Neptune Aquatics

This Sunday!!!! Fragging workshop 8/20

Attending?


  • Total voters
    32
Possibly a silly question, but what should we bring to the event tomorrow?

I have a couple of corals but not sure if they are suitable for this event, will still bring them. Gloves and glasses, maybe?
 
Possibly a silly question, but what should we bring to the event tomorrow?

I have a couple of corals but not sure if they are suitable for this event, will still bring them. Gloves and glasses, maybe?
Yep you're RSVPed!

Feel free to bring any safety glasses, corals or anything you'd like to cut. Mostly it's for learning new techniques and meeting your fellow BAR members.
 
Reminder not to eat lunch before the event!

@Apon @psidriven @FullerReef @GrumpyDave @dzuckerm @Captain Ron @Michael Hans @Alexander1312 @Krustykrab @sunnyt91 @Crazymex408 @Baka Mop @motoxc @guihan @Max Mangolin @Metopian Reef @Jakeller @under_water_ninja

@Hamada will be bringing pizza and salad with veggie options around 1pm

If you have your own safety glasses, or specific glue or plugs/rock that you want to try, this is a great time to get practice with your equipment. We'll have saws plus anything you'd need for folks that don't have any of their own. Kenny also gives a BAR discount on any livestock too so he sure to explore the shop a bit.

Kenny also sells natural sea water if you want to give that a try in your tank too.
 
Reminder not to eat lunch before the event!

@Apon @psidriven @FullerReef @GrumpyDave @dzuckerm @Captain Ron @Michael Hans @Alexander1312 @Krustykrab @sunnyt91 @Crazymex408 @Baka Mop @motoxc @guihan @Max Mangolin @Metopian Reef @Jakeller @under_water_ninja

@Hamada will be bringing pizza and salad with veggie options around 1pm

If you have your own safety glasses, or specific glue or plugs/rock that you want to try, this is a great time to get practice with your equipment. We'll have saws plus anything you'd need for folks that don't have any of their own. Kenny also gives a BAR discount on any livestock too so he sure to explore the shop a bit.

Kenny also sells natural sea water if you want to give that a try in your tank too.

Great to have vegetarian options, too. I remember this was a challenge at the very last frag swap in Concord (but not at the one before in San Jose).
 
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Reactions: JVU
Thank you everyone who hosted and brought corals! I am looking forward to getting the samples I brought home into my main tank. Can someone share the formula for using the Bayer insect killer dip? How many drops or ounces/milliliters to what volume of saltwater for the dip?
 
Thank you everyone who hosted and brought corals! I am looking forward to getting the samples I brought home into my main tank. Can someone share the formula for using the Bayer insect killer dip? How many drops or ounces/milliliters to what volume of saltwater for the dip?
This is what I do. There are other good ways to do it, but sometimes specific advice is useful even though it’s only 1 of many options. I usually do the CoralRx and Bayer, and not the Lugol’s. Lugol’s would only be if I’m worried about infection, for example if there’s a lot of damaged flesh.

New coral prep
  • Acclimate to tank water 30 min
  • Remove from plug/rock (leave nub for softies)
  • Dip in CoralRx
    • 20 ml/gal = 4 caps/gal = 1 cap/quart
    • (Pro: 30 drops/gal = 7 drops/quart)
    • (16 oz frag cup is 0.5 quart)
    • Agitation
    • 5-10 min
  • Rinse with tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min
  • Dip in Bayer Complete
    • 120 ml/gal = 4 ounces/gal
      = 1 oz/quart = 0.5 oz/16 oz cup
    • Agitation
    • 15 min
  • Rinse in tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min
  • Check with florescent flashlight, look for lack of fluorescence, check with magnifying glass
  • Superglue to new rock/plug
  • Place in tank
Optional Lugol’s solution dip:
  • 40 drops/gallon (10 drops/quart = 5 drops/16 oz cup)
  • 10 min with agitation
  • Rinse in tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min
 
Thanks for hosting us Kenny @under_water_ninja, and thanks for organizing Thomas @Darkxerox and Eric @Srt4eric

1692577903969.jpeg
 
This is what I do. There are other good ways to do it, but sometimes specific advice is useful even though it’s only 1 of many options. I usually do the CoralRx and Bayer, and not the Lugol’s. Lugol’s would only be if I’m worried about infection, for example if there’s a lot of damaged flesh.

New coral prep
  • Acclimate to tank water 30 min
  • Remove from plug/rock (leave nub for softies)
  • Dip in CoralRx
    • 20 ml/gal = 4 caps/gal = 1 cap/quart
    • (Pro: 30 drops/gal = 7 drops/quart)
    • (16 oz frag cup is 0.5 quart)
    • Agitation
    • 5-10 min
  • Rinse with tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min
  • Dip in Bayer Complete
    • 120 ml/gal = 4 ounces/gal
      = 1 oz/quart = 0.5 oz/16 oz cup
    • Agitation
    • 15 min
  • Rinse in tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min
  • Check with florescent flashlight, look for lack of fluorescence, check with magnifying glass
  • Superglue to new rock/plug
  • Place in tank
Optional Lugol’s solution dip:
  • 40 drops/gallon (10 drops/quart = 5 drops/16 oz cup)
  • 10 min with agitation
  • Rinse in tank water, turkey baster, rest 5 min

@JVU - I have just watched the following YouTube video from Tidal Gardens. They claim that the Bayer product you have been recommending above (and I have been using since then) is highly toxic (to humans, good for corals) and banned in almost every country except the US. I am unsure if there is some ulterior motive to this, given the context of this video (paid promotion), it would be good to find out if there is any merit to his claims. It is discussed around minute 6.

 
@JVU - I have just watched the following YouTube video from Tidal Gardens. They claim that the Bayer product you have been recommending above (and I have been using since then) is highly toxic (to humans, good for corals) and banned in almost every country except the US. I am unsure if there is some ulterior motive to this, given the context of this video (paid promotion), it would be good to find out if there is any merit to his claims. It is discussed around minute 6.

My recollection: Bayer was banned in the EU because (as a pesticide) it also killed bees. Since you're using it as a coral dip (as hundreds of thousands of reefers have over the years), you probably won't kill a single bee. Apparently, he's doing a bit of sleight-of-hand marketing here. He's right about it being banned, but for your use it's a moot point.
 
It is nasty stuff and you do want to be careful with your not touching etc tho right?
yup. And use could kill bees as its not taken out of the muni waste,. That water goes somewhere. Some places its (reclaimed waste waste) used to water landscape, and even crops (one p[alce is Watsonville for major commercial growers)... Bees are definitely flying around crops and landscape.


At levels often found in the environment, neonics affect bees’ brain and reproductive development, make pollen-collecting trips longer and more exhausting, and prevent bees from ridding themselves of parasitic varroa mites. An enormous and growing body of research reveals that neonics’ extraordinary toxicity and pervasiveness in California’s environment are rapidly killing bees and other pollinators, threatening native plants and valuable crops that depend on insect pollination.

Additionally, because neonics are systemic pesticides, local bodies of water are especially susceptible to contamination from urban or agricultural runoff. Samples from 58% of Northern California and 92% of Southern California urban waterways contained the neonic imidacloprid.
 
Yeah, it’s a very effective insecticide, in some people’s opinion too effective. The banning in some places is mostly because it kills bees. I don’t use it or related products in my yard for that reason. The individual ingredients have been extensively tested and is basically not toxic for humans unless you go out of your way to try to hurt yourself with it, and even then probably isn’t. It’s actually 2 different insecticides together, each in very low doses, imidacloprid and cyfluthrin. Note that dose matters when reading about effects of exposure, and these are very low doses even in the fully concentrated solution.

With regard to effects on mammals, these are also widely used in veterinary medicine, both orally and topically, mostly for fleas, ticks, and lice.

You should treat it with respect and not drink it or get in your eyes, or aerosolize it and breath it in. Like almost everything in the hobby.

All dips have toxicity for living animals (pests in this case), that’s why we use them. These 2 have been far more studied with respect to mammalian toxicity (with reassuring results) than any other coral dip option out there. Saying it’s more dangerous than other dip options just because for the other options we don’t really know what‘s in them and they‘ve never had their mammalian toxicity studied (even though they kill stuff) seems illogical to me.

One important specific issue to keep in mind- cyflurthrin is toxic to fish. You DO NOT want to get the full strength solution in your tank. So rinsing after the dip is particularly important. All coral dips are toxic to invertebrates including pods, etc, so you need to be rinsing carefully anyway.

From the bottle:
1697562075599.jpeg


Imidicloprid general fact sheet and more detailed data including toxicity data:

Cyfluthrin general fact sheet:
 
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