Zoanthid Freshwater Dip
Zoanthid Freshwater Dip
This dip is supposed to work for most every ailment zoos can have (assuming you catch it in time) and can/should be used before QTing them. This dip kills off all bristle worms, nudibranchs, copepods, flatworms and parasites. It also works on many of the funguses. Some of these things are bad and some are not, but getting the bad things before they cause problems is certainly worth the trade-off.
This dip will NOT kill off any nudibranch eggs so you will have to inspect the rock after dipping for what looks like a tiny 1/8†curly white piece of thread. They won't detach from the rock as the sack is very sticky. Inside this egg sack is up to 40 or so eggs just waiting to hatch. If you see one, just remove it with tweezers before placing the rock back into your reef.
Ingredients:
5 gallon white bucket
3 gallons of RO/DI water
Lugol’s Iodine
Something to set RO/DI pH to match tank pH (about 8.2)
Optional Ingredients:
Flatworm Exit
Making the brew:
1. Add 3 gallons of RO water to white bucket.
2. Add 1 or 2 drops of Lugol's Iodine per gallon of RO water.
3. Set your PH to 8.2
4. Set your water temperature to 78 degrees
5. Add 2 drops per gallon of Flatworm Exit to the RO/DI water
Preparing the colony:
If your colony has a fungus, some preparation before the dip may be required. A lot of people are dealing with a whitish, opaque to yellowish fungus or some sort on your colonies. The key to saving a colony with this issue is to act immediately. You must remove all of the fungus with tweezers outside of your tank. Some colonies will require a bit of surgery and in some rare cases where the fungus is particularly nasty you may place drops of Lugols Iodine directly onto the infected colony (only after the surgery).
If necessary, use a very sharp razor blade, cut down and around the entire area that was affected. If you have a large rock and you want to be sure that you have eradicated the problem, remove 2 or 3 rows of good zoos around the area that was infected. Obviously, on frags, you may not want to cut any zoas. Rinse the colony well with tank water using a turkey baster or the like, in a separate bucket or sink outside of your reef, then proceed to dipping.
Dipping the colony:
Place the colony in the white bucket right side up. Leave it there for about 5 minutes. Then grab the rock and invert it and place it in the water 3 inches below the water surface. Now twist the rock as fast as you can in a clockwise and counterclockwise motion for at least a minute. Once you have finished twisting the rock in the water for a full minute, pull it out of the water and dunk it back into the water a few times, splashing and swooshing is good, it dislodges anything that didn't fall off in the twisting motion.
After the dip:
Make sure to check for nudibranch eggs that may still be attached to the colony. Once you place the colony back into your reef, make sure they receive some current as they will be a little stressed and might slime a little. The zoos should reopen in a little while. You should also only run your actinics for the rest of that day. Actinics will encourage them to open. Try not to introduce any food into the system as well, until the following day. On the following day, go back to your normal photoperiod.
Thus again why usually you wouldn't want to make more than a gallon.
