Acclimatising.....

[NexDog]

I just received my first shipment of SPS corals. Seven in total and 6 were of a good size. I treated with Reef Dip and then put straight in the tank. An hour or 2 later the halides went out and then there was 3 hours of PC lighting. They slime up a bit but nothing drastic.

It's almost 2am now and I'm worried about what I'll find in the morning. Is acclimatising SPS a standard thing that everyone does?

 

[jsweir]

Straight from bag to tank is not a good idea. I have used two methods with success.
1) take out of the water for 15 minutes to build a slime coat - then into the tank they go.
2) drip acclimate over a period of 15min - 1hour. I usually double the water that they came in.

 

[NexDog]

Okay, thanks. Next time I'll be more careful but hopefully these ones will be okay. They've been the tank about 10 hours and they look okay. I just checked them out and a few were even showing some polyp extension so hopefully will be okay.

 

[jsweir]

If they have PE you should be in the clear.

 

[RCS]

Everyone has their own methods, but I've always simply floated for 12-15 minutes to equalize temp then added to the tank. Fish, corals, snails, whatever. Freshwater, saltwater, doesn't matter. Some people would have a fit if they knew people doing this, but I haven't lost anything I can attribute to acclimation distress. Every coral that's been added this way (SPS, LPS, whatever) has shown PE within 5-10 minutes. The only times when I'd do anything longer is in the even of severe shipment trauma.

 

[Justin/TiV]

Out of the water to build a slime coat... I did this one time to a frag of birdsnest...and I think that is what hurt it...I could be wrong, but I had it out of the water to mount it for 10 min when I mounted it. Then put it in the tank. It's doing fine now except for one tip died. But other tips are showing growth ?

 

[ClownReef®]

I just float the bag for 15-20 mins..then put the coral in.. Odds are, if the coral is gonna die its going to do so overnight, so, IME, if the corals look good after the first night, it will be ok.

 

[GMGQ]

Floating to equalize temperature is a given.

But what about equalizing the salinity? I find that a lot of LFS have low salinity in their tanks. Mine is at 1.025, I've tested LFS bag water at 1.022. So shouldnt equalizing the salinity be a priority too?

 

[castorpollux]

i always drip acclimate. usually over a 1 hour period, you don't what the alk is at from the LFS or the CA so theres no gauging the ph unless you test prior to acclimation... don't just dump it in thats a terrible idea

 

[MiddletonMark]

Float as usual - then if it's an Acropora [one likely to slime, maybe not for `deepwater' whatever that means] ... I'll take it out of the water for 10 minutes [let it slime up] then in the tank.

That's for known `clean' corals. Otherwise I'll often drip-acclimate the coral most of a 5 gal bucket, toss in a PH + heater, and Interceptor-dip for 6 hours + inspect/etc etc.

When going from tank to tank in my house - I just remove them from the tank, give 10 minutes, and plop in new tank ... slime-coat seems to do well for stable, healthy, thriving corals. For newer/weaker corals I might baby + drip acclimate or such.

 

[pk1]

Salinity and temp are not on my worry list..as long as they are close...IE 1.023-1.026 or so, 76-82. Keep in mind a lot of wild acro's are exposed to air, direct sunlight, etc etc on the reef during low tide. PH I worry about..as PH shock is real. I recently received a shipment of Acro's from reefermadness, and the PH in the bag was 7.1! My display hovers between 8.1-8.4...so I slowly bump up the PH over a few hours in a 10gl tank just to be safe. HTH

PK

 

[RCS]

pH in shipping normally gets depressed due to respiration. Normally much worse with fish than with corals I would think, but who knows? Now I'm curious about that one.

One of the problems with dripping (corals I can see, fish I'd almost never drip) is that if the pH in the bag is low, it's normally due to a buildup of CO2. Which is fine for shipping, as it means the excess ammonia in the bag is in the form of ammonium, which is much less dangerous than free ammonia. Opening the bags allows the CO2 to outgas and shoots the pH back up in the water, and all of a sudden the ammonia is now toxic. If you're not using an ammonia-neutralizing agent while you drip-acclimate, there's a chance you could be slowly killing whatever you're acclimating simply by leaving it in the shipping water that long.

Just something to be careful about.

All in all, I think acclimating can really be very similar to this hobby as a whole: what works for me might not work for you and vice-versa, and two people with completely different methods can have the same level of success or failure.

 

[NexDog]

Lots of great feedback here so thanks for all your responses. All the corals are doing fine but I think next time I will be a bit more careful.

Someone mentioned an Interceptor dip which I've heard of before. What nasties does that kill? I don't see it at Marine Depot which is normally where I get stuff like that. I just used Reef Dip on these corals.

 

[MiddletonMark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7003732#post7003732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NexDog
Someone mentioned an Interceptor dip which I've heard of before. What nasties does that kill? I don't see it at Marine Depot which is normally where I get stuff like that.

Interceptor is the Red Bug treatment, available only from a vet [or online].

 

[NexDog]

Do you know where I can get it online?