Skip the dip - Who do you trust?

[Clarinuto]

I always dip. No matter who I purchase from. I dip with CoralRX and then with Revive and my corals seem to do pretty well after.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I have never dipped - the shops in question told me they dipped and I could if I wanted but they stuck by their own quality. To date I’ve not seen anything untoward but appreciate they could be well hidden - I do look every night with a critter torch.

 

[thermoJoe]

I use to dip, but I found it definitely stressed out the corals, and it wasn't uncommon to lose some, especially if they arrived in poor shape. Also, on some of the more toxic dips, if the frags weren't rinsed well, I lost inverts from the carryover. However, I really don't think the dips (any of them) do that much. Even though I would dip (I think I've tried them all, including the general home depot ones), in the end I still ended up getting acropora eating flatworms, montipora eating nudibranchs, and red bugs because I don't think there is any dip that kills the eggs (unless there is some new developments there). I usually do a microscopic inspection, then break/cut the frags off their plugs and glue them to new plugs/rocks. Best would be to have a quarantine tank that you could put new frags into for several months (but I have yet to do that).

 

[ScottB]

I only buy acropora these days, mostly online. I no longer dip corals right away. I inspect visually, then let them sit in an LPS tank for a few days to de-stress. Then dip.

I am only expecting the dip to stun the pests, so I can baste them off.

And no @thermoJoe nothing kills eggs yet. That is still manual work.

 

[DxMarinefish]

I dip everything, except Sponges and some filter feeders which i find dipping just either stresses or kills. I use CoralRX and then with Revive.
I shake vigorously and use a brush as well.

But I must say that I am also disappointed at the other good life that dipping kills. Take a look at your water after dipping and see how much good life gets killed off.

Sometimes I will also just QT for a week or two and I am considering doing this as a default, inspect under strong lights and magnifying glass/microscope for future purchases.

 

[LOVEROCK]

I use Bayer, but I cannot impress enough the need to rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, then rinse...... I wiped out all my inverts when I was not as attentive as I should have been in dipping coral. I had a beautiful Pistol shrimp that I sent into a neuro-spasms!!!!! I have never felt so bad......

Which Bayer are you using now

 

[samnaz]

Would never not dip. I don’t care where it comes from. It only takes a few minutes, not worth the risk to skip.

 

[maginter]

Which Bayer are you using now

Bayer Complete Insect Killer

 

[maginter]

Bayer Complete Insect Killer

 

[LOVEROCK]

Bayer Complete Insect Killer

bio advanced ?

 

[maginter]

bio advanced ?

Yes

 

[MoH]

This is a very interesting and well timed discussion for me and would love feedback from the group. I always dip my corals before they go to the display before and after QT. I recently shut off the QT because of space issues and I have a major coral haul inbound tomorrow. All corals are inbound from Jason Fox and among them are some super high end sps including a homewrecker and Walt Disney. Don’t know if I’m going to dip the homewrecker. My thinking is that if Jason fox had any major pest in his tank he would have major impact to his business and reputation. Idunno what you guys think?

 

[Cell]

When I started this thread I actually assumed there would be more reefers that would forgo dipping, but I was mistaken. It seems like high end vendor or not, dipping remains the practice.

 

[LOVEROCK]

best dips for aefw , red bugs , black bugs ? !

 

[MoH]

best dips for aefw , red bugs , black bugs ? !

I just dip with coral Rx but there are more aggressive options posted earlier in the thread

 

[ScottB]

For acropora, I think Coral Rx and Melafix Marine are sufficiently aggressive treatments for aefw. As long as you are basting hard. I have killed a few frags and colonies with it. They just went brown and never came back. And this is NOT out of the bag, but later. Maybe just me. But not isolated and only after 5-6 minutes immersed but heavily basted.

Bayer is "softer" IMO. I never lost a frag or colony. Until you pour off the excess, you cannot see if the colony is shedding worms. I use a 2 quart glass vessel that helps, (looking from bottom up) but still painful.

No matter what, you have to hunt eggs under magnification.

 

[LOVEROCK]

best dips for aefw , red bugs , black bugs ? !

For acropora, I think Coral Rx and Melafix Marine are sufficiently aggressive treatments for aefw. As long as you are basting hard. I have killed a few frags and colonies with it. They just went brown and never came back. And this is NOT out of the bag, but later. Maybe just me. But not isolated and only after 5-6 minutes immersed but heavily basted.

Bayer is "softer" IMO. I never lost a frag or colony. Until you pour off the excess, you cannot see if the colony is shedding worms. I use a 2 quart glass vessel that helps, (looking from bottom up) but still painful.

No matter what, you have to hunt eggs under magnification.

what kind of magnifying are we talking about a microscope? or like magnifying glass

 

[ScottB]

what kind of magnifying are we talking about a microscope? or like magnifying glass

I use this. Wow, I think I paid $65. Anyway, it works well. I have to use the tiny 20 diopter to see eggs sometimes.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I tightened up my list of places to buy corals and don’t do frag swaps. I’m going to upset folks with my opinion but I feel dipping in a extremely overrated process that probably causes more harm than good. If I was a vendor and I had frags coming in bulk to place in my large holding tanks then yes I’m going to dip especially if I am am making cuts of wild colonies but I find it’s easier as I drip acclimate to blow off the corals to see what comes off rather than dip. I spend a lot of time inspecting with an eyeglass as I acclimate.

The problem that I have with dipping is that none of them and I absolutely 100% mean none of them will kill eggs. Eggs are the problem and are generally where we get out infestations of AEFW. You see a hitchhiker of a flatworm sitting on one of your coral frags it will easily blow off but most likely has laid eggs are ready. Other things like Aiptasia, Xenia and nuisance algae often survive dips too.

This is why intake solutions for eradicating pests are so important to me. We are all on borrowed time some of us are very lucky some of us are not and dipping does give an extreme false sense of security.

I also switches to buying small frags as it’s much safer than buying large wild colonies.

I get really triggered when I read regurgitated trash advice that claims dipping corals prevents AEFW.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I have separate systems. dang knows what I can find there

Yeah that’s a bit too extra for me.