Appropriate acclimation is essential to the survival of any new coral entering your system, this is due to the coral having experienced a degree of stress during transit. I recommend that you follow the below procedure immediately once your coral has been received. 

 

Step 1 - Switch your lights to acclimation mode and raise them back to your standard setting over the period of a couple of days if possible. If not, switch your lights off for the day or place your coral in a shaded area for 24 hours, your new coral has been in complete darkness and will need to adjust to the bright lights above your tank. For this reason, turning them off is a good idea as it completely eliminates a potential source of stress. One of the most common ways to kill a new coral is exposing it to too much light too quickly, therefore, I feel this is one of the most important steps.

 

Step 2 - Place the coral and all the transport water into a larger container. Corals are shipped in small plastic containers or bags, by placing them into a larger container which still allows them to be submerged in the original water, you are allowing yourself additional room for the next step.

 

Step 3 - Place the coral within the container/bag either clipped or floating on top of your aquarium to allow the temperate of the container/bag with the new coral in, to adjust to match your aquarium temperature. Slowly add aquarium water to the new coral over the next 30 - 90 minutes. Corals are don't handle rapid changes to certain parameters and this process makes that change far more gentle.

 

Step 4 - Dip your corals. This is vitally important for the long term success of your reef tank. All of our corals go through a vigorous quarantine and dipping process to try to eliminate any pests or bacterial issues. Despite this, it virtually impossible to guarantee that all threats are eliminated, therefore I strongly advise you dip them prior to them going into your tank.

 

 Step 5 - Place the coral in your tank. After completing all the above steps, it now time to place the coral in your tank. It will still need a few days to adjust to your lighting, therefore I suggest somewhere low down or half shaded is a good place to start. After it's been in your tank for a couple of weeks, it's then time to decide where you want to place it long term.