Acclimation Disaster... Opinion Please

[dismayed]

So I was acclimating three new corals today... star polyps, large buttons, and a daisy xenia. They had gone through a 15 minute temperature acclimation, and I had then put in a cup of water in each bag and they had acclimated about 10 minutes when I heard a crash and noticed my clippy thing that I use to keep bags up at the top of my tank had flung off and all three bags had fallen to the bottom of my tank. I pulled them up, but all had already mixed pretty heavily with tank water.

So I just kind of carefully brought them up and tried not to touch the bag much in hopes that the water was not yet mixed and would just mix slowly.

My question is this... I've never had this happen before. How bad is this going to hurt my corals? All are pretty hearty species so I'm hoping not much? My tank conditions are pretty much optimum at the moment, with less than 10 nitrates, zero amonia, zero nitrites, zero phosphates, 450 calcium, 8.1 PH, 9 KH, etc.

Thanks.

 

[Fedcopmike]

Temperature acclimation is important, water is not. Simply pick up coral out of bag and place in tank after 15 minutes of floating. Don't sweat it.

 

[kayne_21]

Not sure about what you've got there.

When I got my first 4 coral frags 2 small mushrooms and 2 small zoa colonies. I was floating them in my sump and the clips holding the bag came off, dumping all 4 frags. One of the Zoas was unlucky enough to go through my return pump. Thankfully, it wasn't attached to a frag plug or a rock. It made it through all my plumbing and was circulating around my DT. All this after they had only been in my house for maybe 15-20 minutes. All 4 corals survived and are now thriving in my tank.

 

[abulgin]

I had the same thing happen with a tree coral. Had it hanging in the tank for about 30 minutes before it sunk to the bottom. I just figured what the heck--pulled it out and placed it. It's done fine, but I do now drip acclimate all corals in my sump where this can't happen anymore.

 

[dismayed]

Thanks guys, I feel better now. Hopefully tomorrow after the lights have been on a while all will branch out and look well.

 

[dismayed]

Just a follow-up. All three corals seem fine today.

 

[xJake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12595924#post12595924 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Fedcopmike
Temperature acclimation is important, water is not. Simply pick up coral out of bag and place in tank after 15 minutes of floating. Don't sweat it.

+1 to that. However, I've gotten by without even doing the temperature acclimation and I haven't had 1 coral death yet. I'm such a bad reefkeeper .

 

[sjames]

I dont even think temp is terribly important. But I think salanity may be important for some things and not for others.

 

[vanmo92]

I dont think that you have much to worry about. Temp is the most important, and at least they got that.

 

[flyyyguy]

Id be more worried about contaminatingmy tank with water from somebody elses. LOL

the ONLY time you would need to consider doing anything besides temp acclimation is if the water of your tank is a lot higher than the water the corals were shipped in.
then the cup in cup out or adrip could make sense to avoid osmotic shock......other than that it is pointless

 

[snorvich]

I agree totally with flyyguy who forgot to mention that he is concerned about difference in salinity. For corals, I am not sure if even that is a big deal. I do usually add a bit of water to the bag for corals. Do NOT use shipping water in your tank if you can possibly avoid it.

For invertebrates and fish, however, salinity/PH is very important and they must be temperature acclimated then acclimated to salinity and PH. (either by dripping or slowly adding tank water to the bag or whatever container you use - I use plastic cups).

 

[tbittner]

On a side note, starfish should have an acclimation with a VERY slow drip and should take 8+ hours.

Corals are inverts. You want to slowly acclimate them to salinity, PH, and temp. Some corals at more delicate then others. Some corals are darn near impossible to kill. Corals also aren't cheap so why take a chance?

 

[Mental1]

Some corals can also react badly to big differences in alk ... I acclimate everything but I try to use my plastic hang on the side specimen thingy! While reading about the poor conditions that both corals and fish suffer during shipping, a common water condition is low Ph --- a big change there could be hurtful.

 

[flyyyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12604545#post12604545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
I agree totally with flyyguy who forgot to mention that he is concerned about difference in salinity. ).

It was late...I forgot a key word in that on sentence.,,,rendering ti kind of meaningless..... LOL


thanks for clarifying......

 

[JustinReef]

I have never acclimated soft corals. Mine have all done great.