Dipping Live rock, please give me your input.

[Jeremiah]

EDIT: most importantly - I have zoa's on all of the live rock so they must live.

I wanted to take this to a new thread away from my thread about the pods i'm having trouble with.

I am going to dip the live rock this weekend, I just need to figure out the best plan so the rock stays live and whatever else in it dies. Don't need 100% death rate, just enough to get my pod population under control so that my zoa's can start healing and whatever wrasse i get can help keep them under control.

So....What dip would you do and why???? How long would you dip depending on the method you pick? or any other combination of dipping i didn't mention?
Freshwater dip
Hypersalinity dip
Normal salt water + any of the pest removal dips revive, coralrx, iodine any of the others i didn't mention?

The goal is to kill everything but the bacteria....I'm really not worried about anything that gets stuck in the live rock that dies...I'll have to deal with that...I'm hoping the critters in my sand bed will move up and handle anything that is stuck in the rocks. We will see....

I'm also doing as much reading as possible...but when i see someones name i trust post about an issue they know i definately trust them more than what i find on some other site from someone i don't know.

Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[ReefCheif]

Your gonna dip the rock, your gonna have die off, which is going to cause a re-cycle any way you look at it. The re-cyce could be minor and not affect anything, it could be major and kill off those zoas your trying to save, I think what your doing is the complete wrong rout to even be thinking about, that is if your 100% sure its pods doing this. I myself am not so convinced its pods. Ive never heard or seen this, doesnt mean its not possible but PODS generally eat detrius and phyto.

A large pod is mearly a snack for just about any fish. I highly, highly reccomend getting a wrasse of somesort, choris, melanarus, rock wrasse, marble. Any one of these would be awesome at mowing down those meccapods, and can also help with any other type of pest control, red bugs, zoa eating nudis.

I really dont think dipping all your rock is going to acheive what your going for, nor is the outcome going to be what you hope for. This is just my opinion.

 

[jahmic]

Didn't see this post earlier. I don't think I'd do something as drastic as dipping all of my rock; try a wrasse first and see if they start to disappear.

I'm not saying dipping won't work...but it's like using a shotgun in a crowded room to kill a mosquito. You're going to put a dent in the population of your beneficial microfauna that they tank may or may not recover from...not worth the risk imho.

 

[Jeremiah]

Thanks for the help...I know i'm really new to the hobby, but I'm certain it is the pods.

I'm SURE that if these things came out during lights on that my Clowns would have gotten them, but I will give the wrasse a chance to put in work before trying the dip. (that is still my concern about the wrasse he sleeps at night how does that get these things that only come out at night?) I'll also figure out a better way to manually remove the ones i can get at.

Looks exactly the same as these pods, doing the same eating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kaq0T1gU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FZleSPmtqw

Your gonna dip the rock, your gonna have die off, which is going to cause a re-cycle any way you look at it. The re-cyce could be minor and not affect anything, it could be major and kill off those zoas your trying to save, I think what your doing is the complete wrong rout to even be thinking about, that is if your 100% sure its pods doing this. I myself am not so convinced its pods. Ive never heard or seen this, doesnt mean its not possible but PODS generally eat detrius and phyto.

A large pod is mearly a snack for just about any fish. I highly, highly reccomend getting a wrasse of somesort, choris, melanarus, rock wrasse, marble. Any one of these would be awesome at mowing down those meccapods, and can also help with any other type of pest control, red bugs, zoa eating nudis.

I really dont think dipping all your rock is going to acheive what your going for, nor is the outcome going to be what you hope for. This is just my opinion.

 

[jahmic]

The wrasse will find them...I seriously have seen no amphipods in my DT since my wrasses make such quick work of them. They do live in my fuge, but the ones that get to the display don't seem to establish in numbers.

Call it a theory...but your population probably just got large enough where food became an issue so they turned to your polyps. If you get a wrasse and just thin their numbers without wiping them out completely...you might be able to hit a "balance" again where you have a population large enough to consume detritus without relying on your zoanthids as a food source.

That'd be my approach before nuking the tank to get rid of them.