Does dipping kill live rock?

[Kasrift]

I was on the hunt for some Aussie live rock to increase diversity as I started with only dry Marco rock. I've hunted around the internet and it is fairly pricey. I'm doing this solely to add diversity, but otherwise my tank is thriving.

Anyways, I got to looking around on Sea Dwelling Creatures and in the furnace (Wysiwyg section) I realize they have chunky rocks with zoas on them. I was thinking this would qualify as live rock, but then I also was wondering if dipping the rocks in CoralRx or the like would kill any benefits of live rock. I don't need a large live rock since my tank is already a year and a half old, just never added any live rock to begin with and wanted to add diversity. For context, this is the style of rock I was looking at:

 

[Dan_P]

I was on the hunt for some Aussie live rock to increase diversity as I started with only dry Marco rock. I've hunted around the internet and it is fairly pricey. I'm doing this solely to add diversity, but otherwise my tank is thriving.

Anyways, I got to looking around on Sea Dwelling Creatures and in the furnace (Wysiwyg section) I realize they have chunky rocks with zoas on them. I was thinking this would qualify as live rock, but then I also was wondering if dipping the rocks in CoralRx or the like would kill any benefits of live rock. I don't need a large live rock since my tank is already a year and a half old, just never added any live rock to begin with and wanted to add diversity. For context, this is the style of rock I was looking at:
View attachment 3103491

If the aquarium is doing well, don’t tamper with it “Increasing biodiversity” a poorly defined concept in the hobby with unproven benefits, and worse, it is an unmeasurable parameter.

 

[Kasrift]

If the aquarium is doing well, don’t tamper with it “Increasing biodiversity” a poorly defined concept in the hobby with unproven benefits, and worse, it is an unmeasurable parameter.

You have a point. I guess I am curious to know what bacteria does survive our dips. In the end, we add frags with pieces of rocks, can we assume that most everything is killed when we did or is that one way of slowly adding some of that diversity?

 

[Dan_P]

You have a point. I guess I am curious to know what bacteria does survive our dips. In the end, we add frags with pieces of rocks, can we assume that most everything is killed when we did or is that one way of slowly adding some of that diversity?

I guess we would have to define diversity. What organisms does diversity refer to and what biocide does the dip contain?

 

[Makara23]

Is this live rock from a tank or the Ocean? They are very different. If it's for seeding your tank with more biodiversity, then I would only get rocks from the ocean. Yes, very expensive, especially shipped submerged.

And if you're going to dip it, I wouldn't bother getting any rocks. It might kill a lot of the micro fauna and critters, that's exactly what a dip is meant to do.

 

[Paul B]

If you are looking for biodiversity, add biodiversity but don't kill it by dipping. That is just IMO counterproductive and wasteful.

 

[Kasrift]

Is this live rock from a tank or the Ocean? They are very different. If it's for seeding your tank with more biodiversity, then I would only get rocks from the ocean. Yes, very expensive, especially shipped submerged.

And if you're going to dip it, I wouldn't bother getting any rocks. It might kill a lot of the micro fauna and critters, that's exactly what a dip is meant to do.

From the ocean, not dry rock just cooking in salt water. So my follow up is, let's say you buy some coral from an importer, I'm thinking this might be a way to get a small amount of live rock, like this zoa rock from Sea Dwelling Creatures:

Do you think the importers dip this first? If I just throw it in a quarantine tank for a few months to catch pests, do you think this would be the same as buying live "aussie rock" (the costs on the internet is 50$ a pound) where this might be cheaper to get a little chunk of the ocean.

 

[Bucs20fan]

While this is an interesting topic, I would dip anything that has coral on it, I have too many expensive corals to take a chance. That being said, if you really wanted to get a chunk like that, I would use something like red sea dip, one of the dips that is not iodine based so it doesnt kill off the bacteria as well.

 

[Spare time]

Dip it. The magical biodiversity fairy isn't as important as preventing pests

 

[Makara23]

From the ocean, not dry rock just cooking in salt water. So my follow up is, let's say you buy some coral from an importer, I'm thinking this might be a way to get a small amount of live rock, like this zoa rock from Sea Dwelling Creatures:


Do you think the importers dip this first? If I just throw it in a quarantine tank for a few months to catch pests, do you think this would be the same as buying live "aussie rock" (the costs on the internet is 50$ a pound) where this might be cheaper to get a little chunk of the ocean.

How do you know it's from the ocean? I'm looking through their site and see no mentions of this. From pics, looks like it's on an egg crate, which could mean it's already been sitting there for an undetermined amount of time, alongside corals with recognizable trade names that are on frag (so definitely not directly from the ocean). They're also from LA, which tells me that IF the rocks were originally from the ocean, it was collected somewhere else and shipped to them and held there. In other words, not fresh.

I got my rocks from TBS, who details their procedure. They get it from Florida coast and shipped directly to you. There were tons of stuff on it, including macro algae, worms, pods, micro sea stars, various crabs, aiptasia, and other critters I can't ID.

IMO, it makes less sense to add real ocean live rock at this point. What are you trying to achieve with more biodiversity if you're already happy with your system? I think there are more benefits starting a new system with ocean live rock because it cuts down on cycling time and ugly phase, which you've passed already. It's also easier to deal with hitchhiking pests when the system is new. If you introduce aiptasia, vermatids, or crabs you can't catch in your established system, it could be the end of you.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I always dip every coral. I have used LR in the past with no major issues, but if a coral is on a rock, the whole thing gets dipped.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I always dip every coral. I have used LR in the past with no major issues, but if a coral is on a rock, the whole thing gets dipped.

THIS

 

[GatorGreg]

You can dip all you want. You ain’t killing them eggs. If that’s a dirty frag them eggs will hatch eventually. Your dip isn’t going to affect the eggs