Come on! Lol

Don't worry, I'll mount them once my 6 weeks dipping regime is finished. You can't be too careful nowadays....damn aefw got everyone by the shorties.

Thanks brah! Slowing coming along....very slowly!

Hey, Rich, when you get a chance, would be interested to hear more details about your whole regime for introducing corals, incl the products you use. Like you say, can't be too careful these days.

Hey buddy.

So I have been collecting a fair bit of sps frags and the plan from the start was to collect as much as I can and once I am "happy" with the selection I will start a 4-6 weeks dipping regime. I will have all the frags mounted on plugs on a frag rack so nothing is attached, every week while I am doing my water change all the corals will be moved with the rack into a 20 gallon tank for a 15 minutes dip session than rinsed off with more recycled tank water before placing them back into the display. Once that's finished, I will assume that my tank will be pest free....

So next step for any new specimens will go into a nuvo 10-20 gallon all in one tank for 4-6 weeks for quarantine. I will most likely only get fresh cuts and leave the colonies alone.

I think this is the only way to keep your tank pest free.

More pics
 

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psk3cl1k5o.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4n1gsqgo.jpg

My little buddy Gill.

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psmcox5rxx.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psj4fd75ki.jpg

orange hammer

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...pslwths8ls.jpg

orange/gold plate....okay its just orange.

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psjtwkjhz7.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psrjsxmcfi.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psjnuvviux.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psvqfdhfvq.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psiblvlllf.jpg

Ya....I know....went a little overboard with frags....wife counted 40 cough cough 50 sps frags :redface:

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...pscvbcy5ki.jpg

http://i1088.photobucket.com/albums/...psqfmkk0uc.jpg

Hey Rich, I'm kinda confused. Can't the aefw just jump ship onto your rocks even before you start dipping the frags? Maybe I'm missing something?

A lot of those frags looks familiar.

Well, that's an excellent question. There just isn't any exact scientific data on the life cycle of aefw. Most are just what hobbiest has discovered and speculated.

Imo, aefw needs to be close to the coral so they can feed frequently, I don't think they store enough energy in their body to sustain for more than a couple of days and adults will only venture out if the food is depleted or its looking for healthy corals to lay eggs on. One thing we know is that they like lay eggs close to flesh so newly hatched 1/3 of mm babies can start feeding almost instantaneously.

So my approach is to dip for 4-6 weeks on a weekly bases including the rack which the frags are mounted on. First 4 weeks to kill off any worms ( might not even be any) from juvenile stages to adults and last 2 weeks will make certain to rub out those straggler babies that might have slipped through the cracks. One thing we don't know is how the babies feed on the corals and if they infiltrate below the skin to feed until they become juveniles or do they just cruise on the skin surface. I really hope it's the latter but who knows.

Also, another important factor will be the initial collection of the Sps corals which in this case are all fresh cut. Even though they came from reputable sources, I always like to dip them in 2 different dips, one being revive and the other is iodine. Everyone has their owe preference on dipping but I found that using slightly higher dosage than recommended and turkey bast the corals while in the dip show far more effectiveness than if you just let it sit. Of course observe for eggs and if you find any eggs just toss that coral. Don't ever try to save it unless you are planing to quarantine. It's just not worth the risk even if it's an expensive frag.

Anyways, back to your question, yes, they are free to move around but I am pretty confident with what was described above I should be 99% pest free if I follow the program. Hopefully it made sense to you.

I don't know what you are talking about....:mrgreen:

Yes, that answered my question! Perfect explanation, thank you.

Your collection is starting to look quite impressive and I'm glad the MI has settled in!