dowtish
New member
So the popularity of using Bayer Insecticide for a coral dip seems to be spreading. I thought I would share my experience with battling AEFW recently and how well it went using Bayer.
I discovered them back in November and had been experiencing signs of things just not quite looking right. I began racking my brain of what I had done differently, and there was all kinds of things. Added a fuge, changed my bulb combo, had a slight swing here and there etc. But the last thing I thought was AEFW. I had dipped all my corals before putting them into my tank, and there is a certain level of denial that I felt in the hopes that it truly wasnt the dreaded AEFW. But the truth is, some of my coral dips were not very thorough, and I didnt always inspect for eggs. When I finally saw them, it's super easy to see the bite marks, but I needed a magnifying glass to really see the eggs.
Here is the dip that I used. I used 5-6ml per cup of saltwater for 10 minutes and with a pump for flow in the dipping bucket. once a week for 8 weeks. I then rinsed them in more saltwater before placing back into the tank.
I only had a few colonies that were really encrusted on my rocks, so I immediately broke off all smaller frags and placed them on a frag rack until I could get my QT tank setup. I began to dip what I could easily and placing them back into my DT. I was lucky in the sense that I had already began to accumulate things for a frag tank. So I had not only proper filtration for the QT but also good lighting. I think this is key if you plan to do a full 8 week dipping regiment.
Here was the result of my first dip
Here is a pic of the QT setup.
Once everything was plumbed up I began moving every Acro over to the QT.
The hardest part is all the colonies that were encrusted on the rocks, and I had to snap what I could off. And I had to kill off what remains on the rocks in order for the AEFW not have anything to feed on and in case there are eggs underneath somewhere on the rocks. And in some cases, I had 4-5 inches of encrusting on the rock alone. I found that a diamond plated dremmel wheel cut thru my LR like butter, and all encrusting acros came right off with ease.
I did move a few pieces of LR over into the QT because I initially added a 6 line wrasse to maybe help me in efforts. I noticed the day that I dipped every coral for the first time all at once that when they were all placed back into the tank, that suddenly I saw all kinds of pods dead and floating all over the QT, all the pods in the LR immediately died. Also to note. My cleaner shrimp died right before I moved everything over from the DT. So the frags that I dipped before moving everything over probably killed my cleaner shrimp. So I believe this dip is obviously pretty toxic to all inverts and pods. So a good proper rinse is necessary.
The dipping continued and the AEFW seemed to fall off instantly in the Bayer dip. After the 4th week I no longer saw any AEFW. And as time went buy the AEFW that did fall off were much smaller than in the beginning. But I continued to dip for the total 8 weeks, and inspected with a magnifying glass for eggs.
Given the white milky color of the Bayer dip, I wanted to be able to tell what corals had AEFW more than others. So as I dipped each coral I used a sieve strainer that I had for hatching baby brine shrimp to pour the dip water thru to see exactly what and how many was coming off of each coral. It was odd to me which corals had more and then some never seemed to be affected. No rhyme or reason to explain that.
Quick video of the QT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQhQXT1Xr6I&feature=share&list=UUiIrju8joSfDCWLj6TKGFng
The thing that I want to be most noted in all of this is that using Bayer every 7 days for 8 weeks at 5-6ml for 10 min. never made my corals lose color or lose PE. In fact I experienced growth through the process. My efflo colony and red planet that I had sitting on PVC for the last couple of weeks as I was slowly moving the corals back over to the DT actually fused to the PVC and grew all down the sides of it.
Here are my Hawkins and Granulosa pics of the corals from the QT that also showed considerable growth.
And here is the DT with everything moved back over.
Given that I had a good setup for my QT, I think made all the difference for me. I just would not be able to properly gauge if my corals were doing well over 2 months, if they didnt have good filtration and lighting. I'm not saying you cant do it without it, but you will be doing way more WC's than anybody has time for. And being that the Bayer seemed to be so gentle on the corals, that I never lost color or growth during all of this. Which speaks volumes as opposed to other popular dips on the market.
I discovered them back in November and had been experiencing signs of things just not quite looking right. I began racking my brain of what I had done differently, and there was all kinds of things. Added a fuge, changed my bulb combo, had a slight swing here and there etc. But the last thing I thought was AEFW. I had dipped all my corals before putting them into my tank, and there is a certain level of denial that I felt in the hopes that it truly wasnt the dreaded AEFW. But the truth is, some of my coral dips were not very thorough, and I didnt always inspect for eggs. When I finally saw them, it's super easy to see the bite marks, but I needed a magnifying glass to really see the eggs.
Here is the dip that I used. I used 5-6ml per cup of saltwater for 10 minutes and with a pump for flow in the dipping bucket. once a week for 8 weeks. I then rinsed them in more saltwater before placing back into the tank.
I only had a few colonies that were really encrusted on my rocks, so I immediately broke off all smaller frags and placed them on a frag rack until I could get my QT tank setup. I began to dip what I could easily and placing them back into my DT. I was lucky in the sense that I had already began to accumulate things for a frag tank. So I had not only proper filtration for the QT but also good lighting. I think this is key if you plan to do a full 8 week dipping regiment.
Here was the result of my first dip
Here is a pic of the QT setup.
Once everything was plumbed up I began moving every Acro over to the QT.
The hardest part is all the colonies that were encrusted on the rocks, and I had to snap what I could off. And I had to kill off what remains on the rocks in order for the AEFW not have anything to feed on and in case there are eggs underneath somewhere on the rocks. And in some cases, I had 4-5 inches of encrusting on the rock alone. I found that a diamond plated dremmel wheel cut thru my LR like butter, and all encrusting acros came right off with ease.
I did move a few pieces of LR over into the QT because I initially added a 6 line wrasse to maybe help me in efforts. I noticed the day that I dipped every coral for the first time all at once that when they were all placed back into the tank, that suddenly I saw all kinds of pods dead and floating all over the QT, all the pods in the LR immediately died. Also to note. My cleaner shrimp died right before I moved everything over from the DT. So the frags that I dipped before moving everything over probably killed my cleaner shrimp. So I believe this dip is obviously pretty toxic to all inverts and pods. So a good proper rinse is necessary.
The dipping continued and the AEFW seemed to fall off instantly in the Bayer dip. After the 4th week I no longer saw any AEFW. And as time went buy the AEFW that did fall off were much smaller than in the beginning. But I continued to dip for the total 8 weeks, and inspected with a magnifying glass for eggs.
Given the white milky color of the Bayer dip, I wanted to be able to tell what corals had AEFW more than others. So as I dipped each coral I used a sieve strainer that I had for hatching baby brine shrimp to pour the dip water thru to see exactly what and how many was coming off of each coral. It was odd to me which corals had more and then some never seemed to be affected. No rhyme or reason to explain that.
Quick video of the QT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQhQXT1Xr6I&feature=share&list=UUiIrju8joSfDCWLj6TKGFng
The thing that I want to be most noted in all of this is that using Bayer every 7 days for 8 weeks at 5-6ml for 10 min. never made my corals lose color or lose PE. In fact I experienced growth through the process. My efflo colony and red planet that I had sitting on PVC for the last couple of weeks as I was slowly moving the corals back over to the DT actually fused to the PVC and grew all down the sides of it.
Here are my Hawkins and Granulosa pics of the corals from the QT that also showed considerable growth.
And here is the DT with everything moved back over.
Given that I had a good setup for my QT, I think made all the difference for me. I just would not be able to properly gauge if my corals were doing well over 2 months, if they didnt have good filtration and lighting. I'm not saying you cant do it without it, but you will be doing way more WC's than anybody has time for. And being that the Bayer seemed to be so gentle on the corals, that I never lost color or growth during all of this. Which speaks volumes as opposed to other popular dips on the market.
