Cr*p!! Something is eating my zoos

[Beverly]

We got several new zoo frags from three different sources over the past month or so and did not dip or QT them. The zoos on a couple of frags seemed to have melted away, and we discarded them when we noticed the problem hoping it wouldn't spread.

Now, however, one our largest and oldest established colonies seems to be going through the same thing. Also, another new frag is displaying the same symptoms.

I looked for nudis on the discarded frags during the day and shortly after lights out, but did not see any. But that doesn't mean they weren't the culprits. We do have a few asterina starfish in the tank, but they aren't anywhere near the zoos when I've looked for pests.

I'm going to have to tear down part of my reef to remove the three large rocks my colonies and zoo frags are attached to. I want to QT them in a 20g after dipping in either fresh water or Lugol's, then dip them again after the eggs, that must be there, hatch.

Questions:

- can I dip the whole large rocks? Will dipping them kill the bacteria and/or other organisms on the rocks?

- how many weeks should I wait between dips to kill newly hatched eggs?

- will three dips over a period of time be enough to kill everything?

'm totally freaked out over this as I've just spent scads of money on these new zoos

Any other suggestions would be very much appreciated. TIA