why is drip acclimating bad?

[Riona]

Figure the best title is one that makes me sound completely moronic

 

Okay, propagator says it's bad since the coral is sitting in it's dirty water still while the "fresh" water from your tank drips in. I've heard that you should Always drip most inverts(well, stars, crabs, shrimp and snails mostly.) On the other extreme, my LRS drips everything but LR. The LRS guy says that he loses a lot less of everything by dripping it. His big claim is that it helps so much just because it allows the fish or invert to gradually get used to the new water. I want to hear the reason that is a bunk theory.

 

BTW. The only things I've really dripped are the snails I got yesterday, my crabs and my shrimp, when I had her. The other stuff I usually just float and toss. As far as I can tell I haven't lost anything due to a lack of acclimation yet. *shrugs* I just do what I'm told to do

[acmilan802]

actually drip acclimation is great... the reason for drip is because it gets the fish use to all the parameters in the tank, not just the temperature... which is done by floating and tossing... while you let them drip for anywhere between 1 hr and 5 hrs is up to you, but it def helps the fish or invert to prepare for what they are about to enter..

[punk-o-rama]

i jus let them float for like 15-20min then put like a cup or 1/2 a cup of tank water in every 5mins and i do that like 3 or 4 times. No deaths yet

[wav3form]

Depends on the animal; I think most fish and corals don't need to be dripped. Also, if you order online then yes, they're probably in dirty water by the time they get to you. If you buy locally, it's most likely not as big an issue. I had to drip my cleaner shrimp because I lost one by acclimating normally.

[scribz718]

Depends on the animal; I think most fish and corals don't need to be dripped. Also, if you order online then yes, they're probably in dirty water by the time they get to you. If you buy locally, it's most likely not as big an issue. I had to drip my cleaner shrimp because I lost one by acclimating normally.

 

 

the reason dripping inverts is recommended is because they are extremely sensitive to salinity and specific gravity. other parameters rarely matter other than the dangerous ones. most specific gravity ranges from 1.023-1.025 if yours is higher or lower than this by 2 than dripping is highly recommended, otherwise floating is sufficient.

[wav3form]

the reason dripping inverts is recommended is because they are extremely sensitive to salinity and specific gravity. other parameters rarely matter other than the dangerous ones. most specific gravity ranges from 1.023-1.025 if yours is higher or lower than this by 2 than dripping is highly recommended, otherwise floating is sufficient.

 

Pouring in a half cup of water or so every 10 minutes will work if the parameters aren't too off. You're gonna get a million different answers on this topic.

[travisurfer]

prolonged acllimation can severely stress the fish. i haven't acclimated, other than temp acclimation, anything in a long time a few others use this method with no failures as well.

[andrewkw]

Around here all the reef shops keep their salinty 1.025-1.026 so acclimating to salinity is pretty much a non factor. However if you buy from a big box store like big al's they save money by keeping their tanks at 1.018 which I think actually stresses out the fish more because they need to be slowly acclimated. I'm not saying I just dump the fish in, but I wouldn't worry to the extent of drip acclimating. Using the cup method maybe twice is enough.

[Burning2nd]

because of temp,

 

if you can acclamate, in a bag in while floatin, thats better

[lgreen]

So lets talk about acclimation.

 

What is the point? Primarily to acclimate organisms to what?

1) Salinity

2) pH

3) Temperature

 

What are your options for acclimations?

1) Drip method: Use either a pices pro acclimater or homemade airline tube w/ valve to drain a very small amount of water into the bag or use a measuring cup to slowly add water to the bag.

2) Floating the bag: self explanatory, worthless other than temperature acclimation

3) Combination of Drip and Floating

4) No acclimation at all

 

When to acclimate:

1) Any time you KNOW the tank you got the organism from is SIGNIFICANTLY different from your tank or if you are UNSURE of the conditions of the tank you got something from. YOU SHOULD NOT BE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE STORE/TANK YOU GET SOMETHING FROM. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, ASK QUESTIONS!

 

When NOT to acclimate:

1) When something has been sitting in a bag for more than like 4-6 hours I personally would rather get the organism into the tank rather than keep it in the bag, rotting in its own waste. Especially with fish since being in the bag is so stressful. For example, if you buy fish from Foster and Smith and they sit in a bag for 24 hours, I'd want to get them in the tank right away, not let them continue to sit in their own filth for however long.

 

I can tell you this from experience un-bagging our fish orders at the store. Our fish are direct flighted from LAX to BOI which takes about 4-5 hours. By the time the fish get to the store, many of them are very disoriented, some will be laying down in the bag, and occasionally some will already start to have ammonia burns. I see ammonia burns on damsels most commonly because they pack them 3 to tiny 4-5 inch bag. Sometimes our mandarin dragonets look like they are just about go kick the bucket, but if we get them in the tank right away they usually recover just fine.

 

What organisms can you usually get away without acclimating?

1) Snails

2) Crabs

3) Most Corals (again if your tank is dirtier than the tank you got it from or significantly different, you may want to acclimate)

4) Some Fish (I'd be more careful with dwarf angels, angels, butterflies, tangs, or anything else known to be a bit more sensitive) (Again, if your tank is dirtier, or significantly different in pH, salinity, or temperature, you may want to acclimate).

 

What do I need to acclimate?

1) Starfish sometimes

2) Shrimp sometimes

 

*Reason: These guys are sensitive to NITRATES, pH, and SALINITY! If your tank is very clean and similar to the tank you get it from you will probably be fine.

 

How long should I acclimate??

1) 10-20 Minutes is PLENTY. It does not take that long for such a small concentration of water in a bag to come to equilibrium with a relatively large concentration of water from your tank, whether floating or dripping.

2) Longer? I DO NOT recommend acclimating anything for more than 10-20 Minutes.

 

Think of it like this: If put a plastic bag over your head and rubberbanded it around your neck, but installed a tube to your excretory system that emptied into this bag, it wouldn't take too long before you ran out of air and/or start drowning in your own urine. Then to top it off, maybe I'd punch you in the head a few times and spin you around real fast to disorient you. That is how your fish feels while sitting in the bag.

 

You CAN acclimate corals longer, but it usually isn't necessary.

 

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

 

That is up to you, but if you choose to acclimate, keep it brief. As soon as I have some more time, maybe this summer, I'd like to do a little research paper on acclimation and test a few variables.

[travisurfer]

Think of it like this: If put a plastic bag over your head and rubberbanded it around your neck, but installed a tube to your excretory system that emptied into this bag, it wouldn't take too long before you ran out of air and/or start drowning in your own urine. Then to top it off, maybe I'd punch you in the head a few times and spin you around real fast to disorient you. That is how your fish feels while sitting in the bag.

[Buddyboy]

lgreen,

 

You don't need to acclimate snails or crabs? I was under the impression these critters were very sensitive and need long acclimations. Did I hear wrong?

[lgreen]

lgreen,

 

You don't need to acclimate snails or crabs? I was under the impression these critters were very sensitive and need long acclimations. Did I hear wrong?

 

I have never acclimated a snail or crab. Like I said though, if your tank is significantly different from the tank you get them from, you may need to. For example, if the fish store is running their salinity at 1.021 and has a pH of 7.6 and you have a salinity of 1.026 and pH of 8.4, you may want to drip acclimate them for a few minutes just to be safe.

 

Again, most important point I want to stress is that regardless of whether you do it or not, DON'T OVERDO IT! Because at some point you may cause more harm than good.

[AnitaTan]

Ammonia gases builds up in the bag and when it is open the gases evaporates quickly it "burns" the animal. Kind of like when you rub some acetone (nail polish remover) on your skin and you blow on it you can feel that "burn".

[er1c_the_reefer]

Ammonia gases builds up in the bag and when it is open the gases evaporates quickly it "burns" the animal. Kind of like when you rub some acetone (nail polish remover) on your skin and you blow on it you can feel that "burn".

 

 

i read something similar... that's where ammonia burns come from.

 

i've also already read that various waste substances build up in the water (ammonia, urea, waste acids, etc.) and since the organisms in the bag are using up oxygen, there's the system goes to a state of semi-anaerobic equilibrium and the wastes don't get oxidized. when you do open the bag, waste can rapidly oxidize and some substances can get broken down to less toxic forms (ammonia to nitrite, which is still toxic) while some get converted to toxic intermediates (amino acids to ammonia) and basically the bag becomes... yes... the toxic soup that propagator keeps talking about.

[xJoshx]

Man Propagator is gunna have a field day with this one!

[Riona]

Wow. Got more info on this than I ever dreamed I would! Cool!

 

So how far off is significantly off? I'm pretty sure that my store has its spg at 1.02(3-5?) and mine is usually around 1.026. No idea about their ph. Should I do just a few minutes, or ignore it and just acclimate for temp in that case?

 

And yeah, the snails and crabs were what I was most thinking of. And, even though I don't have any, starfish. My LRS guy says that if you don't drip them for at least a couple of hours, unless your parameters are EXACTLY the same that the star will either implode, or basically explode. Or rather just get boils from the extra water since they use water filled something-or-other as their way of keeping their shape. Something like that.

[lgreen]

Here is a great tip for dealing with salinity. It is much easier/less stressful to move something from a higher salinity to a lower salinity than lower to higher. If you keep your salinity at that of your fish store of lower, you really don't even need to worry about salinity for anything. As far as pH, .1-2 shouldn't hurt anything, if more, might drip for a few minutes. Temp, well if it is off, if nothing else, float for a few minutes.

[BibleSue]

Thanks for the question and answers. I had some of those questions myself when I read Props thread.

[proraptor2]

I never drip acclimate....I dont acclimate anything except SPS

[er1c_the_reefer]

i don't acclimate anything except sensitive fish/seahorses.

[flick]

I drip for everything!!!!

 

I dripped my chromis, i dripped my cleaner shrimp, i dripped my bicolor angel, i dripped my snails, i dripped my clownfish i use to have have in my old 15g.... all worked great!

 

Its good becuase it slowly gets use to the new tank water, without pouring in a ton at a time... Easy, effective, and safe!

 

Flick

[dshnarw]

I only float bags for 15 minutes, and drop them in - including snails and starfish. Never had one die from it.

 

In fact - just dropped in a brittle star (hitchhiker on some corals) and some various snails within the past few days.

[Prowland]

When I started my first tank I would do the drip method on everything. Each thing that went into the tank had its own bucket!

 

I don't do it anymore because I use the same salt as my LFS and also ro/di water.

 

My tank is .001 higher than their tanks so no big change.

 

I don't even temp acclimate.

 

I personaly think this is less stressful than a standard drip acclimation.

 

0 deaths thus far

[sambo123]

I just float everything for 5 min, then add a cup of water for every 5 min twice, then dump them in the tank. works pretty good