I need a burning laser to burn pests off live rock in my aquarium. I bought a 3 watt blue laser online which supposedly was enough to burn the pests off the rock but it isn’t strong enough. Maybe I got ripped off or maybe I need a stronger laser. If you shine it on your hand it hurts but it won’t burn a hole in a paper towel. Any ideas on what I need and where I can buy it?
I have a buddy who is pretty hardcore into lasers.
"Pretty Hardcore" might be an understatement.
I asked him what he thought and he said that if the aquarium has water, that the water will dissipate the heat and prevent it from burning the critters.
We was also surprised that it wouldn't burn a paper towel.
In his words "3 Watt is pretty powerful, how much did he pay for that?"
This is a from a guy who frequently pops balloons with his lasers whenever there is a party in our office.
Update: I was surprised that it didn't burn the paper towel.
My friend was NOT surprised as the white of a paper towel will just reflect the laser, because the color white is good at that.
Apparently the color of the object and the color of the laser have a lot to do with what you can burn.
I know the Killer Queen is "DYNAMITE" with a Laser Beam. Just be careful she will blow your mind so use with caution.
It’s hard to have a 3W handheld laser built for $150. I built a laser. I used a laser diode from a DLP projector, flashlight, and some 18650 batteries. It also required some custom circuits I won’t disclose for safety measures. It’s not a toy. I’m not sure of the laser power output. I’m sure it’s north of 2W. A laser that pops a balloon or burns a paper towel is around 150mW. Mine will set the grass on fire, light fireworks, ignite gunpowder (all of these from 10 feet away). I have laser goggles and it’s still absurdly bright. It runs for about 40 seconds before the batteries are dead.
Think about the physics involved to “burn” pests off a rock in an aquarium. How thick is the glass? How much water is in the tank? How far is the rock from the glass? Saltwater or fresh water? All these things effect the beam at the point of impact. There’s more physics going on here than there is for a 2500 yard rifle shot! Light dispersion through water and the thermodynamics of the energy transfer through said water are some hairy math which I don’t care to ever do again. Also, the minerals in said water will have an effect on the beam, so the wavelength of the light becomes a factor.
Additionally, to measure your laser’s output power, you need a very costly laser output power meter, or you’ll have to design a precision experiment.
All this said, my guess, to burn said pests in say a 100 gallon fresh water tank, where the rock is approx 8” from the 1/4” glass, you would need to focus the beam to less than 1mm, and have a 800nm laser power of >7W. Since that’s an IR beam, you’d want an aiming laser as well (5mW red). A 7W laser needs a huge cooling system as well as a massive current source. Remember, lease diodes are sluts for current. They’ll draw as much as they can until they burn out. The must have some kind of current limiter.
Get a refund if you can and clean your tank the old fashioned away. I know it sucks and you’re afraid of disturbing an ecosystem, but unless I see someone do it in person, I have to believe it can’t be done.
Hello, my homie Matt sent me here to share some knowledge.
1st. Focus is everything, like using the sun to burn grass with a magnifying glass. The 450nm diodes have okay beam coherency but the beam spreads over distance. You would need to focus it close to the object.
2nd. The water is going to eat power. Even though the water looks clear it will absorb some of the energy. You did good with going with blue wavelength though, it travels the best through water (deep in the ocean everything turns blue because those wavelengths are the last to get absorbed.)
3rd. Poor pest! I mean, it's just a squirrel trying to get it's own nut.
Quoted from TheLaw:I know a lot aboot lasers. Super expensive, you need a TON of sessions, and yes SOME of the hair grows back; but it's worth it.
Good luck
And you have to laser it while it's still black.
Once it turns grey, you are stuck with it.
Well I did figure out that the little attachments they come with it they make patterns and other things are just an excuse to lower the power. I called the place I bought it from and they told me to just take those off and to focus it. You can hold it onto the polyps I want gone and you can hear them crackle and pop. I should have bought a stronger one but this works slowly. And my neighbor, who was a marine, come flying out of his house when you shine it on the wall of his living room.
Quoted from zr11990:And my neighbor, who was a marine, come flying out of his house when you shine it on the wall of his living room.
I would recommend NOT doing that
While we have the laser experts gathered, where is the best place to get a strong astronomy laser? I don’t need it to burn anything, just brightness. Something an order of magnitude more than what is available on Amazon.
Thanks.
Feel free to pm me if there is concern about the laser police.
You do realize that it takes about a split second to blind you, your fish and your neighbor with that thing, right? I bought one for the exact same reason and ultimately decided to leave it sit in the box. I had no desire for my cat to walk in the room at the same time the beam reflected off something and blinded my cat.
What are you trying to kill...GSP, Aiptasia, Majano?
Quoted from alveolus:While we have the laser experts gathered, where is the best place to get a strong astronomy laser? I don’t need it to burn anything, just brightness. Something an order of magnitude more than what is available on Amazon.
Thanks.
Feel free to pm me if there is concern about the laser police.
I remember in college we used to go to the observatory near Mooreland, OK and use those green laser pointers all night long! Now, I’d think it’s a bad idea with all the crap of people pointing lasers at planes. That was almost 15 years ago and that 5mW green laser pointer was probably $300 at the time. Now they’re less than $30!
The first laser I ever had/bought/acquired came from the surplus sale at the University of Oklahoma around 2001 or 2002. I was 19 or 20. It was a 2.5W HeNe laser made around 1988. It was probably 12 feet long. I had a long bed truck and it hung off the bed with the tailgate down. It needed multiple voltages from a power supply, but I think the big end was 18VDC @ 200A! Remember, lasers are sluts for current! Anyways, it ended up having a cracked cooling tube and I sold it for parts on eBay but what I’m getting at is how much laser technology has changed in 30 years. I have a similar output device that is now handheld and operates off the same batteries as most people’s vape mods
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:You do realize that it takes about a split second to blind you, your fish and your neighbor with that thing, right? I bought one for the exact same reason and ultimately decided to leave it sit in the box. I had no desire for my cat to walk in the room at the same time the beam reflected off something and blinded my cat.
What are you trying to kill...GSP, Aiptasia, Majano?
I’m actually killing star polyps and palys. They take over everything. It just isn’t strong enough to do a lot of good. I have it tuned now to where it will burn paper and plastic but it doesn’t do a whole lot of damage shining it through the water. As for the neighbor , he was good with it. He is a pilot and he says people still shine them at planesall the time. Stupid. I put a filter over it and shined it high up on his wall.
GSP is a bitch to kill. Your best bet is actually to remove the rocks from the aquarium and either kill them with fire (which I don't recommend) or leave the rocks sit in sun for a few days and scrub them off.
If you're removing palythoas be very, very careful. Palytoxin can kill you and everything else in your house. Anything you do should be done outside with full protection (gloves, goggles, etc). What palys do you have? Depending on what they are, some of them are worth $10+ polyp. I'd recommend just pitching the rock as opposed to trying to clean it because of the possible palytoxin exposure. It's not worth the risk in my opinion.
Quoted from ryanbrooks:I remember in college we used to go to the observatory near Mooreland, OK and use those green laser pointers all night long! Now, I’d think it’s a bad idea with all the crap of people pointing lasers at planes. That was almost 15 years ago and that 5mW green laser pointer was probably $300 at the time. Now they’re less than $30!
The first laser I ever had/bought/acquired came from the surplus sale at the University of Oklahoma around 2001 or 2002. I was 19 or 20. It was a 2.5W HeNe laser made around 1988. It was probably 12 feet long. I had a long bed truck and it hung off the bed with the tailgate down. It needed multiple voltages from a power supply, but I think the big end was 18VDC @ 200A! Remember, lasers are sluts for current! Anyways, it ended up having a cracked cooling tube and I sold it for parts on eBay but what I’m getting at is how much laser technology has changed in 30 years. I have a similar output device that is now handheld and operates off the same batteries as most people’s vape mods
I appreciate the story but I thought you were going to answer my question about where I could buy a bright astronomy laser:
I can’t pull rock out. This talk has been set up for years. It is covered in expensive acropora and other corals that would never make it. It would be easier to set up another tank. The laser actually vaporizes the GSP but doesn’t do much for the palys. The fish hide so that isn’t a issue and I don’t allow anything on the room when I’m killing stuff
I’ll use this one till it burns out then buy a stronger one. Oh and I remove the batteries when I’m not using it so no one will play with it
Don’t take the batteries fresh off charge and put them in and use it. You can damage the diode.
Quoted from alveolus:I appreciate the story but I thought you were going to answer my question about where I could buy a bright astronomy laser:
That $30 amazon laser is probably suffice...
Quoted from ryanbrooks:Don’t take the batteries fresh off charge and put them in and use it. You can damage the diode
Strange, How long should I wait?
BTW, this thing is kind of cool. If you get it just right it makes noises like a welder and little puffs of smoke rise up in the water. It will take a loooong time to kill all my little pesties. I thought star polyps were cool at one time but now they are everywhere. Palys just grow like weeds. I tried pulling them off the rocks before I knew they were poisonous and I started feeling weird and there was a metallic taste in my mouth. I called the guy that gave them to me and he said: Yea, don't touch them. They don't call them purple death for no reason.
Quoted from zr11990:Strange, How long should I wait?
BTW, this thing is kind of cool. If you get it just right it makes noises like a welder and little puffs of smoke rise up in the water. It will take a loooong time to kill all my little pesties. I thought star polyps were cool at one time but now they are everywhere. Palys just grow like weeds. I tried pulling them off the rocks before I knew they were poisonous and I started feeling weird and there was a metallic taste in my mouth. I called the guy that gave them to me and he said: Yea, don't touch them. They don't call them purple death for no reason.
I don’t know about your laser, but on mine, I needed a regulated voltage multiplier. Some of these handheld lasers that use those 18650 batteries don’t have a regulator. I’m sure some have a multiplier as well. Charge your batteries and immediately take them off and measure them with your DMM on VDC. That 3.6VDC battery fresh off charge can be as high as 6VDC. Batteries in series means 12VDC through an unregulated multiplier could be issues...
Quoted from ryanbrooks:Don’t take the batteries fresh off charge and put them in and use it. You can damage the diode.
That $30 amazon laser is probably suffice...
Tried them and was disappointed
That’s probably a 5W diode but a 1W supply. I don’t know how you could ever have big enough batteries in that size to supply enough current for the diode. OP, if you have one, get a benchtop power supply, set the potential limit to 6VDC and the current limit to 5A and see if it’s brighter than with the batteries. I haven’t tried it (mostly because I loaned out my Lambda power supply and haven’t got it back) but I’m certain my laser is way under performing with batteries. I’ve considered building a bigger battery tube and running it 12 18650s rather than 2 but I really need to do some math and make sure I’m not going to cook the diode. I doubt I have enough heat sink.
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