A R2R Care Spotlight: "Zoanthid Dip"

ficklefins

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The R2R Spotlight sections is going to grow from a Zoanthid/Paly focus, to care, pests, fragging, shipping, and zoa safe fish/inverts. Keep an eye on the title to make sure you know what section you are on. So the new and old sections will be titled:

A R2R Spotlight: "Paly/Zoanthid name here"
--This one is our old style where will continue to bring info on particular strains of zoas and palys.

A R2R Care Spotlight: "Care type or Pest"
--In this section we will discuss such topics as , the Zoa-Dips, Nudis, Sundials, Pox, other predators, fragging, shipping, and QTing zoas.

A R2R Fish Spotlight: "Fish/Invert"
-- This one is pretty obvious but we will focus on a certain type of fish/Invert and discuss its zoa compatibility, rarity, cost, food requirement, minimum tank size, and some other tid-bits of info.

And now to Dips
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zoadip3_zps3e4be8f4.jpg


Made famous by MUCHO, this method of removing bristle worms, Nudibranchs, flatworms and parasites from zoa colonies was simple and from his own words, effective. The one aspect of these predators that is not affected by this dip are nudibranch eggs.

The original recipe has been done and changed around by so many people that some feed back is what this section is all about. I've done this dip myself, but have been lacking some of the major ingredients so I'll post only on what I know.

Ingredients/Parts:
1. 5 gallon white bucket, with 3 gallons of RO water.
2. Add 1 or 2 drops of Lugol's Iodine per gallon of RO water.
3. Set your PH to 8.2
4. Set your water temp. at 78 degrees
5. If you have some Flatworm exit (FWE) made my Saliferts, add 2 drops per gallon to the RO water to kill any Flatworms.
6. Setup a wash off container (with your tank water) to place zoas after dip


Treatment:
- Leave the rock in the solution for 5 minutes.
- For a minute or two pick up the rock and twist it back and forth like you are trying to shake the pests off of it (think washing mashine). I like to use a small powerhead to give me some more blast power.
- Take the colony out and examine for any small Nudibranch eggs:
MUCHO said:
inspect the rock for what looks like a tiny white 1/8 of and inch curly white piece of thread. They won't detach from the rock as the sack is very sticky. Inside this egg sack is up to 40 or so eggs just waiting to hatch. If you see one, just remove it with tweezers before placing the rock back into your reef.
- Place the rock back into the tank for another minute of twisting but after the minute is done dunk the colony in and out to get rid of any loose pests.
- I like to wash off any and all solutions in another container that has tank water in it. I don't treat my tank with Iodine or Flatworm Exit so I like to wash off as much as possible in another container before placing it in my tank.

Post Treatment:
- Run at most Actinic lights for the rest of the day.
- Place zoas in a higher flow setting to blow off any slime that may be produced. (Not SPS type flow).

Experience:
- I am pretty careful about what I put into my tank so everything gets examined before buying or trading. I have yet to need or see zoas on any colonies I buy, but I still do this as a precaution. Better safe than sorry I say.

Other info:
- Keep in mind that while MUCHO suggests using Lugol's it isn't always the easiest thing to find. You can get a reef version made by Kent or Reef Pure which will be more expensive than the medical version, but much easier to get your hands on. But if you think about it the bottle should last you a some time.

BTW: Keep in mind that future R2R Care Spotlights will feature the predators mentioned in this spotlight.
*****************************************

OK, it is getting late and I have some work to do. So if anybody has any comments
 
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maroonytunes

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We'll get a spot for all them to go, but we can't just start sticking every cool spotlight he does for us or we'll end up the RC zoa forum.... where you have to scroll half the page to get to something...

I have an idea though... to the mods forum with us... .Muahhahahaha :evil:


LOL, nice spotlight fickle.
 
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ficklefins

ficklefins

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I want to thank everyone who has commented on this topic, but I really want to get some feedback on the Zoa Dip idea.

What do you do? If anything at all, there is no shame in saying nothing. I've just recently started to dip myself.
If you are a dipper, than what do you use that my be different from the recipe given above? Or what techniques do you change, remove, or just something you do different.




Any input is better than no input.
 

Mr. Ugly

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Well, I use a saltwater iodine dip. 10 drops of 2% tincture of iodine to 8 oz of tank water for 15 to 20 minutes. I squirt the zoas periodically with a turkey baster to get the baddies loose.

Nudis will be stunned enough to fall off the zoas. I check for egg spirals when I remove the zoas from the dip.

If everything looks good, they go into a tank. A lot of times I put them into a breeder basket at the top of the tank where I can keep an eye on them for a week or so.

The zoas seem less stressed with the sw dip compared to fw. They open up a lot sooner... within the hour even.

Btw, that recipe is my general purpose strong iodine coral dip. It's been good for knocking monti nudis and acro eating flatworms on their butts... er tails. I'm going to play around with povidone/betadine for dipping. Sounds like it can be more effective than the I2 KI combination.
 
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Azurel

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I don't do FW dips on palys cause I have had the same issue, I think the saltwater dip with a strong dose of Iodine works really well and the high Iodine will kill most stuff like pest. One thing I have noticed when using the FW dip is if the polyps happen to be open a little bit they usually get stressed out more and have a higher rate of death. I usually make sure in FW dip situations that the polyps are fully closed, then they are less likly to have issues to the FW dip cause the outer tissue can take it, while if they are open a bit there is a chance they might take in the freshwater and that is no good......Just my opinion though
 

twon8

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if i find a lot of nudi's on something i will use the freshwater for a few minutes, i just draw some tapwater and let it float in a pitcher in the sump, getting to tank temp, throw a few drops of iodine in and have at it

but most of my dips now when fragging and treating sick zoas i will use the saltwater dip, about 200ml with a dropper full of lugol's for about ten minutes.
 

johnanddawn

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i know your talking zoas here but in my battle with monti eating nudis i have been dipping my SPS/rocks on a regular basis. I find when dipping SPS - be careful with freshwater dips, some don't mind it at all but i have had some corals bleach and lose color (haven't lost any yet but still...), takes forever to color back up. saltwater dips may (??) not be as effective but are less risky. i'm increasing the pace too, after months and still finding some returning, this weekend i start dipping everything in that tank in salt water/ lugols every other day for well - we'll see how long???
 

Mr. Ugly

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Montis can't tolerate much more than a 30 second fw dip, and at that they are severely stressed.
 

JGoslee

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When I get new frags I do a 5 min saltwater/lugols dip. I use a half gallon of saltwater and 5 drops lugols. If Im treating for nudis I use the same dip but I use freshwater.
 

Raptor

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If i have zoa's a freshwater iodine dip and then followed by a 30 minute swim in FW exit and tank water. SPS and lps Just a strong FW exit dip in tank water.
 

gflat65

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Here is a reply I gave to a local on dipping when there are known nudis. I've only done it a few times now on that batch I bought almost a couple of months ago for the challenge, so the procedure is still improving for my sanity.

With Lugol's, here is what I am doing for those I got from Steve (these things were still covered in them). I took some RO water in a tupperware container and floated it in the tank that the zoas are in. After temperature acclimation, I pulled two smaller tupperware containers worth of tank water from the tank and put all the zoas in one of them. More on the second one in a minute. I transferred some of the RO water into a smaller container for the dip, so I could treat in batches (I got about 20-25 different pieces from Steve). I dropped 7 drops of Lugol's (they recommend 2-3 drops per gallon...) and dropped the zoas in. I used a clamp on light where I was looking at the zoas. I held them under the lamp and looked between and at the base of every poylp with a toothpick to scrape out any nudi's. I started with the smaller pieces (at the 5 minute mark for each batch) because the larger pieces take longer to look over. I mixed small and larger pieces in each batch to follow this procedure. It took about 20 minutes to pick over each batch, so some of the zoas were in the water for 18 or so minutes (they recommend 5 minutes). After picking through them, I dropped them in the second small tupperware container with tank water. When I had picked through all from one batch, I would drop more in the dip and go and drop the ones I had just dip into the QT tank. By the time I had done that, it was time to pick through another batch. I changed the dip solution (still had some RO after the transfer) every two dips, as well as the 'clean' container and the holding container (uncleaned zoas). Float whatever you can for as long as you can to keep temperature differences down. It took a little over an hour to thoroughly scour every zoas I got from him. Nasty little jerks. I'm going to continue three more times on one week intervals. I may shorten it to 5 days, though. I don't adjust the pH, but if you can, it wouldn't hurt.

HTH is helpful (it's the way that seemed to work out best for me...). I do a TMPCC dip on larger pieces that I get and a Lugol's saltwater dip with all new smaller pieces. They all get QT'd, so I usually treat more than once if there are any signs of anything. The post arrival treatments are Lugol's fresh water on 5-7 day intervals.
 

turbois300

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So is this Lugol's iodine the same that you get at the CVS or similar pharmacy?? If so what is it about iodine that makes these little critters run for their lives yet doesn't harm the polyps? Great thread by the way!!!!!!!!!
 

Weetabix7

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I want to thank everyone who has commented on this topic, but I really want to get some feedback on the Zoa Dip idea.

What do you do? If anything at all, there is no shame in saying nothing. I've just recently started to dip myself.
If you are a dipper, than what do you use that my be different from the recipe given above? Or what techniques do you change, remove, or just something you do different.




Any input is better than no input.

Lately, when I have to dip something that is already in my tank that is having a problem, I use 1 cup tankwater, 1 drop Lugol's iodine, and dip for 3 mins.
If it's a particularly bad problem, I use 2 drops Lugol's.

I think Mucho's recipe is better when you're receiving shipped zoas in.
I also think that it's much better to do a FW/iodine dip on new arrivals in order to get rid of pests.
IME a SW/iodine dip doesn't always get rid of pests.
I've also noticed that larger polyped zoas and palys get more stressed by FW dips, so I sometimes don't leave them in for quite as long.

I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard that a 25% Hydrogen Peroxide 75% SW dip can be effective in emergency situations when iodine isn't immediately available.
Perhaps someone else could chime in on this.

For removal of nudi eggs, I like to use a paper towel over my fingertips. The little buggers are slippery and a real pain to get off, but I've found that they'll stick to a paper towel.
 

revhtree

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Bump for some great info!
 

countryflirt

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Thanks for ALL the info on dips!!! I think this is something I need to keep and start doing!!! As a newbie to sw, I love any info you can give me!!!
 

Dsdaley77

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Just in case anyone didn't know what nudi's generally look like and their eggs, here's some dirty buggers I've been battling ;) FWE and lugol's or CoralRX tomorrow.
Eggs.....
ImageUploadedByReef2Reef Aquarium Forum1365657772.626038.jpg


Nudi I caught a while back. It was the first but I must have missed all the eggs :(
ImageUploadedByReef2Reef Aquarium Forum1365657878.730334.jpg



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