Why I always dip!

[Fcamdog]

Got a nice small colony of zoas and a 4 polyp frag of Paly's Grandis (Cinnamon Paly's...or whatever) today. Got home a little late and almost didn't do a dip. Daggum am I glad I took the time to warm some RO/DI to tank temp, add the couple drops of Iodine and do the freshwater dip.

At least 2 dozen nudis, at least half a dozen red bugs (yep!), a pyramid snail, small emerald crab (he was saved) and a few unfortunate pods. These could have wrecked havoc in my frag tank...

Fcamdog

 

[supra400hptt]

Smart move. I dip in coral rx, then fresh water and dip the frag plug in alcohol as long as I can dip it without getting alcohol on the coral itself. The first piece of coral I ever bought had bubble algae, aipstasia and bristle worms. Was a newbie at the time and didn't know any better. Nowadays I won't buy coral if there is aipstasia in the tank or a lot of algae. I was at the LFS today and their tanks and corals were over run with aipstasia. Needless to say, I didn't consider buying any corals from them.

 

[sterling18]

Smart move. I dip in coral rx, then fresh water and dip the frag plug in alcohol as long as I can dip it without getting alcohol on the coral itself. The first piece of coral I ever bought had bubble algae, aipstasia and bristle worms. Was a newbie at the time and didn't know any better. Nowadays I won't buy coral if there is aipstasia in the tank or a lot of algae. I was at the LFS today and their tanks and corals were over run with aipstasia. Needless to say, I didn't consider buying any corals from them.

You are spot on. I hate to say it but I won't shop at LFS that have bubble algae, aipstasia, flatworms, hair algae or just cruddy. I've passed up some sweet zoo's that were listed at 5 bucks for like 30 polps. I just didn't want to deal with it.

Since I still have it on hand, I put a few drops of iodine and flatworm exit into the bag while it's clamped to the glass in my sump.

 

[Fcamdog]

I didn't even think of adding the flatworm exit...good call. I will add that step to my procedure. A couple of drops of flatworm exit in the bag while acclimating to my tank temp, before doing freshwater/iodine dip...sounds great!

 

[mfinn]

Years ago Mucho posted a great freshwater formula for dipping zoanthids and I used that for years, but recently I found this dip using Flat Worm Exit.
http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/zoonudis.html

This dip absolutely destroys the nudibranchs.
I will use this from now on, but if I don't have FWE, I will go back to the freshwater dip, which I usually added a couple drops of FWE in but never at the doseage in the link.