How do you make club soda?

[plancton]

I need to have club soda in a 10 gal container to dip rocks in it and get rid of a mantis, but buying club soda bottles would be to expensive.
Which would be an economic way to make club soda?.

Will a 5 minutes dip hurt corals or anemones?. Do I need to add salt to the mixture?

[phurst]

Save yourself the trouble and just buy it. Making it requires a seltzer bottle and co2 chargers. it only makes a liter or two at a time. You'll spend WAY more on equipment than you would just buying it. I'm thinking a 5 minute dip is going to wipe out just about everything on the rock. I've never done it, but it's my understanding you just pour the soda water over the rock and in the crevices to drive out the mantis. No soaking necessary.

[plancton]

Yeah but for a very shy mantis I don´t know if pouring would do the job. Can I do the complete soaking without killing the corals?

[phurst]

I'd be very hesitant. I'm sure someone with first hand experience will chime in, but I don't think I'd dunk a rock with stuff on it for more than a couple of seconds. The osmotic shock is going to be pretty ahrd on whatever's on the rock. Maybe try in the mantis forum? I'm sure someone there will know for sure.

[redfishsc]

Edit: do any of this at risk of anything that's on the rock!

Try putting it in a bucket of salt water, and using some insulated wire (any kind), attach to a 9-volt battery. Stick the wires on either side of the rock. You could use a higher voltage battery, I dont' know how safe using a 12v automotive battery would be, so don't try it unless you're willing to risk it!

This should be enough voltage (the 9v) to bother the mantis. Watch for him to come out.


The other possibility is that if you have access to a pressure pot (like often used for spraying paints), and the rock is small enough to fit inside it, place the rock in a few plastic grocery bags (no water) and put it inside the pressure pot. The bags will keep any paint residue from getting on the rock.

Pressurize it up to the maximum pressure the tank will hold (using an air compressor). My pressure pot will take 80 PSI, which should be enough cause the mantis severe distress, possibly kill it. I doubt it would bother the algae.


Oh.... there could be lots of ways to get the mantis out....

[plancton]

Ok, and going back to the soda. How safe is to dunk the rock in it?

[Shane Hoffman]

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT USE A CAR BATTERY>>>>>

Creating a dead short on a car battery can cause it to blow.....also car batterys can produce up to 700 amps....one is enough to kill you...

Sry I cant help you with your club soda question other than saying I wouldnt do it on a rock that had livestock I wanted to keep alive on it....good luck. Also I would be hesitant to hold the rock in your hand and pour it. Could be a trip to the E.R if that mantis lands in your hand and gets you....

[bubbly]

With any kind of "whole rock" treatment to kill the mantis, I am sure it's going to hurt the rock a good bit as well -- if it's going to hurt the mantis, I am sure that there is a lot else that it will hurt.

With the soda water, you end up creating both osmotic shock and high acidity at the same time, plus nasty bubbles that it gets when trying to breathe.

If it's just one rock you are concerned about, I would just take the rock and put it in a dry (empty) bucket, and pour a bottle of club soda over it -- I am sure that enough will soak into it to motivate the mantis to leave.

Alternatively, I hear pistol shrimp like to kill them, so you could get a pistol, although depending on the species he might end up killing other stuff (some pistols become territorial)

[plancton]

Im gonna try the soda, I have the bucket now(salt bucket), the rock thas has the anemone has the anemone on top so I can submerge the rest, and do the same with the one with the verrucosa, and the other rocks have no corals. I will dump them all, don´t care about the microfauna, than can be replaced.

Also this is a shy mantis, they have never really attacked me while grabbing the rocks.

[Tang Salad]

I'd try a fresh water (RODI) dip before I bought ten gallons of club soda.

[unbreakable]

if youre going to kill the whole rock might as well just take it out and let it dry out or something.. better off breaking corals off to save and just drying out the rock

[plancton]

I already tried freshwater dip and it didn´t work. But to what I´ve heard club soda is stronger.

[Mish1]

Freshwater dips do not work as explained my Dr. Caldwell in this post.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1680638

Submerging the rock will likely kill most of the life on the rock. Try to identify the hole or holes the Mantis is in and simply pour the soda water into the hole(s). I tried this method and it worked perfectly and took very little soda water poured into the holes to get the Mantis to evacuate (reference post above).

Come on people... hooking up rock to car batteries. :eek1:

[greggnyce]

Cant you put the rock in a bucket of sw, then put a silverside or some food in the bucket. When the mantis comes out, BAM snatch his *** up in a bear trap yo!

[Katmanblue]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15568916#post15568916 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mish1
Freshwater dips do not work as explained my Dr. Caldwell in this post.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1680638

Submerging the rock will likely kill most of the life on the rock. Try to identify the hole or holes the Mantis is in and simply pour the soda water into the hole(s). I tried this method and it worked perfectly and took very little soda water poured into the holes to get the Mantis to evacuate (reference post above).

Come on people... hooking up rock to car batteries. :eek1:

LOL--agreed...i've done the club soda in the rock, works to perfection. No need really to submerge the whole thing. The visual of the whole car battery thing....wow....

[plancton]

Yeah the car battery was crazy. However I think I will have to completely submerge it, cuz he´s in an area where there´s like 6 big rocks, lots of holes, and can´t know in which one is hidding. So I have to pour the entire rock to make sure, there´s no other way.

[plancton]

Guess what guys?. I grabbed a bucket and filled it with soda water, and started dippìng in the suspicious rocks. For 3 min each.

Nothing came out!, only dead pods

But I dried some of these rocks and placed 3 of them that had corals on them in the sump. And suddenly heard 2 clicks comming from the sump. So the mantis is in one of those 3 rocks, the problem is that I re dipped them in the soda water and the mantis is still not comming out!.

Any ideas?.

I´m just thinking I will cut the corals and put the rocks to dry in order to kill it. If I do this how for how many days do they have to dry up?.

Or any other Ideas?

Also for how long can the rock be submerged in soda water in order to kill the mantis?. And for how long will corals survive?

[greggnyce]

The rock will die off if it dries and you will have to cure it in a seperate container for a month at least. Have you tried mantis traps? you should be able to bait the thing out.