Tips for acclimating

[Redbellyjx]

ive had my tank running for a while now and i think im ready to add corals. I checked my parameters:

ammo, -ites, -ates - 0

ph. 8.2

temp- 81

tommorow i think im gonna buy a few frags to start my tank off. excuse me if this is a silly question but how should i go about introducing corals into my tank? im think im going to be getting a frogspawn, torches, long tentacle plate, and a tooth coral.

i may want some mushrooms too for the bottom of the tank to change things up a bit.

like i said, any suggestions on how to add to my tank?

 

[paininthewrasse]

Add them slowly.. don't buy all those corals at once..

Also i'd scratch the long tentacle plate from your list, they are short lived in the aquarium. If you want a plate get a standard plate coral they do fine unlike the LT plate.. I'm not sure what a tooth coral is.. I've not heard that before.. clearly its a common name for something else I'm sure I've heard of.

As far as acclimating.. you could add a cup of water to the bag from the LFS every 1/2 hour or so, and check the salinity w/ a refractometer (if you dont already have one I'd HIGHLY reccomend picking one up) you then keep adding the water until they salinity in the bag matches the salinity in the tank.. Or you could drip acclimate by getting some airline tubing and some sort of a thing to adjust the drip on it and slowly drip the water into a bucket w/ the new coral in it until the salinity is the same.. After acclimation discard the water in the bag or the bucket as you do not ever want to add the water from the LFS to your system.

also what size tank and what kind of lighting do you have?

 

[Redbellyjx]

6 ft 125 gallon, 3x 125 halides, 4x96 PC atnics

 

[peecook]

get the stats on the LFS aquaruim, when you get home do yours while the bag is sitting in the water adjusting temp. after 15 mins, start adding water. if you arent far off, you can move quicker. if you dont have test kits at home, you need to get them, but take a sample up to the LFS and get them to compare.

 

[JenDub]

I just place my corals directly into the tank, for lps this is fine IMO

 

[IndyMatt]

I drip acclimate everything, it is really easy. Get some air line, I loosely tie it around the center brace on my 90 with the tip below the water line. Next, I run the airline down to a bucket. Place the fish/coral in the bucket with the water from the bag. Next you start a siphon on the airline tubing. Tie a knot in the airline tubing to adjust the siphon to a fast drip. I wait until the water in the bucket has doubled or so before placing the fish/coral in the tank.

 

[blange3]

I drip acclimate. When done I add a few drops of Lugols and a drop of Flatworm Exit and let sit for a few minutes watching for signs of stress. Swish the corals a bit and remove from the acclimation bucket and add to the tank.

 

[r00onmac]

i drop all of my corals in... fish i do by temp acclimating and then cups of water over a short period of time... inverts i drip (esp after losing a bunch of shrimp in the beginning because i didnt know how sensitive they are)

 

[All Delight]

1. Float the bag for 30 mins.
2. Depending on how much water there is from the LFS in the bag, pour some out and pour about 1/2 cup of my tank water into the bag. Then float for 20-30 mins.
3. Repeat this process 3 times or more. Depending on how much I paid for the coral. Cheap/Hardier corals, 3 times is ok with me. Yumas, and stuff I paid more then $100, the intervals will be longer. Maybe 1 hr.
4. Take the coral out of the bag and place it in the tank. Throw away the water in the bag.