KFC Dip

Mixed Reefer

Well-Known Member
Moderator
BRS Member
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!
A8FB4D95-66FA-4D6E-9D83-7ED2BB1BCFA8.jpeg
8A411F3E-D893-4704-BB49-73ED3C717904.jpeg
CA5E9F57-0860-4A2A-B5A5-59957212A08A.jpeg
D016D163-885C-46C4-B23E-D79B98EE75CC.jpeg
7AAC50BB-A6D9-444C-9A31-DF4F7CF5475C.jpeg
09EBE399-CD2A-438C-8391-1458571AB4AA.jpeg
4F9F6E75-6A6B-484D-B2FE-BD714A3A6771.jpeg
96AC4998-1307-4980-9BEC-EE46C8295526.jpeg
D5729B40-3703-41D2-8635-512A8749C245.jpeg
 
Nice! That’s a lot of work but she’s back! So probs worth it… I do wonder if fewer dips would also work
You ain’t kidding! I was working seven days a week, not fun but definitely worth it. Fewer dips? Well I wish in my case. But the torch kept loosing tissue every night for the first week. It was like white flakes of flesh basting off. On another note I bought two torch corals from the same vendor. One had no sign of infection but I dipped it one night for six hours along with the other coral that remained in the KFC dip overnight. This was a game changer for that torch. The tentacles are so much more out now. I wished I had before and after pictures to show that the dip improved its health. Thriving now.
 
my guess is that cipro alone as the antibiotic part of the dip is good enough. It may not be necessary to use Chemiclean (Erythromycin, an antibiotic itself) and amoxicillin together with Cipro. I guess the KFC dip is to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the coral.
 
Thanks for posting this. Great to see another success story with that process.

The main question when I hear about this is how do you obtain the difficult to get medications?
 
my guess is that cipro alone as the antibiotic part of the dip is good enough. It may not be necessary to use Chemiclean (Erythromycin, an antibiotic itself) and amoxicillin together with Cipro. I guess the KFC dip is to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the coral.
That’s exactly what Danny from Kung Fu Corals had said. To basically throw everything at it. It worked:)
 
Thanks for posting this. Great to see another success story with that process.

The main question when I hear about this is how do you obtain the difficult to get medications?
Thanks
Well I talked to my vet. That didn’t go well.lol.
But you can find on line for use with fish. But from what I’ve seen is mostly out of stock.
 
I recommend just getting the KFC dip kit from Danny though if its something people are interested in
 
Thanks for posting this. Great to see another success story with that process.

The main question when I hear about this is how do you obtain the difficult to get medications?
Kungfu corals now sells the medication alone instead of the full package as another option. I’m attempting the same as soon as the pills come in. So I could use in conjunction as prescribed and hoping going forward loose much less if at all my beloved torches lol
Just waiting on the pills.
 

Attachments

  • 0CF7540A-33CA-47BC-BB4D-F1ED4831F2BD.png
    0CF7540A-33CA-47BC-BB4D-F1ED4831F2BD.png
    102.1 KB · Views: 90
Last edited:
Kungfu corals now sells the medication alone instead of the full package as another option. I’m attempting the same as soon as the pills come in. So I could use in conjunction as prescribed and hoping going forward loose much less if at all my beloved torches lol
Just waiting on the pills.
It’s a great idea to have this medication on hand. You’ll get great results if you follow recipe. I changed up recipe to save some medication. I made one gallon baths instead of recommended four gallon baths by dividing medication up using a razor. Let me know if you have any questions
 
It’s a great idea to have this medication on hand. You’ll get great results if you follow recipe. I changed up recipe to save some medication. I made one gallon baths instead of recommended four gallon baths by dividing medication up using a razor. Let me know if you have any questions
Danny's reasoning was that he had a 4 gallon bucket on hand from what was said during this stream with Deven from Reefdudes.

 
Upcoming Events

April 21, 2024
Paul B
Club Meeting

Back
Top