Coral Acclimation and Dipping Guide

Dipping is an incredibly important part of introducing a new coral to your tank. It allows you to control and mitigate pests and/or hitchhikers that may ride along on a new coral. 

While there are many coral dips available, we strongly recommend the use of Polyp Labs Reef Primer. This coral dip(available on our storefront as well) is great at destroying pests while still being very gentle on the corals. Some other coral dips can be very rough on the frags, so we don't suggest using them.

Coral Acclimation

Necessary Equipment:

  • Dipping container 
    • Generally it is best to get something with measurements printed on it so you know what volume of water you're working with and can appropriately add dips.
  • Stirring stick

Useful equipment:

  • Turkey baster
  • Coral glue 
  • Frag rack

> Upon arrival, inspect the frags and make sure they are in good condition. Sometimes the frags escape their cups during shipping. This is OK. While corals can be delicate, they are also very robust and can handle a lot of stress. If something is knocked off the plug you can easily reglue it to the plug or rock after dipping.

> Float the corals in your tank so that the water matches the temperature in your tank.

> Make your Reef Primer solution. Make sure to carefully measure the amount of water required and dissolve all the salts before placing any corals in the dip. Remember, you're dipping these corals in saltwater NOT freshwater.

> Place the corals in the dip and gently agitate them with a turkey baster a few times. Leave the corals in this dip for no longer than 15 minutes, agitating gently every 5 minutes. 

> Remove corals from the dip making sure to remove as much dip water as possible from the coral. This can easily be done by gently shaking a bit of the water off of the corals or using a colander of sorts. You can also have a second container with new tank water to place them in for a few minutes. 

> Place corals in tank or on frag rack to open up.