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how many drip acclimate?


sadie

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I have never used the drip  method to acclimate.  I usually float the bag and add 2 tablespoons of water every 10-15 minutes until temp and salinity match.  So I was wondering how many ppl use the drip method and does it actually make a difference?

 

Thanks

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9 minutes ago, sadie said:

I have never used the drip  method to acclimate.  I usually float the bag and add 2 tablespoons of water every 10-15 minutes until temp and salinity match.  So I was wondering how many ppl use the drip method and does it actually make a difference?

 

Thanks

As long as you go slow it doesn’t really matter. 

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When I have had shipments of livestock or it's a sensitive invert then I place the livestock in a  container with half the water they came in and slowly add water from my tank for an hr. I just do it manually.

 

Otherwise all else is just temp acclimated by floating the bag.

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I use the drip method because it's the easiest imo. I grab a tupperware, put my livestock in it and fill 1/3-1/2 with the water it came in, then setup an airline, start a siphon and tie a knot at the end to control the drip rate. Then I just let it go for an hour or so.

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LogicalReefs

I’ve never dip acclimated. I’ve always floated the bag and then drained any water from the bag out in the sink and put whatever I bought in my tank. Might not be the best thing in the world but haven’t had any issues yet.

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I use the drip method or a longer version of what you do for inverts, even certain snails like trochus. Some critters can be pretty sensitive to changes in water parameters.  I especially do it if they were shipped to me. 

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For fish and corals, I usually just temp acclimate in the bag.  Although some inverts are more sensitive and require water transfer (drip acclimation, or some sort of manual exchange).

 

However, consider this from Reef Cleaners:

Acclimation:

All Animals at this Time:

1. Float the bag in your tank to get the animals used to the temperature in your aquarium.

2. Wait 15 minutes.

3. Add animals to the tank, discard shipping water and any towels used in the packaging.

4. DO NOT DRIP ACCLIMATE.

It is normal if many of the shipping bags have little water, and a wet paper towel. They were shipped that way purposefully.

Important: Snails may go through shock during shipping, and be closed when they arrive. You should give them plenty of time to come out of their shells and move around before deciding they didn't make the trip. Snails may go dormant for up to 3 days, ceriths are usually the slowest to come around. Chitons and limpets are also slow to get moving.

You may find this to be different than the acclimation procedure you are used to carrying out. The reason we ask our customers to use this procedure is because our snails and crabs live intertidally, and can handle swings in ph/salinity without a problem. However, what they can't handle is toxic levels of ammonia. During the shipping process, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down. As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. Please don't do this and certainly never let livestock sit out in buckets exposed to fresh air for a long period of time, we know of no surer way to kill your new arrivals. It is even worse if you mix species from different bags into the same bucket because ammonia from some bags can then pollute all the species. Please don't acclimate them in this way, we do not cover the losses that will result, and will enforce this policy strictly. We understand you may prefer different acclimation procedures, but this works and the rest will lead to more losses so please experiment with other products. Not ours. We do not accept the additional risk involved. Any other method of acclimation voids the Alive Arrival Guarantee. It is an easy method of acclimation and it works fine, please follow it.

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Thanks for all the answers.  I did not get drip system while at the not so local LFS, so I am just doing the way I always do it.  The only thing is I usually turn off my lights.  But this digital programmable light, not sure I want to mes with it now that I have it all programmed.  

 

I got a cleaner shrimp, 6 astera ssnails, a feather duster ( actually 2 connected) and a GSP.

 

Will they all be fine with the lights on?  I have the hood lifted.

 

 

acclimating.JPG

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oh, in all the excitement, I forgot to get a coral dip.  Is there something else I can dip it in?  It's just a small piece of GSP, but would rather be safe then sorry.

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Euphylin me

some people dip in a very diluted solution of hydrogen peroxide....never tried it myself. I always used to use a plain old airline tube for drip acclimating until i found a product on amazon called "accudrip" it was like 10 bucks and i absolutely love it. It is airline tubing that has a small bulb in the middle of it to draw a siphon. On the end of it, it has a little roller than you can use to control how fast or slow the water comes out.....would definitely recommend 

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The light should be fine as long as the temperature doesn't rise too high.

 

Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer for soil & turf is an effective coral dip.  Some home improvement and department stores have it (although I couldn't find it at Home Depot).

 

I agree, if you don't have anything else available, a peroxide dip would be fine for GSP (not all coral is as tolerant of peroxide).

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Euphylin me
Just now, seabass said:

The light should be fine as long as the temperature doesn't rise too high.

 

Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer for soil & turf is an effective coral dip.  Some home improvement and department stores have it (although I couldn't find it at Home Depot).

 

I agree, if you don't have anything else available, a peroxide dip would be fine for GSP (not all coral is as tolerant of peroxide).

YES! i was thinking about the bayer dip but i couldnt remember what the actual product was called and yea dont do sps in peroxide...i wouldnt recommend it for lps either but softies should be fine

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8 minutes ago, sadie said:

I don't know...I'm a little nervous...

I make saltwater with peroxide (instead of RO/DI) as a dip.  Peroxide is mostly for algae, but you might also see that bristle worms, pods, etc will evacuate during the dip.  I don't necessarily believe that it's a direct replacement to something like Bayer.

 

While Bayer is a little scary to work with, there are many people that use it.  And surprisingly, corals seem to to well with exposure to it.  There are a number of threads available on how to do it.

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Euphylin me
1 minute ago, seabass said:
1 hour ago, seabass said:

For fish and corals, I usually just temp acclimate in the bag.  Although some inverts are more sensitive and require water transfer (drip acclimation, or some sort of manual exchange).

 

However, consider this from Reef Cleaners:

Acclimation:

All Animals at this Time:

1. Float the bag in your tank to get the animals used to the temperature in your aquarium.

2. Wait 15 minutes.

3. Add animals to the tank, discard shipping water and any towels used in the packaging.

4. DO NOT DRIP ACCLIMATE.

It is normal if many of the shipping bags have little water, and a wet paper towel. They were shipped that way purposefully.

Important: Snails may go through shock during shipping, and be closed when they arrive. You should give them plenty of time to come out of their shells and move around before deciding they didn't make the trip. Snails may go dormant for up to 3 days, ceriths are usually the slowest to come around. Chitons and limpets are also slow to get moving.

You may find this to be different than the acclimation procedure you are used to carrying out. The reason we ask our customers to use this procedure is because our snails and crabs live intertidally, and can handle swings in ph/salinity without a problem. However, what they can't handle is toxic levels of ammonia. During the shipping process, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down. As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. Please don't do this and certainly never let livestock sit out in buckets exposed to fresh air for a long period of time, we know of no surer way to kill your new arrivals. It is even worse if you mix species from different bags into the same bucket because ammonia from some bags can then pollute all the species. Please don't acclimate them in this way, we do not cover the losses that will result, and will enforce this policy strictly. We understand you may prefer different acclimation procedures, but this works and the rest will lead to more losses so please experiment with other products. Not ours. We do not accept the additional risk involved. Any other method of acclimation voids the Alive Arrival Guarantee. It is an easy method of acclimation and it works fine, please follow it.

i would say this is for online purchases almost exclusively. I am in the process of Co-owning a saltwater store. the way we do new arrivals is to take them out of bags and place into a tank filled with newly mixed saltwater at the salinity of the water in the bags/ styro (as in mixed and never used and at least mixed for 12hrs) then when they are ready to go to the selling tanks after a two week qt (yes we qt all livestock for two weeks). then we drip acclimate....the process is a little different for delicate corals

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Raindog3030

I use CoralRX for dip, but have been recently told from a  local aquaculturist that Seachem is the cat's meow.

 

Also, drip them boyz!  Take a piece of airline tubing and tie a knot in it to produce 1 drop/second then drip from 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on what you got.

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Euphylin me
Just now, Raindog3030 said:

I use CoralRX for dip, but have been recently told from a  local aquaculturist that Seachem is the cat's meow.

 

Also, drip them boyz!  Take a piece of airline tubing and tie a knot in it to produce 1 drop/second then drip from 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on what you got.

+1 on the coralRX dip...thats what i use as well

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On 6/20/2018 at 10:49 AM, xtra0t said:

I use the drip method because it's the easiest imo. I grab a tupperware, put my livestock in it and fill 1/3-1/2 with the water it came in, then setup an airline, start a siphon and tie a knot at the end to control the drip rate. Then I just let it go for an hour or so.

I'm assuming you put the tupperware on the floor or something lower than you tank.  How do you keep the water to temp?

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