Every pest problem in a reef tank started as a hitchhiker on a frag. Flatworms, red bugs, montipora nudibranchs, asterina stars, bryopsis. None of them appear out of nowhere. Dipping every new coral before it goes in the tank is the cheapest insurance in the hobby, and it takes about five minutes from bag to rock.
This is the routine I use on every coral that comes through my hands. It is written around Bubble Bath because that is the dip I make, but the steps that matter most (inspection, agitation, rinsing, repeating) apply to any dip you choose.
What you need
- Two or three clean containers that have never touched soap
- Water from your tank, or fresh saltwater mixed to 1.026
- A turkey baster
- Your coral dip
- A pair of tweezers or an old toothbrush for egg removal
Step 1: Acclimate first, dip second
Float or drip the bag as you normally would so the coral is at your tank's temperature and salinity. Dipping a coral that is already shocked by a 4 degree swing is how people lose frags and blame the dip. Let the coral close up or retract before it goes in. A retracted coral protects its own tissue.
Step 2: Mix the dip
For Bubble Bath the ratio is 1 part dip to 5 parts saltwater. One cup of dip plus five cups of saltwater is a good size for a handful of frags. Measure it. Eyeballing a dip is the most common mistake I see, in both directions.
Other dips use very different ratios and times, so read the label on whatever you use. Coral RX, for example, calls for 5 to 10 minutes. Iodine dips run 15 to 30. Do not carry one product's numbers over to another.
Step 3: Dip for exactly 1 minute, and keep it moving
Submerge the coral and blast it with the turkey baster the entire time. Get under the plug, into the base, between branches, and across the underside of plates. The dip kills pests, but the water movement is what knocks them off so you can see them. You will often see bubbles forming on the coral. That is normal and means it is working.
Set a timer. One minute is the label time for Bubble Bath. Longer is not better.
Step 4: Look at the bottom of the container
This is the step that tells you whether you just saved your tank. Hold the container up to a light or pour it into a white bowl. Red bugs look like moving specks of pepper. Flatworms look like tiny flat flecks that curl. Nudibranchs look like small blobs the same colour as the coral they came off. If you find anything, assume there are eggs on that coral too, and plan on repeat dips (see below).
Step 5: Rinse twice
Move the coral through two containers of clean, temperature-matched saltwater. Swish it in each for 20 to 30 seconds. Dump the dip and both rinses down the drain. Never pour dip water into the tank or a sump.
Step 6: Deal with the plug
Look over the plug and any bare skeleton for egg masses. AEFW eggs are small brown or golden ovals. Montipora nudibranch eggs are white or cream spirals. No dip reliably kills eggs. Scrape them off, or simply remount the coral on a fresh plug and throw the old one away.
Step 7: Repeat if you found pests
A single dip clears adults. Eggs hatch later. If anything came off in Step 4, dip that coral again every 5 to 7 days for at least three rounds, ideally in a quarantine tank. One dip and done only works when the coral was clean to begin with.
What a dip will and will not do
Bubble Bath is labelled for animal pests (flatworms, nudibranchs, bristleworms, red bugs, asterina stars, spaghetti worms, isopods, pyramid snails) and for plant pests (bryopsis, bubble algae, green hair algae, turf algae, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria). Animal pests die during the dip. Algae on the coral breaks down over the following days.
A dip will not kill eggs. It will not cure a coral that is already sick from transport or bad water. And dipping a piece of rock or a coral will kill the copepods living on that piece. That is expected and localized. It does not crash the pod population in your tank.
Common questions
Should I dip every coral, even from a trusted store?
Yes. Good vendors dip too, but frags sit in shared systems. Every reefer with a clean tank I know dips everything, every time.
Can I dip soft corals, zoanthids, and anemones?
Bubble Bath is labelled safe for SPS, LPS, softies, mushrooms and anemones at the 1:5 ratio for 1 minute. Zoas and LPS with big fleshy tissue should be allowed to close up first.
How long does a bottle last?
At the 1:5 ratio, a 16 oz bottle makes roughly 30 dips and a 32 oz makes roughly 60.
Can I dose it in the tank instead of dipping?
For nuisance algae, yes: 1.5 to 2.5 mL per 10 gallons, twice a day, with carbon removed. Results take 6 to 8 weeks. Dosing does not affect copepod populations. For hitchhikers on new corals, dipping is still the right tool.
Bubble Bath is sold at Coral's Coral. For printable protocols, timing by coral type and a cheat sheet for your fish room, see The Complete Coral Dipping Guide.