Do you Quarantine or Dip your Corals?

I use Lugols Expert series for zoa's, 20 drops per quart of water, after about 10 mins, I then drop another drop on each frag or square inch of zoa rock and let it sit abother 5-10mins. I dont reccommend such high dosing, because you cant walk away from it, you have to sit there and keep an eye on the clock.

Most SPS and LPS, saltwater dip with half dose of lugols, interceptor and flatworm exit.

Montiporas that do have signs of nudis, I use potassium permanganate. This stuff isnt to be played with, its extremely dangerous. It will dissolve anything organic if given enough time, YOU are organic. Im still working on my dipping solution quanities, right now its a 75% success rate with a 25% loss. I ran out of monti nudi's and my tanks are nudi free now, so I have to wait to do more testing...

 

Wear old clothes too. It will NEVER come out no matter how many stain removers or how much bleach you use.

 

Wow.....It never occurred to me that corals might carry disease. Will use measures in the future. Thanks inwall. K+

 

Anything it touches will turn pinkish purple, lol.

Surprisingly, Potassium Permanganate is rather easy to purchase. I bought 5lbs of it for like $20 at TSC on clearance. This stuff is used in fireworks and homemade bombs, lol. But its also used in freshwater ponds to kill snails, lol, which is where the idea originated to use it for killing nudi's. Not only does it kill nudi's, its the only thing I know of to dissolve the eggs too, speaking of which....


Just because you dipped your coral, doesnt mean you rid it of parasites. Most dips do not kill eggs. Most parasite eggs take 1-21days to hatch. This is why we stress quarantine tanks. I always dip and redip every 3 days, and also keep a close eye on the corals in the QT and watch out for signs of pests or parasites. In one shipment I got in back in the winter, there were zoa spiders, nudi's (zoa and monti) and flatworms, not to mention eggs galore from the nudis, all in the same order. If I wouldnt have been so delligent about my dipping methods and keeping and eye on my corals, I could have spread that crap all over the country to my customers.

 

Boy that was sure a awaking form me. I have a hole q-tank set up now that I use when I am preparing to add livestock to my tank. I used to go coral shopping and add things once or twice a month but not now. Kind of suck will all the extra work but with all the livestock I have in the tank now it is too risky not to.

Excellent post Curt, a lot of new comers don't realize how important this really is.

 

Well I fresh water dip for ten min's on my fish , as far as coral are concerned i use Lugols iodine solution on corals on ALL softies , that ive ever owned.

I would always recomend dipping corals , seen to many "weird" deaths in seemingly healthy tanks. or weird looking inner swelling and tissue discoloration in some. ( Almost guaranteed some litlte parasite is on/in it )

 

Well I had never before made a huge deal with quarantining anything in the past , But with all the coral STD's I have seen over the last yr or two I will form now on dip and hold them a few weeks .. From here on out. I use the dip called Revive smells like Pine-Sol it works great product.. But with all the coral swapping going on these days it would be wise to dip all corals Fish I never do other then some copper in the bag ride home . Never had many fish problem just coral pest here in the last 2 yrs or so it just seems it gone rampant . Also for a coral dip the Clout is good and as well as Flatworm exit and even interceptor for all corals . The little acro red bugs are so hard to see .. I'll dip to just be on the safe side

 

Would you recomend useing copper based treatmets on fish ( in the bag )?
then how do you acclimate ?.
Meaning= If you use the copper on the fish , how much copper do you think might be introuced to the main tank after this treament had been given.

Ive been thinking of doing that as well my self, but have always tried to keep copper treatments, or what ever copper based aditives out of the tank , in fear of getting high toxic levels ( ive heard horror stories ).

Oh you said "STD"s = Sexualy transmistted diseases , fish /coral have them ?

 

I haven't in the past but don't mind me if I start now, normally the corals I get have been pretty clean sort of speak, but 1 oz. of prevention is far better than hundred of dollars lost in corals.. Great advise, and karma for the useful info.