How to fresh water dip???

[kinerson]

I was wondering how to perform a fresh water dip. How do you adjust ph? Should I be concerned with alk, ca etc? Or is just ph and temp ok?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[jdieck]

In general PH and temperature are the critical ones although you can also adjust PH if necessary with baking Soda.
In general I would be very careful when making fresh water dips and IMO should be lest as an absolute last resource as many times cause more damage than benefits.

 

[Tripspike]

What exactly are you going to dip in FW?

 

[kinerson]

I have a zoanthid colony that has zoanthid eating nudibranchs taking over. I read that fresh water dips kill the adult slugs but not the zoanthids.

Thanks jdieck for the baking soda suggestion. That would also raise that alk as well but I'm assuming that the small amount needed to raise the ph to 8.3 won't be enough to send alk levels off the chart?

Greg

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9485828#post9485828 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kinerson
I have a zoanthid colony that has zoanthid eating nudibranchs taking over. I read that fresh water dips kill the adult slugs but not the zoanthids.

Thanks jdieck for the baking soda suggestion. That would also raise that alk as well but I'm assuming that the small amount needed to raise the ph to 8.3 won't be enough to send alk levels off the chart?

Greg

After reading my post I got to apologize, I meant to say use bakig soda to adjust alkalinity (not PH). Usual PH of the tap water if low can usually be increased by aeration. Although you will need to de-chlorinate it.
If you are using RO/DI watr you definitively have to add alkalnity to it using baking soda, that will bring the PH somewhat to the 8 something level as RO/DI has no buffering capacity at all.

 

[kinerson]

I have rodi water available along with limewater. Could adding a small amount of limewater to a gallon of ro aid in the ph adjustment?

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9486803#post9486803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kinerson
I have rodi water available along with limewater. Could adding a small amount of limewater to a gallon of ro aid in the ph adjustment?

Yes it will but careful, it will tend to increase it very much so a very little addition will be required or even better you can get a conditioning additive like the Kent osmo-prep marine that will re-buffer the RO/Di water and set up the PH.
http://www.kentmarine.com/saltwater/supplements/osmo-prep-marine.htm

 

[kinerson]

Thank you very much.

 

[jdieck]

:thumbsup:

 

[aquaphilic]

I got rid of zoa-eating nudibranchs with freshwater dips. I did adjust for temp and pH (with baking soda).

While you are dipping the adults will come off in the water, but you must look carefully for the small white egg masses and gently scrape them off by hand. The eggs seem to be covered in a slime coating that protects them from the fresh water. Also, I found that is a good idea to dip again (maybe twice more) at one week intervals to get any newly hatched nudibranchs from eggs that you missed.

This worked for me and I have not had any problems since. The zoas didn't seem to mind the dip at all.

 

[kinerson]

Cool. How long do you typically dip for? 5-10 minutes?

 

[aquaphilic]

Yes. About 10 min seemed to work well.

 

[kinerson]

Thanks guys!!!