Preventative Protocol for New SPS Coral Purchases

[Frogger]

You ask a lot of questions.

One you may have missed is what do you do with the water after you have dipped? Do you dump it down the drain.

I don't think you are legally allowed to dump a registered pesticide down the drain. I do not think anyone has covered this before.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Frogger

One you may have missed is what do you do with the water after you have dipped? Do you dump it down the drain.

That is a good point. I dump it down the drain. I figure there is little difference to dumping it down the drain than spreading it around your yard. It all end up in waste water eventually, and the 1L I use over 2 years is quite a tiny amount seeing as lots of people use the entire bottle in one treatment in their yard.

A quick search on the Google says pesticides should be disposed of as "Hazardous Household Waste". I know in Saskatoon once a month there is a Hazardous Waste Disposal drop off where you can take paints and such. Maybe this is an option? I will look into this a bit more.

[Frogger]

Do you clip the corals off the plugs or do you leave plugs on? I do now. In the beginning I didn't. This is almost impossible with Zoas or encrusted montisWhat do you do with dead areas? Maybe a dead tip or a bit of skeleton showing near the base from gluing? Try to cut off, now only buying fresh cuts.What do you use for a dip? How long do you dip for? Coral RX as per instructions then Hydrogen peroxide (effective against flatworms).
Do you wear personal protective equipment? Do you touch the dip water? Always and never
What do you think your choice of dip is protecting you against? (<-- this is fun!). Anything that is active at that time.
Do you dip all corals or only some corals? AllHow do you decide if you dip or not? If it ain't from my tanks I dip
Do you examine the dip water afterwards? Always with a microscope
What do you do with the corals if you see something on the coral or in the dip water? That depends on what it is and how manyDo you tell the seller if you find something? (<-- they never believe you anyway haha) depends on who it isDo you place the corals in a quarantine tank after dipping or straight into your display? I will be quarantining for a couple months once I set up my system
Any other details??? I am now inspect the corals with a dissecting scope carefully for eggs or adults.

I got monti nudibranchs from an encrusting appleberry 5 months ago. I took my 3 encrusting montis out of the tank and found about 4 adults. I treated them tried to scrape off the eggs and put them in a quarantine tank for a month. Treated them again and put them back into the display. I have been watching closely at night for 5 months, haven't added anymore montis since and 2 nights ago I noticed another nudibranch and then again on a different monti last night. I removed the adults with a syringe. Unfortunately the monti's have fully encrusted and removal for now is not an option.

[Myka]

Thanks for contributing Frogger!

[DKoKoMan]

Lots of good information so far!

[ReefMadness]

i certainly appreciate this thread as it kind of guilts me into being a little more meticulous. i definitely haven't gone to the lengths that i read here but have used a multi-stage process that includes the physical act of dipping, inspection of both coral and dipping solution following treatment and a wash.
i've used bayer before and gave it the respect it deserves after being strictly instructed not to mess around with it as if any gets in your display can be devastating.
i do have questions though (of course )
to me bayer is a superior product to many others for acropora but it isn't locally available. do you use ebay to get it?
a lot of times a new addition in a larger tank requires being moved around the tank for light acclimation and to find it's happy place. how do you go about relocating a coral that no longer is affixed to a plug?
finally, have you ever lost a coral to associated dipping process trauma?

[Frogger]

The biggest problem with Bayer Advanced insect killer is from what I know is it is not available in Canada. The active ingredient is "Imidacloprid". From what I know Imidacloprid is now banned in Canada. Kills bees.

I do know for a fact that Bayer Advanced is not registered for use for controlling AEFW nor registered for use for anything else in your reef tank. Using a registered pesticide for anything other then what is registered for use is prohibited.

It is readily available across the border in the US. However bringing it into Canada is not allowed. Bringing an un-registered pesticide across the border would result in the border guard confiscating it. If you don't let the border guard know you have it could result in consequences if you are caught. Basically smuggling a illegal pesticide into Canada. Not good.

I am not saying don't drive down to the US and pick it up and hide it in your trunk, what I am saying is you should do it knowing what you are doing and that you could get into trouble if you are caught by a border guard who is not having a good day (basically a dink).

[DKoKoMan]

Is there a so called "runner up" to Bayer? Anything we can use that is local and not illegal lol. I'm sure it may not be as good at the job, however I am curious as to what other people have used with success.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ReefMadness

a lot of times a new addition in a larger tank requires being moved around the tank for light acclimation and to find it's happy place. how do you go about relocating a coral that no longer is affixed to a plug?
finally, have you ever lost a coral to associated dipping process trauma?

Moving the coral around is why I glue it to rock rubble after removing the old plug and dipping it. I then glue the rock rubble holding the coral to my rock work. If it needs moving it's easy to pop the rubble off and move it without disturbing the coral itself.

I have lost corals within 24 hours of dipping, but these are corals that were looking sad to begin with (bleached, browned, etc). Personally, I'd rather lose a coral than not dip it. Losing the coral is very little concern to me.

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Is there a so called "runner up" to Bayer? Anything we can use that is local and not illegal lol. I'm sure it may not be as good at the job, however I am curious as to what other people have used with success.

As said, it's not illegal to use Bayer.

You can use Coral Rx or Revive. It doesn't work as well as Bayer. I don't find that Coral Rx or Revive will knock off AEFW (they will knock off adult MEN though), but the dips do give the worms that whitish coloring so you can see them. You definitely have to be much more meticulous in inspecting if you use Coral Rx or Revive. I find that Coral Rx and Revive are much harder on Acros than Bayer is. Oddly.

Originally Posted by Frogger

The biggest problem with Bayer Advanced insect killer is from what I know is it is not available in Canada. The active ingredient is "Imidacloprid". From what I know Imidacloprid is now banned in Canada. Kills bees.

I couldn't find anything online about it actually being banned yet. Last fall there was a proposal to ban it, and in January the government started to "phase out Imidacloprid use". Health Canada didn't find any correlation with bees, but their reasoning to phase out use was (ironicly to us) related to aquatic bugs (fish food). It's not illegal to be in possession of it.

I actually bought my current bottle of Bayer off Amazon.ca (yes the Canadian site) in Sept 2015 for $18 fulfilled by Amazon. I'm still using that same bottle, and my tank is pretty full, so I don't think I'll be using it all up any time soon. This is a pretty tiny amount considering how much someone would use to spray their yard, or worse yet, one of the farmers in Saskatchewan who would be spraying thousands of acres at a time. Farmers are the ones that freak me out - I worry about what's in the air around here!

[Frogger]

Unfortunately Amazon Canada does not sell Bayer Advanced Insect Killer anymore, unless you are a farmer you cannot buy imidacloprid anymore. Bayer Advanced Grub killer is a different active ingredient. Bayer Canada does not sell the insect Killer or at least it is not listed on their website.

The only way to get it now is to purchase it from the states or from a fellow hobbyist who may have some extra.