How to Dip Coral and avoid coral pests
Before adding new corals to your aquarium it is highly recommended that you treat them to a coral dip to avoid introducing coral pests to your saltwater aquarium. Doing this will avoid hitchhikers like flatworms, coral eating nudibranchs, sundial snails, and others.
(Video Transcript)
OK folks let’s jump right into it dipping corals is a very easy thing to do. And the reason why you want to dip your corals is it’s going to prevent pests from entering in your aquarium. Dipping corals also inhibits the introduction of good critters such as amphipods and copepods. Coral dip removes good and bad critters from your corals. Adding corals to your aquarium is a great way to introduced microbiology lifeforms to your aquarium but in the future video will go into this in more detail.
Today we’re going to be dipping a Lobo that I picked up from saltwaterfish.com. The Lobo coral is a great beginner coral but it typically is a little more expensive since it’s not very common in the hobby.
The tools needed to dip corals are very primitive, I use an old Cool Whip container and cut up water jug for my larger corals. The cool whip container is for the coral dip and the cut-up jug is to rinse the dip off the coral when I’m done.
The first step to getting your coral dip together is using the shipment water with the recommended dose of whichever coral dip you use. I use coral RX because it’s been around for forever and has worked great for me. I strongly recommend that you follow the directions provided by the coral dip manufacture to ensure proper use. Which coral dip is better than the other is really outside the scope of this video we’re just looking at the importance of dipping corals because any dip is better than no dip.
I prefer to dip the corals for a total of 20 to 25 minutes, stirring the dip every few minutes to get any critters to fall off the coral. I try to move water all over the coral and specific areas such as the base of the coral because that’s where often critters like to hide. Coral dip doesn’t harm the coral but it doesn’t make it very happy either, often you’ll see the coral react to being within the coral dip. Chalice corals seem to be the most reactive in dip forming a very thick mucus layer during their time in the dip.
I also shared a clip of a zoanthid eating nudibranch that I caught on my zoanthids in my nano reef tank, which I picked up at my local fish store. I have a great local fish store and it’s not their fault that I got a pest from the zoo that I bought from them, but it was up to me to dip the corals to ensure that pest did not enter my aquarium. Not dipping my corals one time ended up costing me all the corals in my nano reef tank.
Dipping corals in the long run will save you a lot of money especially when you can avoid adding pest to your aquarium. You have a lot of money involved in your display tank and for the lower cost of $20 you’re adding a lot of insurance.
Once your coral has been in the dip for 20 or so minutes, it’s time to remove it from and place it into fresh salt water to rinse off the dip. When the coral is in the new water, I try my best to move the water around the coral as much to remove any of the dip that may still be on the coral. Once this is done it’s time to add the coral to your display tank.
Some hobbyist take this a step further by quarantining their corals for up to 30 day. This added step helps reduce the risk of introducing pass to saltwater aquarium even more. During this time, you could also take the coral out of quarantine and reapply the coral dip sporadically during the 30-day quarantine period, further protecting your aquarium.
I also provide footage from the coral a few days later showing that it’s looking great and has acclimated well to its new tank. Remember, any dip is better than no dip.
Be sure to sign up for saltwaterfish.com email newsletter to stay up-to-date on all of our videos that are geared towards helping you be a more successful saltwater aquarium hobbyist.
Today we’re going to be dipping a Lobo that I picked up from saltwaterfish.com. The Lobo coral is a great beginner coral but it typically is a little more expensive since it’s not very common in the hobby.
The tools needed to dip corals are very primitive, I use an old Cool Whip container and cut up water jug for my larger corals. The cool whip container is for the coral dip and the cut-up jug is to rinse the dip off the coral when I’m done.
The first step to getting your coral dip together is using the shipment water with the recommended dose of whichever coral dip you use. I use coral RX because it’s been around for forever and has worked great for me. I strongly recommend that you follow the directions provided by the coral dip manufacture to ensure proper use. Which coral dip is better than the other is really outside the scope of this video we’re just looking at the importance of dipping corals because any dip is better than no dip.
I prefer to dip the corals for a total of 20 to 25 minutes, stirring the dip every few minutes to get any critters to fall off the coral. I try to move water all over the coral and specific areas such as the base of the coral because that’s where often critters like to hide. Coral dip doesn’t harm the coral but it doesn’t make it very happy either, often you’ll see the coral react to being within the coral dip. Chalice corals seem to be the most reactive in dip forming a very thick mucus layer during their time in the dip.
I also shared a clip of a zoanthid eating nudibranch that I caught on my zoanthids in my nano reef tank, which I picked up at my local fish store. I have a great local fish store and it’s not their fault that I got a pest from the zoo that I bought from them, but it was up to me to dip the corals to ensure that pest did not enter my aquarium. Not dipping my corals one time ended up costing me all the corals in my nano reef tank.
Dipping corals in the long run will save you a lot of money especially when you can avoid adding pest to your aquarium. You have a lot of money involved in your display tank and for the lower cost of $20 you’re adding a lot of insurance.
Once your coral has been in the dip for 20 or so minutes, it’s time to remove it from and place it into fresh salt water to rinse off the dip. When the coral is in the new water, I try my best to move the water around the coral as much to remove any of the dip that may still be on the coral. Once this is done it’s time to add the coral to your display tank.
Some hobbyist take this a step further by quarantining their corals for up to 30 day. This added step helps reduce the risk of introducing pass to saltwater aquarium even more. During this time, you could also take the coral out of quarantine and reapply the coral dip sporadically during the 30-day quarantine period, further protecting your aquarium.
I also provide footage from the coral a few days later showing that it’s looking great and has acclimated well to its new tank. Remember, any dip is better than no dip.
Be sure to sign up for saltwaterfish.com email newsletter to stay up-to-date on all of our videos that are geared towards helping you be a more successful saltwater aquarium hobbyist.