When receiving corals online or through a reputable dealer or from a fellow reefkeeper, It is important to obtain the healthiest specimens.  There are many reasons for picking healthy specimens but one extremely important reason is that you don’t want to expose your saltwater reef aquarium to unwanted parasites or disease. 

   One way of making sure you are not bringing unwanted parasites into your reef tank is using a coral dip.   A coral dip is simple to use and every one has a different set of directions that are easy to follow.  Mainly you will add a little coral dip (or Lugol’s solution, iodine solution) to some tank water and soak your new coral for a period of time.  The soak time is dependent on the solution you are using, the  MediCoral Coral Dip – 60 mL – 2 oz. as shown above has a soak time of 8-11 minutes for soft corals and 7-10 minutes for sps corals.

  The Medicoral Dip comes in two size bottles a 2oz and a 1oz bottle.  You may be thinking that it may not be worth to spend the $10-$20 bucks on a bottle but keep in mind that only 20 drops of this solution is combined with one gallon of saltwater (you can use fresh made saltwater).  Also that dipping your corals will prevent coral eating organisms from destroying your whole tank, this hobby is expensive and a little preventive care goes a long way.

  I chose Medicoral dip for dipping my corals because it has a good name among reefers on the online forums.  When I started out on this hobby I had pyramid snails, sundail snails, zoanthid spiders and flatworms that all caused big tank problems.  I wouldn’t even think about adding another piece of coral without dipping it first.