Marc Levenson demonstrates the use of a handheld laser to kill pest anemones, Majanos and Aiptasia, in your reef aquarium

Oh those darn pests: Majanos, Aiptasia, Majanos, Aiptasia, Majanos…

Aiptasia is one way of keeping us humble, because they come out of all our rockwork, they come off our frag plugs, they sting our corals, they just become spreading pest anemones and we don’t like looking at them.

Over the years we’ve used many different product to remove them. Lemon juice, kalkwasser paste, Joe’s Juice, Aiptasia X, injecting them with boiling water, injecting them with hypersaline solutions, sprinkling salt directly on them, muriatic acid, and first, several years back now, products that used electricity to zap the pests.

Multiple variations have since come out, including the Majano Wand and the Aiptaser. You would just take the probe and apply it to the pest anemone until it died. Problem is, the pest anemones retract into the rockwork. You’d keep poking, trying to cook the side of them, and eventually you’d get most of the creature, and maybe even boil every last bit of it off the rock. If it all floats up, and there’s no life left on the rock, the you’ve killed it.

Now, this was OK, but there is all of this tubing that seemed was kind of risky for breaking corals in my tank.

Then…this came to my attention. Lasering away your pests. Who could resist giving it a try?

Field Testing Results
I haven’t had anything weird happen like the glass changing color, or drilling a hole through the glass.  It did not do what you would expect, like in a James Bond movie where the laser is going to kill James Bond.  It’s like “bacon cooking in the pan”…watch the video to find out just how effective this technique can be!

Tell us, what’s your favorite, most effective way, to eliminate pest anemones in your reef aquarium?