had noticed that the one that
> looks sick right now always looked a little different than the other, they
> are the same kind but this ones back fin never really stood up all the way
> and the color isn't as bright. Anyways right now her color is fading and
she
> just doesn't look good at all. To top it off the healthier one is really
> picking on it which they never used to do. Could this be because of the
> vinegar? or is that most likely a co-incidence? I did water tests
yesterday
> and besides my ph being a little high the nitrates and ammonia were fine.
>
> I have read that peppermint shrimp will eat aptasia but I also read that
it
> doesn't always work out that way, anyone have other suggestions?
>
> Thanks in advance
>
>
>

[Kelly]

Will a partial water change be enough? All I have to do is fix the ph but it
was too high to begin with. I tested today and it is lower but still high
according to the chart on the test kit. It sits right now at 8.4 it WAS at
8.8 before the vinegar got added.

[Marc Levenson]

Water changes typically do level out water parameters. It won't hurt to do an
extra water change, or several. Always match salinity and temperature first.

Marc


Kelly wrote:

> Will a partial water change be enough? All I have to do is fix the ph but it
> was too high to begin with. I tested today and it is lower but still high
> according to the chart on the test kit. It sits right now at 8.4 it WAS at
> 8.8 before the vinegar got added.

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[Kelly]

I talked to my LFS store today and she thought that a .4 drop in ph wouldn't
be even close enough of a change to kill the damsel that quickly so it must
have been already sick, which I did think it was before all of this even
started.

She also said that 8 wasn't too high for a ph level but according to my kit
it is. So I am going to do a partial and then just keep checking I guess.
Then next week add the peppermint to hekp control the aptasia. This is sort
of OT but my Coral banded shrimp has recently started trying to catch fish
(the last 3 days) will the coral band try and kill the peppermint?