I just want to share my experience using the KFC dip on my HG torch. I went to Reef Palooza NY and purchased a Holy Grail torch. It was doing great in my tank for the first couple of weeks. One day I noticed the skin started to recede. I’ve lost a bunch of torch corals in my two years of Reefing and was very upset to see this happening again in my reef tank. I posted about this on Facebook and @tkyee98 one of own Boston Reefers had recommended to check out the KFC dip from Kung Fu Corals. I didn’t want to lose this torch coral and so I started researching the KFC dip. There is a excellent video that I came across on Reef Dudes interviewing Danny from Kung Fu Corals. Danny explains in details the dip and the corals that you could use the dip on. Here’s everything you need to know and my personal experience using it. If you follow along you will see it is very time consuming but the end result is that it worked. I am convinced that this dip saved this coral. Many of us reefers have seen our favorite corals wither away in front of us. It can be heart breaking. Using this procedure has given me some confidence in giving the proper care for most of my corals.
Here’s the KFC Dip ingredients
Brightwell Restor
Brightwell Lugols Solution
Chemiclean red package
Ciprofloxacin
amoxicillin
Here’s the procedure
Before you begin you must prewash your coral in a 3% hydrogen peroxide bath using tank water. The ratio was 20ml of hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of tank water. I placed the coral in this bath for ten minutes and used a turkey baster lightly to remove all the dead tissue. You’ll see small amounts of bubbling due to the hydrogen peroxide oxidizing. This is ok but if it’s bubbling super fast you need to remove coral.
For the dip itself I dissolved the ciprofloxacin and amoxicillin in tank water for about ten minutes. Then I added the Restor Lugols chemiclean and mixed well so there wasn’t large un dissolved medication floating around. I made a one gallon dip for my use. While dipping you must keep it heated and water movement. For me the easiest way was to attach a specimen container inside the top of my tank and add a sponge filter that I had on hand. I was a bit nervous of this because one accident and the medication would be in my display. During dipping I was extra cautious not to allow any spillage. So the dip was ready and the torch was pre washed. My first night that I dipped the coral was 12 hours of dipping. This isn’t bad because you could set it and forget it! Right? After work I dipped the torch in the KFC dip for twelve hours the first eight nights. I’ll be honest the torch had receded so much I thought it was a goner. I kept up with dipping and finally got to the point that the tissue stopped coming off. I felt there was some hope for recovery. I noticed that as I progressed with the dips every night the coral was opening while in the medication a little more. The first nights using the KFC dip the coral was so tightly closed up I wondered if it was getting any of the antibiotics where the infection was. So back to the dip. I stayed with it dipping each night and as time went on the skin stopped shredding off its base. I slowly cut back the duration of my dips to four hours.
After dipping you must rewash the coral in the 3% hydrogen peroxide and tank water bath for another ten minutes before placing the coral back in tank. I used the KFC dip for a total of 13 days. There’s some before and after videos on instagram under Kung Fu Corals that shows the recovery and a bunch of other corals that went through the dip. For more information on the products and procedure you can find them here. https://Kung Fu corals.com/
The only other thing that I think might be of importance is when you see a problem with one of your torch corals is that you act fast especially with euphyllia. Infections can kill them overnight. In my case I think one of my crabs was messing with it. I’m not sure if this was the issue but I won’t rule it out. During the dips I stopped feeding my torches directly. Anyway I hope this will help some of you reefers in your collections. Check out my before and after pictures and check out Kung Fu Corals!
These pictures are from first dip to just under 6 weeks of recovery. Happy Reefing!
Here’s the KFC Dip ingredients
Brightwell Restor
Brightwell Lugols Solution
Chemiclean red package
Ciprofloxacin
amoxicillin
Here’s the procedure
Before you begin you must prewash your coral in a 3% hydrogen peroxide bath using tank water. The ratio was 20ml of hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of tank water. I placed the coral in this bath for ten minutes and used a turkey baster lightly to remove all the dead tissue. You’ll see small amounts of bubbling due to the hydrogen peroxide oxidizing. This is ok but if it’s bubbling super fast you need to remove coral.
For the dip itself I dissolved the ciprofloxacin and amoxicillin in tank water for about ten minutes. Then I added the Restor Lugols chemiclean and mixed well so there wasn’t large un dissolved medication floating around. I made a one gallon dip for my use. While dipping you must keep it heated and water movement. For me the easiest way was to attach a specimen container inside the top of my tank and add a sponge filter that I had on hand. I was a bit nervous of this because one accident and the medication would be in my display. During dipping I was extra cautious not to allow any spillage. So the dip was ready and the torch was pre washed. My first night that I dipped the coral was 12 hours of dipping. This isn’t bad because you could set it and forget it! Right? After work I dipped the torch in the KFC dip for twelve hours the first eight nights. I’ll be honest the torch had receded so much I thought it was a goner. I kept up with dipping and finally got to the point that the tissue stopped coming off. I felt there was some hope for recovery. I noticed that as I progressed with the dips every night the coral was opening while in the medication a little more. The first nights using the KFC dip the coral was so tightly closed up I wondered if it was getting any of the antibiotics where the infection was. So back to the dip. I stayed with it dipping each night and as time went on the skin stopped shredding off its base. I slowly cut back the duration of my dips to four hours.
After dipping you must rewash the coral in the 3% hydrogen peroxide and tank water bath for another ten minutes before placing the coral back in tank. I used the KFC dip for a total of 13 days. There’s some before and after videos on instagram under Kung Fu Corals that shows the recovery and a bunch of other corals that went through the dip. For more information on the products and procedure you can find them here. https://Kung Fu corals.com/
The only other thing that I think might be of importance is when you see a problem with one of your torch corals is that you act fast especially with euphyllia. Infections can kill them overnight. In my case I think one of my crabs was messing with it. I’m not sure if this was the issue but I won’t rule it out. During the dips I stopped feeding my torches directly. Anyway I hope this will help some of you reefers in your collections. Check out my before and after pictures and check out Kung Fu Corals!
These pictures are from first dip to just under 6 weeks of recovery. Happy Reefing!