Dipping corals? Whats the idea behind it?

[chrismhaase]

I have heard of dipping corals in iodine/lugol's solution. What does this actually accomplish? What is the chemistry idea behind this? I need someone to give me a quick summary of this practice and ideas behind it. thanks, Chris

 

[lvreefer]

The premise is to prevent any unwanted pest from entering and spreading to the other inhabitants of your reef. Some aquarist only dip SPS and others will do every coral that enters their reef. A lot of aquarist warn against the use of Lugals on soft and LPS corals. They use a coral dip (tectra-d) vs. Lugals solution.

 

[chrismhaase]

So do you perform the dip while the coral is still in the bag from the shop? How many drops and can you overdose the coral with iodine? Also, if you regularly add iodine as suggested on the bottle, does this help as a pest control or is this just to introduce iodine for the reef environment?

 

[Nerun]

i dont think that adding iodine as a supplement does much to deter pests.
But i think that most inverts benefit from the iodine.

Be careful though, from my understanding leaving the coral in the dip too long can burn it!