What is your go to Acropora pest dip/ dipping routine?

[Reefahholic]

Need to buy some new bottles soon!

Let me know!

 

[TDEcoral]

Wait, we're supposed to dip acros?

 

[Reefahholic]

Wait, we're supposed to dip acros?

You could "Pop-N-Drop" but I don't recommend it.

 

[Reefahholic]

Thx @Silent I missed this. Curious what everybody is using right now.

I put this together because I was tired of searching around for this information. Here it is in all one place for some of the more popular methods of dipping coral.

General cleansers and cleaners commonly used for eliminating parasites and bacterial infections.

Coral RX – General, 1.25ml/cup or 20ml/gallon, 5-10 minutes.

Fragrecover – General, 2.5ml/cup or 40ml/gallon, 5 minutes.

Koral MD PRO – General, 0.9375ml/cup or 1.5ml/gallon, 5-10 minutes.

Polyplab Reef Primer – General (Potassium Salts), ½ cap/cup or 8 caps/gallon, 5 minutes.

Revive – General (plant extracts), 2.5ml/cup or 40ml/gallon, less than 15 minutes.

Expel Coral Cleanse - General (natural herb blend), 3ml/0.5 gallons, 5-10 minutes.


Iodine based commonly used for unwanted parasites, harmful bacteria, microbial diseases, and for tissue damage or degradation. LPS and softies can benefit from Iodine dips.

TM Pro-Coral Cure – Iodine based, 1ml/200ml, 10-15 minutes.

Lugol’s Solution – Iodine based, 2 drops/cup or 30-40 drops/gallon, 10-15 minutes. Strength varies by brand.

Seachem reef dip – Iodine based, 0.3125-0.625ml/cup or 5-10ml/gallon, 15-30 minutes.

Medicoral – Iodine based, 0.0625ml/cup or 1ml/gallon, Small-polyp Stony Corals: 7 - 10 minutes; Large-polyp Stony Corals: 6 - 9 minutes; Soft (“Leather”) Corals: 8 - 11 minutes; Colonial and Solitary Polyps: 5 - 8 minutes.



Other use dips not based off of the label.

Flatworm Rx or Exit – Flatworms, 3 drops/gallon, 15 minutes, seems to be commonplace.

Bayer – Insecticide, 10ml/cup or 160ml/gallon according to BRS referencing Mike Paletta

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/faq-26-using-bayer-as-a-coral-dip-what-recipe-do-we-use

Article by Mike Paletta on Reef Builders site https://reefbuilders.com/2015/08/15/quarantine-corals/

Obviously a lot of legal precautions relating to safety and other things using Bayer. Use at your own risk with the understanding that you should only use Bayer according to the label and with all necessary precautions in place for safe use.

Peroxide 3% - Algae, 1:1 sw to H2O2 with zoas and some LPS for 1 minute, or 10:1 for 5 minutes, or 20:1 for 10 minutes. I have dipped the entire plug up to the base of sps in straight H2O2 to remove algae without ill effects. Peroxide dipping is highly debated. Start slow and use in a manner you are comfortable using it.

 

[Silent]

There is another popular DIY coral dip that is similar to Poloplab Reef Primer and that is to use potassium chloride.

KCI Potassium Chloride As A Coral Dip

Hi all, I have been hearing about this recently and wanted to get some feed back. I have heard that this works great as a coral dip and kills AEFW, Red Bugs, MENS, ect. Can anyone verify this thats using it? Maybe elaborate on dosage, where to get, experience, ect. I hate using Bayer! Thanks

www.reef2reef.com

 

[jda]

I use Bayer since it is the most gentle and works on anything. I don't like that the old formula was supposed to be hard to bees, so I take care and make sure that it is inert by letting it sit for a day or two before pouring it around my foundation.

I have a Bayer stash from a few years ago and I heard that the formula changed, so make sure before you buy.

Edit - for the routine, I float, dip in Bayer, remount on new frag plugs, put in a QT/Frag tank to observe. Sometimes I do not remount if I know the seller really well.

 

[TDEcoral]

I use Bayer since it is the most gentle and works on anything. I don't like that the old formula was supposed to be hard to bees, so I take care and make sure that it is inert by letting it sit for a day or two before pouring it around my foundation.

I have a Bayer stash from a few years ago and I heard that the formula changed, so make sure before you buy.

Edit - for the routine, I float, dip in Bayer, remount on new frag plugs, put in a QT/Frag tank to observe. Sometimes I do not remount if I know the seller really well.

I do the same thing. Put the frags into a bucket with the water they were shipped in, dump in Bayer until it's milky, let sit for 10-15 min, rinse well in another container of tank water, then put them in the tank.

 

[Reefahholic]

I was dipping with Revive and Bayer before I caught COVID. Now that I’m back, I need to buy new supplies and want to make sure I’m buying the most effective for Acropora. This system will be almost 95% Acro’s, but I’ll probably throw in a few torches and long polyp Goni’s on the bottom for movement. Will definitely be QT’ing those to make sure no Vermetid’s are gonna make it in.

 

[Smite]

I use Bayer since it is the most gentle and works on anything. I don't like that the old formula was supposed to be hard to bees, so I take care and make sure that it is inert by letting it sit for a day or two before pouring it around my foundation.

I have a Bayer stash from a few years ago and I heard that the formula changed, so make sure before you buy.

Edit - for the routine, I float, dip in Bayer, remount on new frag plugs, put in a QT/Frag tank to observe. Sometimes I do not remount if I know the seller really well.

I just bought a new Bayers complete and was worried about there being a different formula but it worked exactly the same. No stress on the acros I dipped. They didn't have any pests but I saw pods dropping like flies.

 

[Reefahholic]

I just bought a new Bayers complete and was worried about there being a different formula but it worked exactly the same. No stress on the acros I dipped. They didn't have any pests but I saw pods dropping like flies.

I have the different labels of Bayer on my local forum. I’ll see if I can find it and post up.

 

[Reefahholic]

So from what I understand it’s the exact same product with same ingredients with a new manufacturer.


Product Overview
Bio Advanced previously known as Bayer Complete Insect Killer for Soil & Turf Concentrate kills the most common lawn pests like ants, fleas, ticks, grubs, and more. Bayer Complete Insect Killer is a two-way formula that treats the surface and the soil. Surface insects are killed within 24 hours, while soil insects are controlled for up to three months.

Old Bayer label’s:

Here’s the new label called BioAdvanced:

 

[Reefahholic]

Make sure you do not buy the one that has “Soil and Turf” in big cap letters. It does have different ingredients. @reef_daddy can tell you more about his experience.

 

[Smite]

Make sure you do not buy the one that has “Soil and Turf” in big cap letters. It does have different ingredients. @reef_daddy can tell you more about his experience.

Great info, thanks for the heads up on the soil & turf type.

I sat there for a minute trying to remember if the original was "rainproof" but chalked it up to one more reason to cut frag plugs off

 

[Reefahholic]

The one I’m holding in my hand above is the new BioAdvanced bottle that I dipped every Acro with in my old tank. No ill effects.

You can go to 7:47 in this video and see that I used it.


Then you can see the frags after the dip here:

 

[Reefahholic]

Great info, thanks for the heads up on the soil & turf type.

I sat there for a minute trying to remember if the original was "rainproof" but chalked it up to one more reason to cut frag plugs off

Even the other bottle has soil and turf, but it’s in lower case. Apparently that makes a difference in ingredients. When I go to Lowe’s I’ll get both bottles and take side by side pics of the front and back and post it here.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I used Bayer for the last couple years but recently switched to polyplab primer and expel together in one solution for 5 minutes.

 

[Reefahholic]

I used Bayer for the last couple years but recently switched to polyplab primer and expel together in one solution for 5 minutes.

Does it seem to be better or about the same?

 

[Smite]

@Chaswood79 what made you want to switch?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Does it seem to be better or about the same?

Hard to say. I’ve only used it twice but the corals were really clean. One had an acro crab that immediately jumped off as soon as it hit the dip. I was able to save it but haven’t seen it since. I was told by another hobbyists that this is what battlecorals uses and it’ll kill everything. I have 2 qt’s. First qt is really just a holding/observing tank, mainly for shipped corals bc I don’t like dipping right out of the bag. Then they get removed from their base and dipped and go into my main qt where they will stay for a couple week before a second base removal and dip then they go in a side frag tank that’s plumbed into my DT. There’s a 6 line and 5 peppermint shrimp in there in case anything slips past. It’s worked so far but I’ve honestly never seen any aefw, red/black bugs etc. I would even strain the Bayer dip to see what was in there and never saw anything scary.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

@Chaswood79 what made you want to switch?

One of our dogs has bladder cancer. This type of cancer is typically caused by pesticides. No sense in taking that risk anymore