- Here's just a few of the problems you can avoid.
Brown Jelly, Bubble algae, Nudibranchs, Aiptasia
Vermetid snails, Bristleworms, Flatworms.
There's more, but you get the gist.
(upbeat music)
Hey, a wondrous day to all of my fellow
and future hobbyists out there.
My name is Matthew I am your BRS beginner guru.
We only got three more episodes to go,
and they're all about corals.
There are a ton of different products
and a ton of different methods for dipping your corals.
And there isn't necessarily one right one,
but we're going to keep it
as simple as possible for you today.
So please be aware that this is
a much more complex and complicated issue
that really depends on the type of coral.
But as a beginner, you got to start somewhere.
But doing a simple dip is vastly superior
than doing no dip at all.
So get out a notepad and a pencil,
or a digital pad and a fake pencil like I have,
and get ready to take some notes,
to learn how to keep unwanted pests
from entering your display tank via your new corals.
Let's just start with the overall basic gist.
And that is to remove unwanted pests from your new corals
before they have a chance to enter your display tank
and spread like wildfire.
We're going to accomplish this with a mix of chemicals,
visual inspection, and manual removal.
Never, ever just plop your brand new corals
into your display tank.
At a bare minimum, just follow the steps
in this video to do a simple dip,
and that will help remove so many unwanted pests by itself.
But better yet, follow the steps in this video.
And then instead of putting your corals
directly into your display tank,
put them in a quarantine tank.
Well, let's go ahead and move on to all the gear
you're going to, need a quick nota bene here.
Always, always, always keep your aquarium gear
separate from anything you use in the kitchen.
All the gear we're going to be using is available at BRS,
but of course you can feel free
to substitute with stuff you have.
Just to be sure that whatever you use is saltwater safe
and is not going to leach out any chemicals.
For example, if you have a five gallon bucket
that you sometimes use with household chemicals,
don't ever use that in your aquarium
because you have no idea if those chemicals
will leach out and destroy your corals.
This should be pretty easy, but let's gather all the gear.
And of course, number one, we're going to start with towels.
Number two, four bowls or buckets.
We like these OXO mixing bowls,
especially since the white bottoms
give a great contrast to the pest
that we're going to be removing.
A colander, number three, not totally necessary,
but it will help remove pests.
Number four is a turkey baster,
either something plastic or stainless steel.
We also use this to remove pests.
Number five, coral dip.
Just buy one of the following, either Coral RX,
Two Little Fishies Revive, Brightwell Aquatics Koral MD.
Any one of those three is going to work just fine.
Number six is the BRS propagation kit.
Either the standard or the deluxe will work fine.
If you don't want the entire kit,
at least get a pair of bone cutters.
And something hard for scraping,
like a dull butter knife often works.
Number seven, soft brushes.
I've been using this OXO set for over five years,
but an old toothbrush will also work well.
Number eight, frag plugs and discs.
My favorite are the aragonite ones from Ocean Wonders
and just get a few different sizes.
Number nine is rubble rock.
You can either buy rubble rock or just use the pieces
of broken reef rock you already have.
Number 10 superglue, epoxy and Insta-set.
Make sure the glue is extra thick gel.
And this BRS Insta-set will make your life way easier
when it comes time to re-home corals onto their new plugs.
And the epoxy is there for large corals
that are just too big for the might of superglue.
Number 11 is a frag rack.
You can always make your own
out of black egg crate, PVC and zip ties,
or you can purchase a higher quality acrylic one
like this mini magnetic one I have from Aquamax.
Number 12, safety gear, gloves, mask and goggles.
At a minimum, you'll always want to wear gloves.
It will protect you from the coral and vice versa.
But if you're handling certain corals,
such as zoa's and palys,
then a mask and safety goggles are also a must.
And number 13, some sort of trash can or bucket
to discard everything as you go along.
Now that we have all of our gear,
let's move on to these step-by-step instructions.
But of course, I got a few things to say
before we get into that.
Number one, always wear gloves,
if not for your safety and the safety of the corals,
just so that you don't glue your fingers together.
I have almost, I take that back.
I have glued my fingers together
and it is embarrassing and a huge pain in the butt.
Number two is keep track
of where you purchase your corals from.
Some coral farms just have
cleaner corals than others with fewer pests.
So if you can remember where you bought it from,
then you can buy from them again in the future
and hopefully get cleaner corals.
Number three is to be sure that the water stays warm
throughout this entire process.
So if you are doing a dip in the middle of winter
and your house is 68 degrees,
you may need to add heaters to those containers
so that the corals aren't shocked
during the dipping process.
And number four, I already said it,
but only use aquarium dedicated tools.
It is just a really bad idea to walk into the kitchen
and grab a knife, use it on a coral
and then wash it and think everything's okay.
You could hurt the coral.
And you could also hurt yourself that way.
So only use dedicated coral tools.
There are many other products on the market
that may be helpful to you during this process,
such as iodine, antibiotics, insect killer, or coral aminos.
But as a beginner, I really recommend
mastering this simple dip first,
before experimenting with those other things.
During this process,
your corals are going to be exposed to air.
But don't worry, for the most part, corals can handle this.
Certainly all the beginner corals
on our list can handle this.
But just try to minimize the amount of time
they're exposed to the air.
Lastly, be sure to encourage your LPS corals, especially,
to retract before moving them from the water.
Sometimes you get the corals home
and they have already sent their polyps
really far out, especially Euphelia.
And if you just pull it up,
they could injure themselves on their own skeleton.
So what I like to do is take a large polyp stony coral,
hold it upside down in the water, right near the surface,
and just gently twirl it back and forth,
while bobbing it up and down.
And that will encourage them to retract
before you lift it out of the water.
Well, we got all of the basics out of the way
and it's time to move on to the step-by-step instructions.
And that is of course, next episode.
As always everybody, thanks for watching.
Happy reefing, be well, we'll see you next time.