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Drip acclamation not working?


akish5

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Ive tried the drip method 2 twice?! Once with my snails and again with my clowns. Both times the temp didn't get anywhere close to what it should be and I let them drip for about a hour. Any advice ? I don't want to just float them

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Why not just float them? Snails aren't going to care. And clowns are hardy enough.

 

You can float them and add a turkey-baster full of tank water ever 5 minutes or so. That will do the same thing. The problem with dripping is that you're going to lose heat if the room isn't at tank temperature.

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I'm no expert but dripping is more a means of acclimating to ph, salinity, cal, dKH, etc. If the temps are really different, I'll float the bag after I've acclimated to the other parameters.

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Cencalfishguy56

Float the bag lol I only drip things that are sensitive like my RBTA, all my corals and fish got the float and are fine

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I am no expert, but I used to try to be that intense when introducing new fish. But I felt that it was my experience that it was actually more stressful you try to drip or anything that took longer than 30 mins. I now float them. After 15 mins I pour in about half a cup of tank water and see how they react. After another 15 mins I decide to either put them in (being very careful not to introduce any of the water) or add more tank water. NOTE: This is what I do for Freshwater, I am just sharing my experience with that as I have not done saltwater yet.

I really wish I had a quarantine tank but i do not. I also only buy my fish from trusted LFS, rarely or never from a chain. And only if the fish have been in the store longer than 48 hours and in a tank with no signs of issue. NOTE: I only plan on buying fish from the same LFS I get my water from.

IDK, that is just what I do. I am sure there are people who think I should do more.

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I drip acclimate and never had an issue with temperature. What is the temperature of your house? It shouldn't be too much different then your tank and not different enough to dramatically impact the water I would think. We drip acclimate for an hour to an hour and a half on everything except snails (because they are usually ordered from reefcleaners and have different instructions to not void the DOA gurantee)

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You guys should do some more research on acclimation.

 

It's okay to detail out how you acclimate your fish but don't make it seem like it's not important. For a freshwater fish you're typically okay floating a bag for 15 minutes then netting the fish out into the tank.

 

With saltwater fish there are a lot more variables though. Do some reading on osmotic shock. Depending on the fish you shouldn't change specific gravity by more than .001 to .003 in 24 hours depending on the sensitivity of the species of fish. The effects of not properly acclimating your fish are not readily apparent (in other words the physical look or behavior of a fish after it's been acclimating for 15 minutes isn't going to signal you to speed up or slow down the process). Usually it takes a few days for the effects of bad acclimation to show.

 

As seanoli explained the drip acclimation is more for equalizing the water chemistry. After a drip acclimation it's best to then temp acclimate if the difference is more than a degree or so. Alternately you could alter the method of acclimation. For example you could float the bag but be more methodical and constant about doing it. Instead of dumping "about a cup" in every x minutes you could use a container that lets you start with 10oz (for example) and you add 2oz every 10 minutes, dump half the water (back to 10oz) and do it again. If you really want to keep drip acclimating though you could try using a container that is less prone to heat loss or increase the drip rate slightly if possible to avoid so much heat loss. You could also float a bag of warm water in your container. There are a lot of simple solutions that could be implemented.

 

Also, pay attention to what the store keeps their tanks at. Bring your refractometer/hydrometer and test their water before bringing a fish home. I've had stores that keep their fish systems at 1.018 while my tank is at 1.025. That kind of adjustment needs days.

 

Note that if your fish come from an online vendor or they have been in bags for a long time you should follow the online vendors instructions and take other variables into consideration.

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Also, pay attention to what the store keeps their tanks at. Bring your refractometer/hydrometer and test their water before bringing a fish home. I've had stores that keep their fish systems at 1.018 while my tank is at 1.025. That kind of adjustment needs days.

How would you do this for days? Just curious, because there could come a time I want to buy something from a chain.

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How would you do this for days? Just curious, because there could come a time I want to buy something from a chain.

 

Good question. Just set up a quick QT. In the case of the fish I referenced above I used a 10g with a HOB power filter, heater, and some rocks. Once I knew the S.G. of the store's water I added saltwater and freshwater to the tank to have it match the S.G. of the fish I got. Then as water evaporates top off with salt water. Raises it nice and slow. If you don't have enough evaporation you could just use some saltwater mixed to a higher S.G. and take out small amounts of the lower S.G. water and replace it with higher.

 

You could even use something like a 5G bucket or a rubbermaid bin.

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righttirefire

Ajmckay, has always seemed well versed to me. I drip acclimate but it's a little backwards. I use the containers the store use. Depending on situation, the large container I fill with tank water and set on my light (turned off) and the small container I put about 1/4 cup tank water in and "float" the bag. After 15 minutes of temp acclimation. I dump the 1/4 cup tank water into a bucket and carefully transfer the bagged water and fish into the small container which I place back in my tank(maintains proper temp). The large container I start my drip from about 2 drops a second. It's about a 3 times water turn over. I monitor it and remove water constantly. This had been fine for me takes 2.5 hours. I know that's a reasonably short timw. My lfs keep coral at 1.025 salinity and fish at 1.015.

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I am glad I checked out this thread. I would have never even thought to ask places outside my LFS what their water params are.

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righttirefire

LFS can be terrible. I talk to them and see what dreams they weave. I had one tell me his nitrates are 10ppm, max. "Test it yourself, you'll never find a LFS keeping this water quality."

20150307_192408_zps9tinl4c6.jpg

I won't be buying for him again. My diamond goby is doing fantastic I couldn't be happier with the fish I got from him. But if you claim to have awesome water. It better be good. Everything else test acceptable

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