fishywishy
Well-Known Member
Just got some Kp live rock and im wondering How to do a hypo salinity dip on the live rock to get rid of the hitchhikers?
How to do a hypo salinity dip on live rock
- Thread starter fishywishy
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Hypo or Hypersalinity Dip for Live Rock to expel and evaluate hitchhikers?
Good morning! I get my 10lbs of live rock from KP aquatics shipped in water today! Very excited to add some biodiversity to my tank. However, I have gone through painstaking measures to prevent unwanted hitchhikers up to this point from entering my DT (avoid bubble algae at all costs!). As...
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Tired
2500 Club Member
There isn't really a good way to remove all potentially problematic critters without removing every other harmless and beneficial critter as well. Better to quarantine it, check it at night with a red light flashlight, and manually remove and humanely euthanize anything you don't want. Maybe stick in a couple bottle traps for crabs/etc.
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Miami Reef
Clam Fanatic
Oof. So why did you get live rock?
A salinity dip won’t remove everything. In fact, I didn‘t realize my KP rocks brought in pencil urchins until MONTHS after adding them.
That‘s part of the fun with live rock.
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fishywishy
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I got it for the beneficial bacteria. well if a salinity dip wont remove them what about a freshwater dip? i would like to keep some star fish or shrimp but I would rather get rid of everything then have some bad critters like bristle worms and mantis shrimp.
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Tired
2500 Club Member
Bristleworms are useful detritivores, and mantis shrimp are both rare and fairly easy to trap out on observation.
A freshwater dip will kill everything even more firmly, may still not entirely reach something in the core of the rock, and will destroy all your useful bacteria. QT remains your best bet.
Alternately, do you have a sump? The photosynthetic life will die, but live rock in a sump means most potential pests are trapped down there.
A freshwater dip will kill everything even more firmly, may still not entirely reach something in the core of the rock, and will destroy all your useful bacteria. QT remains your best bet.
Alternately, do you have a sump? The photosynthetic life will die, but live rock in a sump means most potential pests are trapped down there.
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fishywishy
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I don’t have a sump yet or a quarantine tank available so that’s why I just want try to kill everything on the rock but preserve the bacteria on it.
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Tired
2500 Club Member
Spearer mantis shrimp or very large gorilla crabs could be a problem for fish, yes. Worms won't be.
There's no reasonable way to kill everything on that rock except the bacteria. My suggestion would be to chisel some tiny bits off the rock, closely inspect them for life, and put them in your tank, then find someone in your local area who wants the rest of the rock.
You don't need anything complicated to quarantine the rock, which I hope you've put in something for this thread. You just need an aquarium-safe container that holds water (i.e. a rubbermaid tub), some sort of flow, preferably a heater, and preferably some sort of light.
There's no reasonable way to kill everything on that rock except the bacteria. My suggestion would be to chisel some tiny bits off the rock, closely inspect them for life, and put them in your tank, then find someone in your local area who wants the rest of the rock.
You don't need anything complicated to quarantine the rock, which I hope you've put in something for this thread. You just need an aquarium-safe container that holds water (i.e. a rubbermaid tub), some sort of flow, preferably a heater, and preferably some sort of light.
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Op asks How to do something that is completely reasonable.
Ten posts saying not to do it... Come on, do better peeps.
I hyper dipped my KP rock twice. 1.040+ for 3-5 minutes. The first time, just with a powerhead in the bucket. The second time I agitated the rock the entire time by hand.
I removed dozens of unwanted critters including Eunicidae which were mostly found in the first dip.. Check the bottom of your bucket every run. Pull out anything you want to keep, and put it into normal water.
If you want to get Everything, I'd say twice, isn't enough, or to keep it quarantined after and trap to make sure it's clean. I had a red mythrax and green emerald make it through. Both I would have kept anyway. Just know that I Did miss them.
Ten posts saying not to do it... Come on, do better peeps.
I hyper dipped my KP rock twice. 1.040+ for 3-5 minutes. The first time, just with a powerhead in the bucket. The second time I agitated the rock the entire time by hand.
I removed dozens of unwanted critters including Eunicidae which were mostly found in the first dip.. Check the bottom of your bucket every run. Pull out anything you want to keep, and put it into normal water.
If you want to get Everything, I'd say twice, isn't enough, or to keep it quarantined after and trap to make sure it's clean. I had a red mythrax and green emerald make it through. Both I would have kept anyway. Just know that I Did miss them.
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fishywishy
Well-Known Member
So i just dump each rock one at a time in a bucket with 1.040 salinity for 4 minutes one to two times then just put the rock in the tank?
I’m not saying i want to get rid of everything but if i did how many dips would i need to do?
Will doing a dip affect the beneficial bacteria or cause die off?
Also what does Op mean?
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you probably won't get everything with the dip but I honesltly add live rock to my tank yearly and started with a bunch of live.. I was able to manually remove and trap stuff. I suspect even with dips you would need to. A bottle trap or even a glass leaning against the rock with food it in can get crabs. Do a couple dips and in it goes imo. The bacteria should be fine, they are tough.
FYI bristleworms are beneficial.
FYI bristleworms are beneficial.
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EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal
Just another girl who likes fish
"Original Poster", in other words, the person who started the thread.
(Also can mean "original post")
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I can't give you a definitive answer to how many dips you would need to get everything because I didn't get everything. To be honest I'm not sure you ever could be 100% positive about it.
I did a few rocks at a time the first dip with only a power head, but yes, did have to go one at a time while swishing it around.
Some die off is to be expected. You may experience some loss. You already have in collection and transport but you bought it for the bacterial diversity as I understand it. You're still getting it.
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