PSA, I purchased an acro colony from DD about 3 weeks ago. Woke up a few days ago to a half eaten colony. My first thought was a snail messed with it because the rock around the colony was cleaned. I moved it but the next day it was worse. I thought I had a rogue fish and kept getting up throughout the night to see if I could find anyone enjoying a late night snack. I didn’t catch anyone and haven’t had a problem before this. So decided to take it out of my tank and swish it in a bucket and I dislodged AEFW. I’ve since dipped and fragged it praying that I can save something from it, but I’m not very hopeful. It’s my fault for not dipping and quarantining it to begin with, but I wrongly assumed that DD was above this. I know it came from them because the only acros I currently have came from them at the same time. Just watch what you buy from them and quarantine everything.
AEFW from DD
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vetteguy53081
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Must dip !!!
Here is my souvenir from RAP after dipping. they looked clean until I dipped:
Here is my souvenir from RAP after dipping. they looked clean until I dipped:
DancingShark
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Must dip !!!
Here is my souvenir from RAP after dipping. they looked clean until I dipped:
Wow. What is that debris at 2 o'clock.
vetteguy53081
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jsvand5
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I have bought a few DD colonies recently. None had AEFW. At nothing came off during a Bayer dip. They did all come in extremely bleached and RTNd after a few weeks. For me I think it’s from them using too many cool packs. The water was in the upper 60s when I got the package. I really don’t understand why they use them at all. The package is picked up from them after the heat of the day and then delivered to me before the heat of the next day. I’m done with them. Zero for 4 on colonies from them for me while my other acros are doing great. I’ve had much better luck with acros from Aqua Locker.
I have bought a lot from them and never seen aefw but that doesn’t mean they don’t come in. I mean they are getting wild corals so it’s to be expected at some point. I worry more about people having to show pictures like vetteguy. If your bringing coral to a show, it needs to be clean. Unless your selling wild or Mari stuff and stating what it is, but let’s face it that doesn’t happen much anymore. If it does it’s fragged and given a name and made to look like it’s a nice or even high end piece, which imo is annoying to a degree.
HotRocks
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Good habit to form for sure. I do the same!
motortrendz
2500 Club Member
I learned the hard way, red bugs, aefw, nudis. This tank was started dry.. and everything that went in went in bc I put it there. So far after 3 years I haven't seen one pest..aptasia not included. Somehow that still found a way in and aptaisa X turned it into 500. Lol. But that's cleared up now and so far so good. Lol.
HotRocks
Fish Fanatic!
Yeah I have aptasia in sump as well... it’s near impossible to avoid. I started dry as well on my SPS tank less a couple chunks of LR from my other system.
It’s completely on me for not dipping to begin with. I’ve thought heavily about it, but have never had a problem(lame excuse) in over 10 years. I’ve been considering dipping my corals and have looked into purchasing dip, but hadn’t pulled the trigger. Money has been tight because of heavy equipment(lights, skimmer pump, return pump, heater, and powerheads all within a month) failure and I have been trying to reload. I know now that it should have been higher on my priority list. i deserve all the I told you so’s I get.
billwill
Well-Known Member
AEFW and dipping doesn’t do the trick either, unfortunately. It kills the active living flatworms, but not the eggs. AEFW isn’t always lethal, and doesn’t even touch many SPS types. It’s a natural predator on the reefs, so it’s not really fair to blame people for it.
That’s exactly my problem. I should have dipped the coral, but I still would have had the same problem because they were only eggs at the time. I have a quarantine set up now and plan on going that route in the future. Thankfully I had an extra used light to set it up because when I bought used lights to redo my tank I ended up with an extra or I’d have been out of luck. Probably keeps a lot of people from being able to quarantine.
I see people get angry with divers den sometimes (not saying the op did) and go off saying they are infesting tanks with pests. I would bet that that facility does everything they can to keep pests at a minimum and honestly it’s probably nearly impossible for them to sell these wild acropora colonies as clean quarantined corals without the price going up majorly.
Honestly I am happy divers den has been offering decently colored colonies recently with actual variations in colorations in a number of their corals. For a while they didn’t have much to offer.
I am very suprised some of the really nice tenuis variants sat for so long. To me this just proves that a lot of the high end tenuis fad is based off of names and hype. Otherwise those colonies would have been sold the second they hit the webpage. They were the same variants that a lot of these places are selling, pink green purple and or blue.
Honestly I am happy divers den has been offering decently colored colonies recently with actual variations in colorations in a number of their corals. For a while they didn’t have much to offer.
I am very suprised some of the really nice tenuis variants sat for so long. To me this just proves that a lot of the high end tenuis fad is based off of names and hype. Otherwise those colonies would have been sold the second they hit the webpage. They were the same variants that a lot of these places are selling, pink green purple and or blue.
What I fail to grasp is how people are so quick to slam you for making a mistake as though you are the only person reefing who has messed up. I figured we were all on the same side as I hope no one has my experience and that everyone’s tank thrives. I wish everyone the best and want you to succeed even if I fail. I don’t have to agree with your politics, life choices, religion, or whatever to treat you with civility and hope good things for you I brought this to light not for sympathy or to voice my anger, but only as a warning for others.
I’m not mad at DD and sent them an email explaining what happened to me and that they may want to check their system. It’s my fault and accept that it may have been preventable if I’d quarantined the coral. Dips don’t remove eggs so it would not have eliminated my problem but it is still on me. I’ve got my sps in a tote with a borrowed pump and a cheap used light I had only because it hadn’t made it on my tank yet. Everything is still a little rigged due to my equipment failures. Not everyone can afford a coral quarantine system and I’m just lucky right now to have a friend to help and a spare light.
I hope whoever reads this has their dream tank. Mine’s no where close to that and pics will never make it to R2R because people try to rub your nose in your failures or belittle what you can do at the time.
I know it came from them because they are the only people I have added coral from as I am just now trying to restock my tank. I chose them even though they can be pricey because I thought I had a better chance of success with them. I can’t afford to lose corals, so I figured I would have a box of rocks with hardly any corals instead of a tank full of dying corals.
I’m sure they don’t want pests in their system as it would cost them money in lost corals, unhappy customers, and/or lost business. They have some beautiful pieces that are very reasonably priced because they don’t give them crazy names. That’s one thing I like about them. The colony I had was amazing. It was a baby blue with pink tips. Probably would have been $300+ from anyone else. I only wanted to make people aware of what happened to me so that they can make sure it doesn’t happen to them. If you can afford to quarantine, I highly recommend it. Whether you can or can’t, I wish all of you the best of luck and hope nothing happens to your tank.
C. Eymann
2500 Club Member
I'm not slamming LA/DD at all, agree with @Pedoconfuego that with that many WC in/out of their facility its impossible to be 100% pest free.
I agree there are many deals to be had on DD for reasonable prices.
