Methods of freshwater dipping corals

[CAT]

How do you freshwater dip your corals?

I've read several methods so I'm curious about how each person does this. There just seems to be so many problems out there when adding something new to our tanks - diseases, hitch-hikers, flatworms etc.

1. How long do you dip them for?

2. Do you try to match pH (I'm assuming the temp is matched to the tank)

3. Did it work for whatever you were worried about transferring to your tank?

4. What corals did this NOT work for, where the coral was too sensitive to allow the dip.

I'll be interested to see if there's some sort of concensus out there. I'm also looking for some pointers since I'm thinking I'd better vet all new acquisitions before they get into my tank.
Thanks to all who give their experiences

[Mrs Smith]

You know, I probably should match pH, but I usually don't bother.

Bowl of RO water, ideally close to temp. *(Although I have used room-temp water, too.) Add coral, shake a few good times (10-30 sec or so), add to tank.

I've done it on a variety of softies and LPS. Just make sure that the LPS are pulled all the way in, as we all know just how delicate that tissue is. No problems yet.

Danielle

[JennM]

Ditto on what Danielle said. We don't match pH.

Yes it has worked for what we were trying to get rid of - red planaria and a few nudibranchs that hitchiked in on wild leathers. FW dip for 30 seconds or less has been very effective in these.

This is not to be confused with a Tech - D or Iodine bath -- that uses tank water, and Tech D or Lugol's iodine (Lugol's at 40 drops to a gallon of water) for 5-7 minutes (no more than 7 minutes) and discard the used water. This treatment is to disinfect corals - have used this with mixed results for receding corals (variety of reasons, white band, brown jelly etc.). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.