I think the polarity in the DIY thread is backward. The negative electrode bubbles much more actively because of the extra gasses from secondary reactions (sodium mostly). Also, chlorine eats stainless steel. I was messing around with platinum wire from a thermocouple and I didn't use graphite for the other electrode but instead just some of the SS I had. The minus electrode of SS bubbles a lot more than the platinum one did and wasn't eroding. If I put SS on the plus side it erodes and gives off a yellow plume. This makes sense to me. I will reverse the polarity on the zapper I made and try it out.
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2Na + 2H2O --> 2NaOH + H2 = f#(ked up anemones. It works MUCH better with the SS zapper hooked up to the (-) and the graphite on the (+). Tears them up into little bits and fries them into white matter. The tip may be even building metal up on it now instead of eroding. It's almost not even fair to the little bastards except I know I can never get the last one.
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is it possible to get a picture/video in action?
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It looks just like that youtube video in the links.
I think when the polarity was wrong I was poisoning the anemones and when I switch it around it fries them with caustics and vigorous bubbles.
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Unlike the chemicals its unlikely they will build up an immunity :-)
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Lance, the probe stuff you're using now is more conductive. What I'm wondering is if you'll get a further amp push around the death probe?
If there's no fish around, it's hard to tell if they'll get stung, ya know?
Maybe they worked backwards to the graphite so there's minimal effective zappage at the killing probe point?
I don't know if there are any fish in your tank, but if not, maybe a couple feeder tube trained damsels would make good test subjects?
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The fish are ever so curious about what's going on and are hard to keep away. They seem unaffected by the chemicals or the charge.
I built my zapper exactly as in the DIY post, except with silicone instead of hot glue. I figured the polarity in the artical was backward and just reversed mine. I never really built a tungsten or platinum probe, just tested them with a power supply and a bowl of salt water.
I measured the graphite at about 25 ohms. That would allow a maximum of about 1/2 amp to flow at 12v. The adapter I am using is rated at 600 mA (.6 A). It all works out.
The good thing about zapping them is if they recover it's easy to go back and get them again. They can recover if they are not damaged enough.
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Hopefully I won't have use for one, but there were some aptasia on the frags I got recently. I clean them off by hand, very thoroughly, but who knows?
Thanks for all the input, brother. It's a BIG help. :-)
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Jeez what a couple of pages. Sorry but I can't stick an arcing rod into a fish tank. On the pest/plague front,
I have had to go ahead and re-start my skimmer. I have gotten too lazy with water changes and have begun
to notice a plague of valonia algae and just an all-around funk going on. So I fired it up last night and will continue
to change 2-3 gallons a day til I get this under control.
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It doesn't arc, of course. I figure it's a way of injecting concentrated lye into the pests, or at least onto them. I love it, the first sign of hope I've had.
I guess I should do my annual major water change too. I do small ones every month or so.
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Pu$$y. :-)
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Guys, I need more pictures. There had been two pages of chatter with no pictures... I don't have a reef tank myself and probably never will, but I love seeing shots of your amazing tanks. Thanks for having this thread here, another reason why this place kicks ass!
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Here's one, Mychal. I just took it. It's a long-spined urchin.

Image
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On a good note, I noticed our first baby hammer coral today. We can grow paly's like nobody's business, and everything else is splitting and dividing and so forth, but for some reason Lisa and I got really excited when we saw a baby mushroom awhile ago. We watched it every day.
Now this baby hammer just kinda came from nowhere. It's cute as a bug. :-)

The stupid atomic boring eagle eye paly has spread to rocks in all directions, it's a monster. It deserved an honorable mention for insane growth rate. It has gone from the size of a pinky fingernail to the size of a softball in just a few months.
At this point, I probably won't add anything else at all unless I really, really like it. Otherwise corals will be spilling over and out of my tank in no time.
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I zapped a rhodactis as an experiment. It worked. I may prune enough room back in my tank to put some new variety in it.
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Make sure to run carbon after zapping Rhoactids. They tes to throw slime and ther bad stuff into the water column.
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:-) Got the carbon thing covered.
Just another observation (sorry). When I had the polarity backwards and was putting nickle, chrome, and maybe cobalt, possibly iron into the anemones, they would wither up and die. Hitting them the other way tears them up but if I don't get them bad enough they grow back. At least it's easy to hit them again.
Pics of a mostly anemone free tank to come, as soon as I clean it enough to get a picture.:-)
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Dont kill them all. If you kill them all you wont get to play with your new toy :-)
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:-) That guy looks really cool. When I was on Kauai last year I saw a fish eat one of those guys.
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When I was in the Keys last year it was freezing cold and I saw thousands upon thousands of urchins dead on the bottom in the shallows. They were short-spined ones, not that it matters.
I'd like to go back next year and see how stuff has recovered. Without the urchins to clean, I bet it became quite a mess for awhile, considering the tons (literally) of dead fish everywhere.
What's odd is that I never saw them before when I was snorkeling in the shallows, or at least not in any kind of numbers that they left an impression on me. The particular variety must be nocturnal, or they simply washed in from the flats is the best I can figure.
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