Acclimating Corals

[collitchboy]

I will be recieving my first corals tomorrow. According to the advice I recieved here I should drip acclimate. I have no problem with this but I wrote to the company I am buying from (Seacrop) to ask if there was anything "special" to do. Their response was:

 

We import thousands of corals every month and we do not acclimate any of them.

We give them a saltwater rinse and then use a coral dip (like Kent AquaTech D,

SeaChem Reef Dip, or Lugol's solution).

 

This doesn't sound very "wise", so what gives? lol

[Jermz79]

see my thread about drip acclimation and small tanks .... first response was "I don't acclimate anything but shrimp"

 

That doesn't seem right!!! I would acclimate regardless

[ktownhero]

Drip-acclimation is way over-rated. I do a half hour to 45 minutes with everything I get and nothing ever dies from shock. 15 minutes floating and then dump half the water, and add a few turkey basters full of water. Then every 10 minutes after that take 2 or 3 basters full of water out, and add 2 or 3 more. Around 45 minutes put them in!

[collitchboy]

yea I noticed that reply At the very least I would think you would dump maybe a cup of tank water in every 15 minutes or so. Then again, this is my first go round with corals lol.

[Jermz79]

Same here ... just to be safe I'm going to acclimate! I mean what can it harm right?

[Bobalouy]

When I first started I was paranoid about acclimating also, untill I read this thread:

http://nano-reef.com/forums/showthread.php...&threadid=54956

 

I dont really acclimate, maybe if there was a big difference in SG. But most corals are pretty hardy. Now if its a $500 acan, I might be a little more careful.

[minimalist]

I'm with them. I acclimate to temp and then in it goes. Haven't lost a single thing to date. 5+ fish and 15+ corals.

[winniebagel]

There's no harm to be done when acclimating corals. It ensures they have an extra smooth transition into your tank (even though it'll take up some of your time). I make sure to acclimate all of my corals since there's a dramatic SG jump from my LFS to my tanks.

[uscreef]

I float and put some tank water in 2x over 30 min, then put em in, haven't lost a coral yet.

[MaryHM]

What??!! You dare to question my wiseness??!!! Thank goodness I read this before your shipment went out- gave me time to take that freebie Acanthstrea frag out of your box.

 

Seriously though, like someone else said, it can't hurt to acclimate. But from handling thousands and thousands of corals, we've found that it does no good. We acclimated the first several months we had our business. As we began importing more and more we decided to try not acclimating and see what happened. Absolutely no difference whatsoever. I still stand by the idea of doing a rinse and then using a dip to kill any bacteria that has built up during shipping. As someone else mentioned, you should acclimate your inverts. Some are very sensitive to salinty changes.

[reefin300]

I've read that numerous people on this board do not acclimate and just float the bag and toss them in. But then again it can't hurt so why not?

[pet_doc]

What kind of dip do you use MaryHM?

[collitchboy]

Originally posted by MaryHM

What??!! You dare to question my wiseness??!!! Thank goodness I read this before your shipment went out- gave me time to take that freebie Acanthstrea frag out of your box.

 

Seriously though, like someone else said, it can't hurt to acclimate. But from handling thousands and thousands of corals, we've found that it does no good. We acclimated the first several months we had our business. As we began importing more and more we decided to try not acclimating and see what happened. Absolutely no difference whatsoever. I still stand by the idea of doing a rinse and then using a dip to kill any bacteria that has built up during shipping. As someone else mentioned, you should acclimate your inverts. Some are very sensitive to salinty changes.

 

I wasn't trying to insult anyone. At the time, it went against everything I had been told or read so I came to ask about it. I'm sorry if I offended you.

[MaryHM]

There was a winky face. I was kidding. No offense taken whatsoever. I'm always happy when hobbyists actually take the time to do some research for the benefit of their animals.