Dipping

[austinaquaman]

How and what does everyone use to dip

Zoas?
LPS?
SPS?
Fish?

Recently I've read of some pests being passed back and forth. Dipping, to my understanding, is the best way we can prevent pests. So I wanted to know what everyone does/uses.

[dmweise]

When I dip my fish I use distilled water or reverse osmosed water, depends on what I have at home. I put some ammonia neutralizer in it and as well as some fish antibiotics. I then let the water sit for about an hour with a bubbler in it to oxygenate it fully.

Once the water has reached room tank temperature I catch the fish and dip them. I leave them in the water for three to five minutes depending on the scale size and density. Shorter time for larger, few scales, longer for smaller, many scales.

[marshall.read]

dipping an animal that shows no symptoms of problems is sometimes performed prior to introduction to the main tank, usually as a substitute to or in tandem with proper quarantine procedures (do not underestimate the value of a quarantine system). if the organism is already in the main tank and showing no problems, leave it alone.

If you are interested in removing possible 'pests' from your water, you should consider ozone or a uv sterilizer. To a lesser extent, dosing lugol's iodine in frequent small amounts will help improve overall health of your coral. however never dose anything without a method to test for it in your water, ESPECIALLY iodine or ozone. both of these can kill everything in your tank if you apply too much.

If you need to dip, lugols is generally the best solution for most, but not all specimens. it can also be applied to specific areas of a specimen if you are treating an injury or specific area of infection. the lugols will basically act as a disinfectant. follow the directions on the bottle.

Freshwater dips can be successful at removing some external parasites from both coral and fish. Make sure you adjust the temperature and pH of the water prior to using it. start coral with 1 minute of freshwater a day, and over the next few days you can raise it to 2 or 3 minutes once a day until you notice improvement ( if you don't notice effect in a week try something else ).

as dmweise mentioned, how long you can leave the fish in freshwater will depend on the fish. this is also very stressful on the fish, which often leads to a weaker immune system and, hence, no real improvement. however, i have used it with success on occasion. typically with fish i do a lugol's dip, as its less stressful on the fish. and again, in these types of situations a quarantine is usually called for.

[princer7]

Zoas? Lugol's and BiFuran (Furan2)
LPS? Lugol's
SPS? Lugol's and Interceptor
Fish? UV on the main tank. Check for overall health before adding.

[BIGBIRD123]

Jen,
I just added a little...

Zoas? Lugol's and BiFuran (Furan2)
LPS? Lugol's and Flatworm Exit
SPS? Lugol's, Interceptor and Levasol (Pig and Sheep Wormer)
Fish? UV on the main tank. Check for overall health before adding.
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[coraline79]

I just dipped my first fish ever, a CBB. I have heard that they sometimes carry parasites from Ed and wolf, and he advised me to do this. I took a freezer bag, filed it with RO/DI water and floated it in the tank with no fish in it for 20 minutes. i then shook it to possibly oxyginate it a little, and then poured it into a large clean bowl. I then floated the fish in it, it the sale bag for 10 minutes, and then released it into the freshwater. I let it soak for about 5 minutes, and put it back into the sale bag. Then I floated it, and added tank water every 15 minutes as i normally do. The fish is alive, eating frozen, not picking on my mostly LPS tank, and healthy so there is a slight possibility that I did it right. That is just the way I did it, not necessarily the right way.

[corkyGramma]

thanks jennifer and steve, great information

[austinaquaman]

Bump for a reminder after the frag swap.

Also, thanks again for posting your dipping information.