Which Dip for New Acros?

Cheryl got me thinking in another thread and I wanted to get some additional information here. I'm about to receive a number of new acroporas at the end of this week, and I wanted some advice on which dip to use. I have a bottle of Coral Rx, but have seen a number of other suggestions out there, including some for Bayer pesticide.

These are the acros that are on their way, including one blue lokani that isn't pictured. Which of these are considered "smooth skin?" Do smooth skin need special attention? Cheryl, thanks for prompting me to think about the dipping process in more detail!

 

Image #1 an Echinata/Fire and Ice is a smooth skin, #4 looks to be perhaps a deep water or Acropora Caroliniana or perhaps Acropora turaki, link to the deep water acropora below.

http://www.leonardosreef.com/2012/08/deepwater-acropora-care/

You can not dip those in the same dip without risk, they might begin to RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) within days. The solutions need to be diluted and then you need to recognize any nasty that falls off.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2344756

Google dips for smooth skin acropora and you should be able to get some pointers.

You'll need to start getting familiar with the usual suspects regarding pest/predators and parasites to acropora.

 

http://www.burgerszoo.com/media/560486/chapter-5.pdf

 

Awwww Mike, you know how I like references, very nice. <3 Bookmarked.

 

Hmmm . . . I've done a search for smooth skin acro dips and I don't see much concrete advice. Bayer seems to top the short list for smooth skin.

 

I like coral revive by TLF. Accidentally dipped a wild echinata, a wild carduus, and an aquacultured turaki, no ill signs at all.

 

How long did you dip in Revive, Va? The gentleman at Aqua SD told me I could use my Coral Rx, but that I should only dip for 1-2 minutes.

 

I did a 10 minute dip. This was before I knew the horrors of dipping deep waters.

 

How likely is it that a frag coming from a big coral dealer would have an unwanted hitchhiker? All of my frags are coming from AquaSD, which has an enormous inventory of coral. It would seem disastrous for a place like that to get AEFW on their acros. Are we talking about a 50% chance of having bugs or 1%?

Even with a 1% chance, I suppose it's not worth introducing a pest into the tank, but I'm curious how common red bugs and AEFWs are from big, reputable dealers?

 

IMO a 1% chance, of AEFW or MEN or any other nasty pest which can destroy my tank, is rounded up to 100%. It only takes one colony that AquaSD, or any vendor, gets and frags to have pests for them to get an infestation they probably wouldn't know about until it was already too late.

I don't believe my tank has any pests of this nature but if i were to give someone a frag I would recommend that they dip at the very least and I do the same.