Red Sea Coral DipX
A dip in DipX is a new product which is ideal to use before placing new corals and live rocks into your aquarium will help you avoid introducing unwanted hitchhikers.
This product is available from Delta Aquatics
A new coral may have a lot of unwanted hitchhikers hiding deep inside its crevices. These creatures can travel to other corals and damage your reef ecosystem if you don’t drive them away first. DipX is designed specifically for safely introducing new corals into an aquarium by driving these small, yet destructive organisms out from the inside-out before they cause any long term harm in the tank itself.
For the past few years, Red Sea have been cultivating infested corals and comparing a wide range of commercially available dips and other repelling ingredients. We examined both their effectiveness and overall safety for the corals while exploring many options to find what works best.
DipX is a new blend of essential oils that doesn’t use inorganic disinfectants. Our tests have shown DipX to be completely safe for corals and more effective than other solutions we’ve tested before.
Corals have hitchhikers for a variety of reasons, and some are better than others. Some corals may invite certain types of invertebrates to live with them as “cleaners” – housekeepers that pick off parasites or debris from the surface of their skin in exchange for shelter and protection . Other organisms like sponges seek out coral reefs because they need somewhere sturdy to attach themselves while developing young .
There are three sizes of Red Sea DipX
n nature, small invertebrates live on corals and the reef rocks. They are called “opportunistic dwellers”, because they can be found in many places where there is food for them to eat. The most common groups of these opportunistic dwellers include crustaceans (shrimp), helminths (worms such as tapeworms or flukes which infest animals including humans), echinoderms(starfish and brittle stars) , nudibranchs (), snails ().
Among the smallest inhabitants of coral reefs are invertebrates like crustaceans, helminths (worms), echinoderms, nudibranchs and snails. Collectively these microbes make their homes on corals and reef rocks as opportunistic dwellers since they have a high tolerance for harsh conditions such as water currents or sunlight exposure.
Carefully inspecting corals should be part of the regular husbandry routine for a reef aquarium. As there are no viable methods to remove specific opportunistic dwellers from an established reef, it is highly recommended that you go with “better safe than sorry” and try preventing them from getting in in the first place. If they’re already present in your tank though, affected corals need to be dealt with one by one through removal until eradication can take place .