Welcoming coral to your home!!! How do you add coral to your tank?

[Reefer Matt]

I float for temp, dip, then add to tank. Every coral, every time.

 

[SomeHappyFish]

Float, dip, cut the frag plug and brush the left over that I couldn't cut then add to my display

 

[flashsmith]

I probably haven't added anything in a year or more. I dip then add. I got fed up with being overwhelmed with aiptasia buying from live sale vendors on seemingly clean frags.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Yeah pretty basic: float for temp, dip and place in a spot i think is suitable for the type of coral for flow and lighting. I stick to certain vendors so par and placement is what i look at water quality will suit the coral so dripping i did once or twice but never again

Correct. Same here.

I would also add cutting the stem off of frag plug, or removing plug all together if possible for best placement. I always trim the plugs when dipping.

 

[Enad]

Honestly depends on where I'm getting the coral from and what type it is. If it's from my local shop and has been there for a week + and has been looking great, then I'll probably just acclimate for 15 mins then put it in the tank in an area of lower flow and lighting. Certain corals that I buy online, I'll dip first but not always. More sensitive corals like Elegance, I won't dip but I'll put them in a low light quarantine tank for a few months. Obviously, the latter is for special corals.

I voted option 3 as that's what I do most frequently, I'd say. I prefer the biodiversity I gain by not dipping.

 

[mfinn]

I haven't added much coral to my tanks in the past couple years, but I usually acclimate and put directly in the display tank.
I used to quarantine new wild zoanthid colonies when I had a zoanthid dominated tank, but didn't really do that for my other display tanks.
One thing I learned ( the hard way) is I added a few new soft coral colonies to my 240 a few years ago from another hobbyist.
It was a couple days later I found out the guy was taking down his system because he had velvet and had lost most of his fish. He didn't tell when we met in Petco parking lot.
I soon lost about 1/2 of my fish.
I won't do that anymore.

 

[TailspotBlenny]

I’m a little surprised only 10% quarantine their corals. When I first started my previous reef tank, I had a deadly ich outbreak right after adding a mushroom rock and some snails. I hadn’t added a fish in at least 1-2 months.
I guess it must not happen that often if most don’t quarantine corals?

 

[jroger]

Short 15min acclimation, then dip, then display tank. Most recently, Jedi Mind Trick monti.

 

[TeeJay87]

I’m a little surprised only 10% quarantine their corals. When I first started my previous reef tank, I had a deadly ich outbreak right after adding a mushroom rock and some snails. I hadn’t added a fish in at least 1-2 months.
I guess it must not happen that often if most don’t quarantine corals?

It’s probably happened to about 10% of reefers then + a big % of reefers who left the hobby because of it.

 

[mdrobc13]

Welcoming coral to your home!!! How do you add coral to your tank?

Congratulations on the newly acquired coral! Let’s talk about how you move it into your system. Do you take many of the same steps that you would take with a new fish, or do you have a different approach for acclimating corals? Of course, it may depend on the type of coral, but if that is the case then let us know how you introduce different types of coral to your system. Some reef keepers dip all new coral, whereas other reef keepers don’t dip any of their corals (or maybe just certain types). Additionally, sometimes the corals are added directly to the reef tank and other times there is a quarantine tank used. An observation box within the tank is also a possibility.

Photo by @Dempsey941


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Dip and aerate gently to acclimate, rinse tank water than add to coral frag tray in my sump to acclimate a bit for a few days with cheap LED light and Kessel. Then move to main display tank later when ready and space.