DIY Coral Dip - Essential Oils

[Ccarlson]

This is by no means a "you should try this" but, I wanted to share my experience. 

 

I am working on my 10G, and had some free corals offered - but they needed to be dipped for flatworms, and they were all out of their own CoralRx.  

 

I tried 3 stores in town, and no one had any of the Bayer bug product, and then it dawned on me. I remember reading on the bottle a long time ago that Revive from TLF was primarily Spruce, Lemon, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oil, Water, and an organic emulsifier.   And, it just so happened that my wife had gotten into the essential oil craze, and so we had a shelf with tons of oils - I knew I could find most of the ingredients. 

 

I ended up using about 6-8 oz of tank water, 2 drops each of Lemon, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oil.  I didn't have any emulsifier, so I just used a Popsicle stick to keep the oil in suspension by agitating the water.  I dropped a zoa frag into the cup, and kept swirling for 30 or so seconds - flatworms came flying off!     I should have taken some pictures, but didn't think to. 

I then did a rinse in another 8 oz of just tank water to make sure there were no residual oils left on the plug. 

I ended up dipping 2 zoanthids, a montipora, efflatuounaria and a rhodactis with no ill effects, it appears that all bugs/nasties were killed because its been about a week and Ive seen no hitchhikers in the tank, and the corals all opened up within about a half hour of being placed in the tank. 

Again, Im NOT recommending this for everyone - but it worked in a pinch for me! I will be buying some Bayer off of amazon for next time around though :) 

[Thrassian Atoll]

Just an FYI, bayer is now called bioadvanced.  

[Clown79]

A lot of coral dips are made with essential oils so it's cool we can diy our own dips with this method. Less dangerous to our health as well

[Ratvan]

I've had to use tea tree oil before on discus, oscar and betta and also Clove oil when that didnt work. 

[Ccarlson]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

I've had to use tea tree oil before on discus, oscar and betta and also Clove oil when that didnt work. 

Yep, I thought about doing a little dose of clove to see what might happen, but figured Id play it safe. Clove is pretty harsh. 

 

[Ratvan]

52 minutes ago, Ccarlson said:

Yep, I thought about doing a little dose of clove to see what might happen, but figured Id play it safe. Clove is pretty harsh. 

 

Yeah I only use it to euthanize if I have too

[Tired]

That is probably too much. Essential oils are supposed to be hugely diluted with a carrier oil before being applied to any living thing. No matter what any health blog tells you, they shouldn't be applied directly to skin, ingested, or added to a humidifier or anything of the sort. Many of them are also toxic to pets- people have nearly killed, or outright killed, their dogs by putting the wrong essential oil in a diffuser or on a doggy bed. Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's good for you! Asbestos comes straight out of the ground without any processing to make it the way it is, and palytoxin, which is incredibly dangerous if you aren't careful enough, is completely natural. Just made by a coral. Doesn't get more natural than that, and also doesn't get much more toxic than that in terms of things you find in the natural world.

I would dilute essential oils pretty heavily before using them in coral dips (the commercial dips are probably also very diluted), and rinse the corals thoroughly afterward.

[patback]

14 minutes ago, Tired said:

That is probably too much. Essential oils are supposed to be hugely diluted with a carrier oil before being applied to any living thing. No matter what any health blog tells you, they shouldn't be applied directly to skin, ingested, or added to a humidifier or anything of the sort. Many of them are also toxic to pets- people have nearly killed, or outright killed, their dogs by putting the wrong essential oil in a diffuser or on a doggy bed. Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's good for you! Asbestos comes straight out of the ground without any processing to make it the way it is, and palytoxin, which is incredibly dangerous if you aren't careful enough, is completely natural. Just made by a coral. Doesn't get more natural than that, and also doesn't get much more toxic than that in terms of things you find in the natural world.

I would dilute essential oils pretty heavily before using them in coral dips (the commercial dips are probably also very diluted), and rinse the corals thoroughly afterward.

Did you read the original post?  8 droplets total in 8 ounces hardly seems like its "undiluted"

[Tired]

It's supposed to be diluted in a carrier oil, which prevents any possible tiny droplets of un-concentrated oil from forming like you can get in water. The water mixture dilutes it to some extent, but that might not be enough, especially for more sensitive organisms. I definitely wouldn't use less water. That post was also directed at the use of essential oils in general- topical, ingested, everywhere else that people use them. You can burn your skin and your assorted mucus membranes pretty badly with the undiluted stuff. 

 

I mean, clearly it works, I'd just be careful with the stuff. Be a shame to hurt a nice coral if a spray of droplets hit it, or for someone to burn their skin because they read somewhere that they could use the oil un-diluted. Be a worse shame for someone's dog to die of "tried to make things smell nice".

[Ksull72487]

Attempting this now. Just bought a Elegance coral decent size for 39 bucks. Got my GSP free. Did not trust the GSP rock. So I had to come up with a fast dip. Only gonna do 15 mins and see what happens.

 

Let you guys know if I had same results.

[farkwar]

Imadicloprid is the generic active ingredient to Bayer.  I bought a gallon of it on Amazon

 

I use 6mls per gallon for dip

 

I wouldn't trust the integrity of the ingredients of "essential" oils. I have bought those for candle making, and you never really know what's in the vial.

 

Imadicloprid

CoralRX

Revive

And Lugols

 

Is what I use

[king aiptasia]

On 9/14/2019 at 9:58 PM, Tired said:

That is probably too much. Essential oils are supposed to be hugely diluted with a carrier oil before being applied to any living thing. No matter what any health blog tells you, they shouldn't be applied directly to skin, ingested, or added to a humidifier or anything of the sort. Many of them are also toxic to pets- people have nearly killed, or outright killed, their dogs by putting the wrong essential oil in a diffuser or on a doggy bed. Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's good for you! Asbestos comes straight out of the ground without any processing to make it the way it is, and palytoxin, which is incredibly dangerous if you aren't careful enough, is completely natural. Just made by a coral. Doesn't get more natural than that, and also doesn't get much more toxic than that in terms of things you find in the natural world.

I would dilute essential oils pretty heavily before using them in coral dips (the commercial dips are probably also very diluted), and rinse the corals thoroughly afterward.

this is not medical advice but i got rid of ringworm fungus by dripping undiluted tea tree oil on the spot for a while

[Tired]

Yeah, don't do that. I'm glad it worked for you ,but if you get ringworm again, get a proper antifungal treatment. Or use diluted tea tree oil- it does have antifungal properties, it just shouldn't be put directly on one's skin.