questions about pests/dipping/quarantining

[Myka]

Many years ago I used Lugol's solution to make my own iodine dip, and I lost many LPS corals doing this. LPS can be quite sensitive to dips. Buy a premixed dip. I recently switched to Coral Rx, but have used Tropic Marin Coral Cure and Julian Sprung's TLF ReVive Coral Cleaner in the past. As well as others I can't seem to think of right now. TMCC is iodine based, and ReVive and Coral Rx are not. I haven't used Coral Rx long enough to give an opinion, although the reviews are really good on it.

Dips are worth their weight in gold if you don't use a quarantine tank for corals. With no QT you rely on that dip to protect your reef from incoming infection. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of money tied up in corals, and I am not a happy camper when my reef gets infected!

For clams, freshwater dips are the only thing I would ever recommend, but I only dip clams for pinched mantle. Newly incoming clams get their mantles washed in freshwater and scrubbed with a toothbrush. Clams are usually fairly sensitive, so I don't use any sort premixed dip on them. They need at least a few days to acclimate to the tank before doing any sort of dipping, and even then I would only dip if there is a problem.

[albert_dao]

You may also want to consider 'after-dip', longterm solutions such as Yellow Coris Wrasses and their ilk.

[ALang]

Thanks, that's easier to understand now.
Will be looking for said pre-mixed dips. And fw dip and scrubbing for that new Cook island clam!

[Myka]

No no, don't dip it when you get it. It will already be quite stressed, and fw dipping it right away could kill it. when/if you ever do a fw dip whether it is on a fish/coral/clam be sure to use a digital pH meter when you match the pH. The drop test kits are notoriously inaccurate, and a pain in the butt when you have to test, adjust, test again, adjust...etc

[ALang]

Thanks, Myka. That's why I love this forum. I would've dipped them and not know why they won't do well.