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Dipping corals - Who uses what?

Ok guys and gals, help me out here.

Who uses what to dip?

CoralRx?
Revive?
Other?

Let me know what the majority is using and what your thoughts are on it.
 

falconut

NJRC Member
My LFS only had Kents Lugol's and I gave it a try and it helped multiple LPS recover, so I use it for all corals. I even dose it from time to time. Great stuff.
 
I think from what I'm reading here and elsewhere, the dip really depends on the coral as well.

I did get brave yesterday, tho. After about 4 hours of intensive searching and reading, I decided to try the peroxide dip on some zoa frags that have been overrun with hair algae out of my 30 gallon. I have been battling a nasty outbreak in the 30 gallon thanks to an un noticed infection from a frag I got.

I figured with the amount of hair alge on the frag plugs, I really had nothing to lose.

Did a 1 to 1 dip for 3 minutes, followed by a good rinse in plain tank water, followed by about a 5 minute soak in a 3rd bowl with just tank water, and I must say. It was VERY EFFECTIVE at removing the hair algae from the plugs. I even have a couple of plugs I was sure were barren of polyps that actually had a few polyps hanging on for dear life under the hair algae.

I'll know more once the lights kick on today.

Couple of notes:

I made sure the zoa polyps that may have been exposed were completely closed up before introducing to the 1 part peroxide to 1 part tank water solution.

I did one frag at a time so I could keep close tabs on the timing.

3 minutes in the 1:1 solution, followed by a good swishing in a second bowl with just tank water, followed by a 5 minute soak in a 3rd bowl with just tank water.

On a few of the plugs, I actually removed the frag and soaked it instead of the entire frag plug, and then reglued it to a new clean plug before reintroducing to the tank.

And I don't know that this makes a difference or not, but I use ceramic plugs, not aragocrete etc plugs. I find the ceramic have less of an issue with unsightly algae growth than the others.
 

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
For zoas alone there are like 10 dips.
Flat worm exit for zoa eating nudibranches
Furan II For bacterial issue and zoa pox
Lugols for fragging and general health
Revive/Coral RX for pests and health
Peroxide for algae and other issues
Fresh water dips for pests

Zoas are really fun.
 
Remember dips do not kill eggs. So even if you dip you are at risk unless you qt for about 2 weeks to see if egg hatch. Unless you know how to spot the eggs via a loupe or a good set of eyes, I don't so I qt my coral now. I dip then, into a small qt tank.
 
So much info! LOL!

I guess there are really TWO paths for dipping and what to use. 1: Preventative, and 2: Medicative.

I've never really dipped before, but am definitely going to start. Especially now.

My immediate need was to find some way to get rid of the daggum hair algae. (I was doing so well too! Until that ONE FRAG!! Grr...)

At any rate, I can say that the peroxide dip definitely seems to have worked VERY well! I have a couple of plugs that I thought were completely destroyed that actually had some polyps down under the hair algae that seem to be slowly recovering. (One even started to open up yesterday at lights on time).

Going forward, I don't want to stress out the new corals TOO much, so I am definitely setting up some sort of QT system to hold them in for a couple of weeks before they go into my display.

Thanks for all the input! Seems that there is a pretty half and half use of Coral Rx and Revive, with Lugols being a pretty close third. My understanding on Lugols is that it is a iodine solution, tho. So I'm guess that is primarily for general health.
 
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