I was contacted via Facebook to try out a new product designed for coral dipping. I had a coral that has been questionably acting like it is being bothered by a pest of some type, and I was happy to try out the product as it was labeled to remove Acropora-eating Flatworms (AEFW). I've been studying this coral for the past couple of months, flooding it with flow from a maxijet to blow off any flatworms, but not seeing any. Why not try out All Out, produced by Reef Pest Solutions?
According to the label, this product will safely eradicate Red Bugs, Nudibranchs, Spiders, Pods, Bristleworms, Flatworms, Invertebrates, Algae, and Eggs. Eggs? According to Matt Reed, he's been developing this product specifically to target egg strands with a penetrating chemical. The website states that it also removes Asterinas, Montipora-Eating Nudibranchs, Zoanthid-Eating Nudibranchs, and helps with both RTN and STN. That's a lot to cover. All Out is made for Zoanthids, LPS and SPS corals - not fish, invertebrates, shrimp, crabs, clams, and snails. This product is not safe for the aquarium; it is a dip to be used prior to introducing new corals into your reef, or better yet your quarantine system.
What caught my eye was the statement on the bottle that it includes Aloe Vera. According to the site, Aloe helps the coral stay protected while the pests take the hit. The product does not contain Iodine which is commonly used to fight various parasites. The additive ls bluish in color, and watery. It smells of pine oil, like some other dip products currently available. According to the instructions, use 4 ml for every 2 cups of tank water. A bottle will mix up 5-gallons of dip solution. All Out retails for $19.99, and will be available from ReefPestSolutions.com.
Here's a picture of the coral in question. It's some type of Acropora, and may be either A. austera or maybe A. tortuosa. The fact that the main core has been turning brown and even had some light spots on the tissue led me to believe AEFW were munching on it. It has encrusted on the top of a big piece of live rock, so my plan was to invert it in the solution rather than immerse the entire rock. The gorgonian and the birdsnest were adjacent, and weren't dipped.
Here's the dipping station I set up. The large bucket held the coral in question, the smaller bucket for the dip solution, and the glass pyrex to measure out the tank water being used.
This bucket holds 1-gallon (16 cups) of tank water, so I used 8 x 4 ml for the correct mixture, measuring the milliliters with a test kit syringe.
The rock rested on the rim of the bucket and the coral was immersed in the solution. I set the timer for 15 minutes.
After 10 minutes, I inspected the coral to see if it looked distressed, but it looked fine.
After the timer chimed, I rinsed the coral with a turkey baster of the solution several times from various angles to rinse away any pests.
Thereafter, the coral was moved to the larger bucket and I poured a quart of tank water over the coral and rock to rinse away the product. The coral was then moved back into the reef. The fish were very curious and pecked at the rock for about 15 minutes.
The coral was barely stressed, based on the slight wisps of white stringy stuff coming from some of the polyps. With handling, dipping and basting, plus exposure to air, that was to be expected.
I was very curious to see what came off the coral, but couldn't see through the blue solution. I poured the bucket out through a rotifer screen, catching all the bits on the membrane.
Not an AEFW in sight. I rinsed the screen off into the bucket to see the particles against a white background. There was detritus, a tiny collonista snail, some tiny brittle starfish, a few asterinas, and a few white calcified disks that I couldn't identify. I saw some red spots at the bottom of the bucket that weren't recognizable. Nothing was moving, even after waiting 10 minutes. All Out definitely killed these specimens.
An additional perk to this process was while I had the rock out of the tank, I was able to scrape away a pest Majano and a few bubbles of Valonia.
I wished I would have found some AEFW or other interesting parasite to explain why this acropora isn't as colorful as it could be, but at the same time it was good news that I didn't discover a vicious infestation. I'll be sure to update this article with how the coral is doing in a week or two.
My work area cleaned up easily, with no staining. If your corals have issues with Zoanthid-eating Nudibranchs, Montiopora-eating Nudibranchs, Zoanthid spiders or other visible pests, try using this dip and let us know how it worked for you. We are always ready to use a guaranteed solution, and this one may be just the one we've been waiting for.
This product was provided to me free of charge for the purpose of this product review.
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