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Mark Peterson 
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 Topic: Acclimation Angst
Posted: March 10 2005 at 11:54am |
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It's kind of funny that so many people have such strong feelings about acclimation, as though there is only one way to do it. Perhaps the feelings are strong because people do not want to lose that fish, shrimp or coral for which they just spent their hard earned cash.
I ask only one question here:
What d'y'all think is the purpose of acclimation and how much of the common procedures are really necessary in comparison to how the fish, shrimp or coral is built to handle these changes of water quality?
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DVadar
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 12:22pm |
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This is just my opinion but, in my view the more expensive or rare a specimen is the more you should do to acclimate it. There is a reason what you just got costs alot or is hard to find, it is usually because it is sensitive to changing water conditions and hard to keep/transport.
In this hobby not one of our tanks is ever going to have the exact same parameters for everything as another tank. There are hundreds of different factors that influence the conditions of our tank. Like, Amount of LR/LS, what mainance is performed and how often, and lighting just to name a few. This is why each and every tank when first setup needs to cycle, mother nature finds that perfect niche for all the factors that went into the creating of the tank. This is what makes every tank unique, and why we acclimate is to get specimens to adjust to that uniqueness.
I personally float the bag in the water for 15mins then add half a cup of my tank water to the bag and repeat that every 15min for the next hour to hour and a half. I've put hermits and snails into the tank with no acclimation, I've had no ill effects, and since these creatures live alot in the shallow low tide areas with drastically changing conditions as tides go in and out, they can handle it. Keep the specimen in mind and where it lives on the reef when deciding wether or not to acclimate, and wether it is accustomed to rapid change. I've learned the hard way over the years, the past one in particular, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Edited by DVadar
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jpiotrowski
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 12:59pm |
As dvadar states all of our parameters are at least slightly different. Many of the post that suggest changing ones parameters also suggest to do it slowly. Hence, only change your alkalinity by x amount, salinity by x amount or adjust ph so much in a 24 hour period as to not stress out the organism whether it be fish or coral. If you place this organism in a tank that was happy in one set of parameters and you add it to a different set of parameters what are the chances of stressing it out?
Back to changing parameters by x amount. When adding an organism to different parameters how do we know that having ph and alkalinity changing (for the organism) by 1/2x isn't stressing it out because now we've changed two parameters.
As far as adaptation, sure these guys can adapt to changes but don't do as well with 'sudden' changes, which is why slow acclimation is the way I go. 15-30 min floating with 3 x 50% water excanges every 15min.
John
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Biodork
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 1:28pm |
Being new at this, I've heard advice from both ends of the spectrum. Perhaps I am reading too many different boards. I've found this helpful, but still not entirely self-explanatory:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/acclimat.htm
I've seen some posts that say they never acclimate and just put the fish/invert/etc right in the tank. Some with the water it came in, some without. Some absolutely require QT for 3-4 weeks, even if its from a friend/lfs/etc they trust. Then there's whether or not to dip, and what to dip in, and for how long. I've also had a lfs owner tell me that when he's been scuba diving, the salinity around him has fluctuated by 10% or more in a matter of minutes - so maybe it just doesn't matter at all really and all these fish are built to withstand these pressures. I've also seen some admonish only very slow, gradual changes while floating the bag - 3 to 4 hours, removing water and adding water from the tank, etc.
For a new person like me, there seems to be a myriad of differing views on the subject, all of which seem inconsistent with the next. wetweb seems to say, find what works best for you and stick to the system religiously. Change only if something goes wrong.
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Simple
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 3:36pm |
Hello everyone,
 Biodork wrote:
Some with the water it came in |
While acclimating times and procedures are debatable, I think this is just plain wrong. Animals tend to release excrements and/or toxins during shipping. IMO, transport water is just going to pollute your tank water.
Is there a benefit here that I'm not seeing?
Thanks,
Chris
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Ascultã tot, dar nu crede tot.
Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.
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Adam Haycock
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 6:53pm |
I never acclimate and have never lost anything.
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Firefish
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 6:59pm |
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I've always loved this subject. I told you what I think the other day Mark, but just too keep the topic going.
THROW THE FISH IN THE TANK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! The poor fish longs to be back in the ocean or something similar to it. Thats all it wants. NO "HOSPITAL TANK"!! The only thing I might do is fresh water dip it for 10 minutes before putting it in the tank. I have had much much much greater success when I quickly put him in the tank.
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Biodork
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Posted: March 10 2005 at 6:59pm |
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10 minutes? Yikes.
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Will Spencer
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Posted: March 11 2005 at 12:11am |
I agree with Dvader. It totally depends on what you paid for it. Not because you care more about the more expensive fish, corals, etc., but for exactly the reasons stated in the post above.
Myself, I tend to worry most about Shrimp and acclimate them very slowly. Maybe even an hour. Fish I try to acclimate depending, as above, on how delicate the species is. Corals I pull out of whatever they are in and toss them in the tank. This goes for Anemone's as well.
I'm not saying this is right, just how I do it.
Today I transported 4 corals from home to my office tank. I pulled them out of 80 degree water and plopped them in a cooler of water that was probably 10-15 degrees cooler. I put them in the back of my truck where the cooler proceeded to slide from 1 side of the bed to the other as I made turns at 60 mph and slammed on the brakes at red lights. (OK, maybe not that bad.) From there they were pulled out of the 65 -70 degree water and plopped into the tank at the office with temperatures at 79-82 degrees.
These corals were finger leathers and Montipora Digita. One of the 3 finger leathers had full finger and polyp extension 4 hours later. The other 2 are slower to react even when touched by my finger in the tank so they will be awhile before they are perfectly happy. The Digitata as could be expected went into the office tank in several pieces , but had polyp extension before I left the office 10 hours later.
(A little more than my 2 cents.)
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