salinity.
That's virtually the whole reason for acclimation at all. Matching salinity. Changing it v-e-r-y slowly.
Inverts, and shelled inverts in particular, go into osmotic shock (cell damage) if not acclimated properly.
If you have a salinity accident, say with topoff: correct it slowly---unless you catch it in actual progress, and then be careful. Raise it by topping off evaporation loss with salt water; lower it by topping off with fresh water and dipping out a cupful ever half hour (of say, a 50 gallon tank)over the next day. That is what I mean by 'slowly.'
If your critters have survived GETTING to a bad salinity level, don't double the damage by correcting it too fast. Remember the damage is done mostly by a difference in osmotic pressure on one side or the other of cell walls: if you change it slowly, the osmotic pressure equalizes slowly, and there is no cell rupture. Otherwise, the cell wall can literally blow out. What organ takes the hardest hit? The kidneys, whose job it is to correct fluid balances. Death from kidney failure takes days, hence the: "But he was doing fine in my tank yesterday..."
TO SHORTEN ACCLIMATION TIME during which ph can *also* become a lethal element---have your quarantine tank pre-set to the salinity of your fish store before your fish comes home. You can thus transfer your fish safely to the qt tank pretty well immediately (temperature should be same) and use topoff to gradually shift the salinity of your qt tank to match your home tank.
That's virtually the whole reason for acclimation at all. Matching salinity. Changing it v-e-r-y slowly.
Inverts, and shelled inverts in particular, go into osmotic shock (cell damage) if not acclimated properly.
If you have a salinity accident, say with topoff: correct it slowly---unless you catch it in actual progress, and then be careful. Raise it by topping off evaporation loss with salt water; lower it by topping off with fresh water and dipping out a cupful ever half hour (of say, a 50 gallon tank)over the next day. That is what I mean by 'slowly.'
If your critters have survived GETTING to a bad salinity level, don't double the damage by correcting it too fast. Remember the damage is done mostly by a difference in osmotic pressure on one side or the other of cell walls: if you change it slowly, the osmotic pressure equalizes slowly, and there is no cell rupture. Otherwise, the cell wall can literally blow out. What organ takes the hardest hit? The kidneys, whose job it is to correct fluid balances. Death from kidney failure takes days, hence the: "But he was doing fine in my tank yesterday..."
TO SHORTEN ACCLIMATION TIME during which ph can *also* become a lethal element---have your quarantine tank pre-set to the salinity of your fish store before your fish comes home. You can thus transfer your fish safely to the qt tank pretty well immediately (temperature should be same) and use topoff to gradually shift the salinity of your qt tank to match your home tank.