Adding coral poll

[mmorrison55]

Looking to get your opinions on your process for adding corals from LFS, online retailers, fellow hobbyists.

Do you always dip, if so with what, and do you do multiple dips?
Do you quarantine. If so for how long?
Do you both dip and quarantine?
Feeling lucky, straight into tank and will deal with any problems if/when they arise?

Basically what’s your coral adding process and how successful have you been as a result?

 

[*GAREEF*]

I have done all of the above.
On my recent tank I kinda threw the dice.
I’ve tried to order all the corals I’m planning to keep within a month and then not add anything else besides inverts or fish.
When received the coral for my new tank, I used a magnifier to inspect the coral and base.
Most of my frags were recent cuts so those were removed from plugs. The others that couldn’t be removed were luckily very clean.
So I inspect visually then make my decision.
But on my current tank no dip.
If someone asked for my advice I would most definitely recommend to visually inspect Like I do and dip and even better yet quarantine.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

I said dip and quarantine. I personally don't have any corals yet but have set up a new qt tank now and won't be purchasing any corals till my dips and new plugs show up in the mail

 

[mmorrison55]

What’s the consensus for length of coral quarantine?


The poll was supposed to read, quarantine for “X” days before into the tank, but somehow ended up “forms”. sorry I didn’t catch it and don’t see how I can change it now.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

What’s the consensus for length of coral quarantine?

So I'm not 100% sure yet. I know with inverts like shrimp, crabs, snails etc it's 45 days at 81° to starve off ich. I assume it's the same for corals? I'm sure someone actually knowledgeable can answer that right off the cuff. If your not concerned with ich, then it would be a few days-weeks until your confident the corals didn't come with any pests you didn't want. Like i said, I'm not expert but didn't want to leave you on read :upside-down-face:

 

[mmorrison55]

And do you guys dip multiple times (until you no longer see new falloff)?

On all the YouTube videos I’ve seen of dipping, I was shocked to see how much falls off after a dip.

Is it impossible to expect to be able to get everything hitchhiking before you put it into the tank?

 

[Tahoe61]

The choices are not even close.

1. Remove from store bought container into small bowls.
2. Add small amounts of display water via turkey baster or similar every 20 min.
3. Dispose of a small percentage from container, add more display water.
4. Dispose of water add to display.

 

[BryanM]

From lfs: dip.
From forum members with established tanks, I don’t dip.
From certain online vendors I also don’t dip.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

And do you guys dip multiple times (until you no longer see new falloff)?

On all the YouTube videos I’ve seen of dipping, I was shocked to see how much falls off after a dip.

Is it impossible to expect to be able to get everything hitchhiking before you put it into the tank?

Consider that dipping kills off copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, micro brittle stars - all good stuff. It doesn't kill off aptaisia, hydroids, cloves, I don't think it even kills off vermatids - so basically all the bad stuff gets through dips. Don't put too much faith into it.

IMO, observational qt is best to remove the evil pests, but then you need to maintain an empty perfect reef tank for just qt purpose, to me is not worth time and space and effort.

 

[mmorrison55]

Consider that dipping kills off copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, micro brittle stars - all good stuff. It doesn't kill off aptaisia, hydroids, cloves, I don't think it even kills off vermatids - so basically all the bad stuff gets through dips. Don't put too much faith into it.

IMO, observational qt is best to remove the evil pests, but then you need to maintain an empty perfect reef tank for just qt purpose, to me is not worth time and space and effort.

I didn’t know that it didn’t kill the nasty stuff.