Reef nutrition

Frag dipping

Thales

Past President
From http://www.bareefers.org/discussion/index.php?topic=451.msg15736#msg15736

Version 1.0
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Povidone iodine 10%
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- Keep out of reach of children.
- Do not get in eyes.
- If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center immmediately.


General purpose dipping guide
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Mix with saltwater according to coral type. Immerse the corals in the dip, and agitate periodically with a turkey baster. Inspect for pests and their eggs. You may find redbugs, acro eating flatworms, red planaria, monti eating nudibranchs, zoanthid eating nudibranchs, zoanthid spiders, and others.

The pests may be stunned enough to be blown off the coral, but not necessarily killed.

After dipping, rinse and quarantine the coral.


Acros
3ml/liter 25 min

Montis
2ml/liter 10-15 min

Zoas
3-4ml/liter 25 min

LPS
3ml/liter 25 min

Softies
3ml/liter 25 min


Some corals have tolerated up to 2ml dip per 8oz saltwater for 25 minutes. Montis may lose color at this concentration of dip. 2ml/8oz should be the strongest concentration to use if you are experimenting. Iodine levels peak at approximately this dosage rate, and will actually decrease as you add more of the dip.


Depending on the coral type and pests, other treatments to consider:

Flatworm Exit for red planaria

Fluke Tabs for red planaria

Interceptor for redbugs and possibly zoa spiders

Hydrogen peroxide in saltwater for zoa fungus

Furan 2 for zoa pox

Lugol's in saltwater

Lugol's in freshwater
 
We have had a lot of luck with these dips...Highly recommend them...Also, add iodine to our tanks...make for some beautiful corals and the shrimp love it too!
 
Another one that seems pretty effective for nudibranchs is Two Little Fishies Revive Coral Cleaner.

Even more mild on the coral than Povidone, and seems to do a good job on the pests.
 
Mmmm Lysol.

Do you guys see any problem with doing a providone or Tropic Marin dip for 15 mins followed by a quick bath in Coral cleaner?
 
we have never used coral cleaner. but we dip sick corals in the tropic marin iodine for 15 to 20 minutes. they go into shock for a few hours, but recover very nicely. usually coming back even healthier than they were.
 
TMPCC is strong stuff, I use it on acros, but shy away from using it on Montis, they don't seem to like it too much, in the past I've used Providine with the montis.

I recently tried the revive and liked it quite a bit, it seemed to stun everything (pods, mini brittles etc), but didn't piss the coral off.
 
I'm looking into the Coral Revive as well. I use mostly Povidone for everything unless I suspect acro eating flatworms or monti nudis then I break out the TMPCC. It would be nice to have something in between the two dips outside of Interceptor.
 
[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=451.msg8668#msg8668 date=1145759793]
Kent Tech iodine has other stuff in there to maintain a suitable iodine level in the system over a period of time for "better" coral health. I don't think it was meant to be used as a dip.

Lugol's solution is 5% Iodine in 10% potassium iodide solution. The iodine is the disinfectant part that kills bacteria and pests. It's similar to chlorine in how it oxidizes stuff.

If you don't have Lugol's, you can use Tincture of Iodine, which is typically 2-3% iodine in alcohol... and sometimes some iodide as well. When using tincture, you use 2x as much. For dip purposes, the alcohol should not be a problem.

You can use iodine/saltwater dip as a general purpose coral dip. Reeffarmers recommends, "20 minutes in 1 liter of 100 % captive reef water that has 10 drops of 5 % lugols solution (or 20 drops of the tincture of iodine found at local drug stores which is typically a 2.2 % solution)."

http://www.reeffarmers.com/acclimation.htm

If you are treating for zoanthid eating nudibranchs, you use iodine/freshwater dip. I use about 10 drops tincture per gallon of pH and temp adjusted DI freshwater for 5 minutes. The freshwater kills the nudibranchs, and the iodine helps kills off the bacteria that might affect your zoas after the stress of the freshwater exposure. I've even used iodine/tapwater for zoa nudi dip.

Some people use iodine/freshwater dip for montipora eating nudibranchs. Montipora is less able to take the fw compared to zoas. Recommended dip time is no more than 30-45 seconds. At that, the montipora will be severely stressed, and will slime and slough. Much longer than 45 seconds, and you have a good chance of killing your coral. I've heard of people who killed their monti caps from 1 minute freshwater dips. I don't like iodine/fw much for monti nudis. If you dip short enough to keep your coral alive, the nudis seem barely affected.

If I get new zoas, I do iodine/sw... especially if it looks like there's deterioration or decay. If it's a large wild colony, I lean towards fragging it to make it easier to spot pests, and to limit losses should there be any decay that spreads.

I only do iodine/fw for zoa nudis, and luckily I've not had to dip my own zoas.

Careful of doing fw and no iodine on zoas. I think the fw further stresses the zoa, and the lack of iodine can allow bacteria to multiply and kill your coral.

(Not iodine, but if you have fungus-ey zoas, one recommended treatment is peroxide/freshwater.)

Anyway, that's what I've been doing. I'm sure other people have their own routines.
[/quote]

[quote author=Mr. Ugly link=topic=451.msg14040#msg14040 date=1167290631]
Lately, I've been using Povidone for dipping. It's the generic for Betadine, and based on their vague product descriptions, I believe that TMPCC and others may be just repackaged Povidone or something very similar.

Povidone iodine is a slow release iodine that is less stressful to corals compared to Lugol's and tinctures. Iodine requires extended contact time to work, so the slow release method is better.

Povidone acts as a surfactant and wetting agent in addition to carrying iodine. Also, Povidone increases the penetration of the iodine through cell walls.

In Europe, people pioneered using Betadine to kill AEFW. Dip formulation was 3ml Betadine per liter of tank water. Some reports say that after 20 minutes, the flatworms are stunned and motionless. After 25 minutes, they disintegrate.

Studies show that Povidone iodine solution at .1% by weight of P-I has the greatest concentration of free iodine and the greatest microbicidal effects. Free iodine decreases with higher as well as lower concentrations of P-I.br />
1 ml of 10% Povidone in 100 ml of tank water will give ~.1% P-I solution.

Based on manufacturers information, it looks like P-I solutions in the range of .05-.15% give about the same level of free iodine. This would correspond to a dip formulation of .5 - 1.5 ml per 100ml of tank water.

I've been using P-I at a rate of 1ml per cup(250ml) of tank water. I'm going to revise my dipping formula to 2ml/C. Easy to measure, and that gives a P-I concentration of .08% which just about maxes out the free iodine concentration.

Here's some really good info on mode of action of P-I(check out the charts):

http://www.ispcorp.com/products/pharma/content/brochure/pvpiodine/mode.html

And the main info page for that product:

http://www.ispcorp.com/products/pharma/content/brochure/pvpiodine/

And the Wiki entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Povidone

Oh yah... you can buy Povidone online for less than $4 for 16 ounces. Even at Walgreens, it's only about $10 for 8oz when it's not on sale. Way cheaper than TMPCC and others.
[/quote]
 
Nowadays I use .5 ml per cup for a light dose.

The easier way to remember is by color:

Budweiser = light dip
Lipton Tea = med dip
Darker than Lipton = strong dip
 
I'm now officially in love with Revive!!!! I forgot I was dipping a frag and accidentally left a small Acro frag in the dip for over an hour, after a quick "oh snap" I went to pull out what I assumed would be a dead coral, but the coral didn't loose color and had polyp extension within a half hour of putting it in my tank. Plus, it really seems to stun and kill all sorts of critters super fast.
 
That is the coral cleaner stuff that smells like pine sol right? I believe that is what I use too for my more sensitive corals but the name is escaping me. For most of my acros I still use TMPCC.
 
Here is when I get mine

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?category=Two_Little_Fishies_ReVive_Coral_Cleaner_16.8oz_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Additives___Supplements_Coral_Dips___Cleaners&vendor=Two_Little_Fishies&SearchStr=revive&action=view&idProduct=TL1671&idCategory=FIADCD

Not sure I have seen it in any LFS when I have looked.
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=2339.msg74813#msg74813 date=1232052248]
That's the stuff, I'm using it on everything now, anyone wanna buy a bottle of TMPCC?
[/quote]
HA! After buying a $28(?) bottle from the Frank meeting, and having most of it stain a table when the bottle tipped over (who would have thought you didn't actually need to pump it to get the stuff to come out!) I'm done with crap.
 
Any of the LFS's can order it if they wanted to. I had Chris at aquatic central order me a bottle maybe 6mths or so ago.
 
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