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Frag dipping regimen

Hey Norm, what was the length of time that the monti's were in the solution.

I seem to have won the battle against the monti eating nudi's in the main display tank, but it seems to have carried over to the smaller display tank now. I believe it is in check as I basically just tossing the spent mont's with eggs attached.
 
They tried a variety of procedures... though I don't know the details of how rigorous the experiments were. I'll ask when I get a chance.

The high and low ends of the range for concentration were:

2ml/8oz - 2ml/32oz

And the same for durations were:

25min - 10min

I think they settled on 2ml/32oz(~liter) for 15 minutes, so that they could redip weekly if needed without making the montis lose color.
 
Hi all,

One of my tanks has bryopsis. I don't want to spread this to anyone else, but there are some cool frags to be had. I'm planning to manually clean any strands off the fraggle rocks I'm bringing, and may do a scrub down with kalkwasser too (this seems to prevent it from regrowing). Does anyone have any other recommendations? These are all shrooms, palys, or softies, so maybe a freshwater dip as they are all super-hardy? I'm a little concerned because even just one little shred can turn into a forest if you're not careful.

Thanks for any advice!

XOXO,

Darcy
 
[quote author=bookfish link=topic=451.msg15363#msg15363 date=1170310262]
Norm, could you type up a quickie dip sheet for handing out at the swap? Give me a call if you want, I'm up late tonight.
[/quote]

Version 1.0
-----------

Povidone iodine 10%
-------------------
- Keep out of reach of children.
- Do not get in eyes.
- If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immmediately.


General purpose dipping guide
-----------------------------

Mix with saltwater according to coral type. Immerse the corals in the dip, and agitate periodically with a turkey baster. Inspect for pests and their eggs. You may find redbugs, acro eating flatworms, red planaria, monti eating nudibranchs, zoanthid eating nudibranchs, zoanthid spiders, and others.

The pests may be stunned enough to be blown off the coral, but not necessarily killed.

After dipping, rinse and quarantine the coral.


Acros
3ml/liter 25 min

Montis
2ml/liter 10-15 min

Zoas
3-4ml/liter 25 min

LPS
3ml/liter 25 min

Softies
3ml/liter 25 min


Some corals have tolerated up to 2ml dip per 8oz saltwater for 25 minutes. Montis may lose color at this concentration of dip. 2ml/8oz should be the strongest concentration to use if you are experimenting. Iodine levels peak at approximately this dosage rate, and will actually decrease as you add more of the dip.


Depending on the coral type and pests, other treatments to consider:

Flatworm Exit for red planaria

Fluke Tabs for red planaria

Interceptor for redbugs and possibly zoa spiders

Hydrogen peroxide in saltwater for zoa fungus

Furan 2 for zoa pox

Lugol's in saltwater

Lugol's in freshwater
 
'm also interested in what people do for introductory dips. i've currently been using TMPCC/lugols mix for my corals and freshwater for my fish, with a thorough check for anything amiss at the start and end of the dipping. for people using interceptor in their dipping regimen, what dosage/time do people use?.. do people just put in muliple medications at the same time or in series?..
 
Any updates to the recommended dips for LPS and SPS? I'm starting from the assumption that I will have no idea what kind of pest is on my frag. I'm looking for a regimen that will handle them all.
 
I put all the corals in a good size sealed container that fits inside my sump for temperture controll, and then use interceptor for 6 hours, after that I add iodine for 25 minutes, turkey blast the corals, inspect it carefully using a scope if I have too, and then it goes into my tank. For Monti I do less time for the iodine dip.
 
No formal update to the version 1.0 listed above.

But a few new things...

The 2ml per liter dosage for montis is mild enough that you can leave the montis in the dip for a few hours with no ill effects. I've stopped being so worried about timing the montis, and I just let them soak for half an hour or more while I do other stuff. Nudibranchs look pretty dead after the long dips. I've had montis come out of cold dip after 4-5 hours with no major problems.

There's a new monti dip based on potassium permanganate. I'll do a write-up on recipe and dosage. I've tried it out, but the pp dip is pretty harsh though.

Interceptor is good at 1-10x dosage levels. Recommendation has been for longer dip at lower dosage rather than shorter at higher dosage. 12 hours at 2-10x dosage is supposed to work well. I do 4x for 12 hours in a 10 gallon tank. You don't need to rush to get the corals out of the interceptor. In fact, I just put some pieces into the 10g on Sunday with a 4x dose. I have yet to take them out of the tank. I haven't run carbon, skimmer, or performed any water change and the frags are still doing great.

Another new thing I started to play with. Someone asked me to try Revive Coral Cleaner from Two Little Fishies. The product info says it's not a medication but that may be more of a disclaimer than anything else. Like, who cleans their corals? The stuff smells like Pine Sol, and the label says don't use it for household cleaning, haha.

Word on the street is that RCC is good(meaning bad) for nudis, and corals can soak in it for a long time with no ill effects. Dosage is 10ml per liter. I did try some on a monti nudi. Seemed to be a little slower acting than Povidone.
 
Here's what I do.

New coral gets a 2ml/liter(or 3ml if not montis) Povidone dip for about 30 minutes.

After thorough inspection and scrubbing/cleaning as necessary, the coral goes into a quarantine tank or bucket.

The next morning I dose Interceptor for at least 12 hours.

I space the dips to minimize chances of stressing the corals.

Acros and montis stay quarantined for observation. Zoas and lps I tend not to quarantine for a long time. These would all be frags too. For bigger pieces I tend to be more paranoid.

I don't bother with Flatworm Exit. Pretty much you can see if you have planaria, and the iodine knocks them loose.
 
Thanks for the great info! Just have a couple more questions -

I've never scrubbed a coral before, can you just take a toothbrush or something and lightly go over it? Or do you just mean using the turkey baster to knock things off?

So, redbugs will survive the Providone dip, and Interceptor is the only thing that reliably kills them, right? Wouldn't spacing the dips allow for redbugs to enter the QT before the Interceptor treatment? Or, are you suggesting 1 bucket for Providone dip, 2nd bucket for between dips, 1st bucket again for Interceptor dip, then QT tank?

Lastly, how do you determine corals are ok to enter the display after QT? If after 3-4 weeks the coral looks healthy and you can't see anything suspicious, it's ok? Or do you give it a second round of dips, and look for dead stuff at the bottom of a white bucket?
 
I never even read about dipping my corals for pests till this thread and I've been reading for about 2yrs :( Good info here. THanks :)
 
Where do you get Povidone?

I have a new frag tank that I set up and want to do this one right. It should be ready to populate by the Feb Swap and want to only add "clean" coral.

Also, the "cold dip". Does this mean you have the Povidone solition in a bucket with your corals without a heater and if over the course of hour(s) the water gets cold, so be it?
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=451.msg28596#msg28596 date=1198136626]

The next morning I dose Interceptor for at least 12 hours.

[/quote]

Mr. Ugly, why not run interceptor 24/7 in your quarantine? If one did this, does anyone know how often one needs to add interceptor (or how quickly is breaks down?)

C
 
[quote author=cwolfus link=topic=451.msg30044#msg30044 date=1200283457]Mr. Ugly, why not run interceptor 24/7 in your quarantine? If one did this, does anyone know how often one needs to add interceptor (or how quickly is breaks down?)

C
[/quote]

Oops... I missed your question, Charles!

Yep, you could do 24/7 Interceptor in the quarantine. Could get pricey. I just dose it after putting in new frags.

One of our sponsors does 24/7, but they have a lot of corals coming in through their systems. They throw a tablet in about every 3rd water change, if I remember correctly.

As far as rate of break down... could do an assay for the particular quarantine to determine, I suppose.

Treat the quarantine, then test samples with RB infected frags every 12 hours. Or if you have a bunch of spare pods.... shhhh, don't tell PETA :D

(Would be an interesting grade school science fair project. Nowadays, you have to get approvals for anything using live critters though.)
 
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