ACCLIMATION

G

Guppy

I use the drip method to acclimate my new livestock. I put livestock in a one gallon container and set the drip rate for 1 drop per second. Once container is full, I dump half the water out and continue dripping. I keep this up for 2 hours. What is the minimum time I would want to acclimate, what is the maximum time? I am writing a procedure and want it absolutely fool proof.
 
Nothing is fool proof... :wink:

I do the same thing but for roughly 1 hour and a bit faster drip. It depends on what it is I'm acclimating though. More for SPS, less for softies, etc.
 
I float 15-20 minutes to match temps then acclimate until salinity matches for everything except shrimp and starfish, those take easily 2+ hours.

Cheers,
 
(just a side note) be carefull if the room temp is low, sometimes on those long acclimations i have had the temperture drop in the acclimation bucket. Casey
 
Many many of us are moving away from drip acclimation techniques to much faster methods. Basic reasoning is to get them out of dirty water faster. Need to be careful with salinity ph and temp!

Good stuff of basically what I follow here.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic60897-10-1.aspx?Highlight=acclimation

From there

Should I then do the drip method of acclimating once I am home? Doubling the water inside from the shop ? I read Anthony's article and forum about not doing this.

The only acclimation should be to adjust temperature - minutes. Leaving a fish in a bag can lead to suffocation as the oxygen levels are low, if aeration is added to the bag, the pH can rise and make what ammonia that is in the bag toxic. I attended a fish vet health management course this past fall with all the fish vet experts - Stoskopt, Noga, Lewbart, etc and Dr Stoskopf has done much research into acclimation versus nonacclimation. He relates using drip acclimation in fish is like watching a dog with a plastic bag over its head. He recommended that if there was a large variance in temperature one could float a few minutes and then empty the fish into clean water asap. The deaths that occured in his experiments were not due to not acclimating but other causes (confirmed on necropsies).
 
i acclimate everything fish, inverts, for 30-40 min by floating for 15 and puting half a cup of water in the bag ever 5-10 min until it is full...i havent ever had a problem.
 
those hermit crabs we get in group buys from keyskritters they say to just throw them in to the tank... what is their reasoning for that...
 
I usually drip to a 5 gallon bucket and let the bag float in the bucket with tank water, changing the water in the bucket every 30 min to keep temp up, then at the end let it float in the sump for 20 min just make sure temp is exactly the same along with salinity....etc.
 
dont mean to be bogging down this convo, but what exactly is dripping?

If I bought a new fish, would I put him in a container with holes and then put him into the tank for a while until releasing him later?

Just trying to understand what is the best way - not used to all these terms yet
 
Drip acclimation is a process by which you 'drip' water from the main tank slowly into a container with the critter.

Here's what many do:

Float the bag with critter in the tank with the lights off for 15 minutes.

While that's going in, place a clean bucket on the floor in front of the tank.

Grab a piece of airline long enough to reach from inside the tank down to the bucket, and tie a knot in it.

Clamp the top end of the airline to the top rim of the tank, with the end down in the water, and the lower end of the line into the bucket.

When the 15 minutes are up, dump the contents of the bag into the bucket, making sure the bucket is sized so that the critter is completely submerged.

Suck on the lower end of the air line to get a siphon going, and tighten or loosen the knot to regulate the drip so that you get a steady but slow drip.

Once the volume in the bucket doubles, take 1/2 the water and throw it away.

Repeat until you monitor the salinity, and ph, and they match the tank.

Then transfer the critter to the tank. For sponges, anemones, urchins, stars, and some fish it's important to not expose them to air, so use a small container to scoop them up.
 
Could something like this be a sticky on this section "New to the Hobby"?

I have been keeping saltwater tanks for 4 years but really never learned how to acclimate...I just did a search for it and here it is... 8)
 
What I do to try to regulate the temp is place the bag or container (clean on the outside of course) in the sump while I'm drip acclimating (I'm not using a bucket, but rather a small acrylic container I have attached to the rim of the sump). This should help avoiding the water from getting too cool/warm.

* Just make sure you don't overflow the container and let the dirty water flow into your sump.
 
I float a bag for about 10-15 minutes to get temp close. Then I open it and let in a little water about 3 times over 5 minutes and then in they go. This goes for crabs, fish, snails, everything. In 15 minutes my animals are in the tank. And I have had a lot of success over the past 5-6 years doing this. I think people tend to over acclimate things.
 
I am about the same with Dave.
Float the bag.
Open it and I clamp it to the side of the tank and I add a cup of water.
wait a coupe min. take out a cup and add a cup.
I reapeat this a couple of times them off they go.
I have not lost anything doing it this way,
 
@Poseidon wrote:
[I]@kwl1763 wrote:[/I][quote=" The only acclimation should be to adjust temperature said:
Absolutely incorrect. Fish and inverts can go into pH shock if not properly acclimated. As Scott said Shrimp, Urchins, and starfish especially need careful acclimation methods. Those Red Reef stars, and Red Serpent starfish are 2 of my favorites but they have to be acclimated very slowly. Serpent stars not acclimated correctly pull loose their legs and the Fromia stars will slowly disintegrate.

If your creatures have been shipped overnight the pH in the bag has most likely dropped and will not be the same as your tank so extra methods should be done for proper acclimation. If you only buy stuff locally then chances are the stores pH is close enough to your that they could get away with temp acclimation only but I would not chance it. If you happen to have high Nitrates and the store had none you could also send your fish into shock as it tries to adjust it's internal to a higher nitrate level to fast.

Lastly, one thing to know is that you NEVER should put an air stone in bags that have been shipped in a n effort to give the fish new Oxygen. You will actually make the conditions in the bag worse as the O2 reacts with the ammonia."]all that and one other thing is most LFSs and shipper i think keep there SAL at about .21 for less deseses and reef tanks are at.26 so you put a fish in a bag with PH at? and temp at ? and nitrats at? and SAL .21 and ship for 48 hours by people that dont care and then you only adjust the temp. why? well its your $$$ and the fishes life and its just a .50 hose and 30 min. or 45 min. and when we travel we get upset if the plane isnt on time. my 2 cents
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