I use a dip routinely for all new stock (fish). I also use Methylene blue in my dip water as a treatment for external parasites. It is very safe for all fish types and has the added benefit of being high in dissolved oxygen to help with fish stress, plus it is very dark, so this also offers some comfort to the livestock. This is my procedure:
Make sure your
QT is up, running and ready to go.
1] In separate bucket (use a bucket dedicated to this purpose) collect about 1G of Purified water (you can use de-chlorinated tap water for this).
2] Using a thermometer and small heater, stabilize the water to
QT temperature
3] Add an airstone from a small airpump to the water and adjust with sir-gang valve, small aeration flow.
4] Go through the temperature acclimation and water changes as usual to the shipping water (i.e. float bag in
QT to acclimate, add small amounts of water etc)
5] Once acclimation is complete, I use a separate empty bucket and then empty the livestock into a hatching container sitting in the bucket. This is a smallish plastic cage with slats and holes in it for the water to circulate through, but will contain the fish.
6] Add methylene blue as per instructions to the
FW dip. It will get very dark, be careful, it will stain, so either wear gloves, or deal with the bluish tint for a day or so.
7] I then pick up the hatching container with the fish, drain out the water and quickly transfer the container into the
FW dip solution. Depending on the fish type (prone to jumping), I cover the container (you can buy these with covers).
I let it sit in the dip for about 10 minutes occasionally moving the container around to help circulation. I strongly recommend using the container, as you cannot see the fish in the methylene blue mix, it is so dark blue. I also check to be sure that the fish does not look unusually stressed out (lying on the side at the bottom of the container etc.) You will notice that the fish may act kinda drunk and lethargic and that is normal, but if it stops moving all together and stays on the bottom on its side, I terminate the dip.
8] When I am ready to transfer, I bring up the container, hold over a shallow container and then quickly transfer the fish to the
QT.
So far I have been lucky to not have a single instance of any parasitic or other disease problems with my stock. Cannot say 100% due to the treatment but the best information I have read is that a combination of a
FW dip and the
QT procedure considerably reduces the chances of introducting any undesirables into your main tank.
HTH 8)