Acclimating corals..who does what

[JPotter]

From the first hermit crab and shrimp I brought home acclimation..gradual and thorough ..was ingrained in me from the LFS. Same when I got my first fish. When I purchased my corals they have said..simply put it in the tank..no acclimation required.
Quarantine, prophylactic dosing of anything was never brought up by the LFS.

Thus, upon reading posts on the forums, I feel I have been leaving out big steps!!

So what steps do most of the experienced reefers do before actually putting newly aquired (1) corals..soft, LPS,SPS (2)invertebrates and (3) fish into your main tank where you would like them to remain and thrive.

If the response is large and the methods varied it would be nice if someone could also set up a poll to indicate what are the preferred methods.

Too much to ask:( I hope not as I find SPS often look great in the LFS and a later don't look so great at home.

Also I have a tank that has good parameters, mainly softies and LPS that had no new pieces for 2 months and out of the blue lots of flatworms cropped up. I peer at the tank daily so don't think I missed it for 2 months. I added a wrasse and hope it nibbles them away.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and descriptions of acclimation tecniques for various livestock. If you dose pls include product and active ingredient, dose strength, duration and cycle.

[Ryan]

Coral go right into the tank I dont float them (unless I can feel a big difference in water temp)

Fish get put into an ice cream pail then I have a little scoop I just scoop water in over the course of half hour hour until the ice cream pail is full then the fish goes in.

Inverts get dripped. 1 drip/second until 200% of the water is replaced.

[Drock169]

The only acclimation I do is float everything. Some coral will get a dip in Revive but thats it.

[whatcaneyedo]

Every new addition is drip acclimated. I find its less work than most other methods because all I have to do is set up the drip line with some 1/4" hose and a john guest ball valve and then walk away for a little while. I know I should QT everything as well but the only thing I take the time with is acropora. I set up a QT tank and treat it with interceptor for potential red bugs then leave them in it over night. However my systems are pretty full now, these days all I purchase is the occasional little frag. If I was trying to fully stock a new system and didnt already have things like flatworms, aptasia, bubble algae, hair algae etc I might do things differently.

[untamed]

Coral is 100% removed from any substrate it might be attached to (rocks, plugs etc). Visual inspection for unwanted critters, then soaked 15 minutes in iodine/interceptor/dip/in my tank water to further remove anything unwanted. It goes from there directly into the system. I don't do any kind of acclimating because the dip is composed of my tank water.

As for fish, I generally float the bag to match temperature...then begin to extract water from the bag and replace it with tank water using a turkey baster. If the fish isn't showing any odd behaviour or reaction to my tank water, it usually goes into the system within an hour or so.

I already have ich...so that isn't a concern.

[Leah]

I always float for 15 mins fish/corals then I put everything in a bucket in their bags.
I then add a cup of water wait 10 mins and a cup more for an hour when the bag gets to full I dump about half out. I do the same for inverts but I use alot less water or split the cup of water amongst all the inverts, if I have ordered alot. I then put fish only into
a Q.T. tank for a month maybe, depends how and where the fish have come from.

[fishytime]

This is what I do personally...not what I recommend at the store:mrgreen:

corals get temperature acclimated, dipped and visually inspected
fish get temperature acclimated and released
snails and hermits get temperature acclimated and released
clams, shrimp and other more sensitive inverts get dripped.

[marie]

All inverts and corals except shrimp are floated for 10-15 min and then placed into the tank. Shrimp are drip acclimated

Fish are quarantined for at 6 weeks but I just lift them out of the bag with my hand and place in the quarantine tank...no acclimating

[Lance]

All inverts and corals except shrimp are floated for 10-15 min and then placed into the tank. Shrimp are drip acclimated

Fish are quarantined for at 6 weeks but I just lift them out of the bag with my hand and place in the quarantine tank...no acclimating


Pretty much the same here, except I add a little tank water to bag water and use Reefchem Sea Dip for corals.

[JPotter]

I have lots of aptaisia but to my knowledge not the others:)
I have access to interceptor..what is the standard dose?

Also what is Revive that several refer to..what is the active agent?

[JPotter]

What is the concentration and duration of the Interceptor/iodine dip? I have access to betadine and interceptor but am uncertain how to use them safely and effectively. Thx

[JPotter]

This is what I do personally...not what I recommend at the store:mrgreen:

corals get temperature acclimated, dipped and visually inspected
fish get temperature acclimated and released
snails and hermits get temperature acclimated and released
clams, shrimp and other more sensitive inverts get dripped.
What is the dip..product, concentration and time.

[JPotter]

Pretty much the same here, except I add a little tank water to bag water and use Reefchem Sea Dip for corals.
What is in Reefchem sea dip for corals and what does it protect against?

[Lance]

What is in Reefchem sea dip for corals and what does it protect against?


Ha Ha. I can't type.:redface: Supposed to be (Seachem Reef Dip) which is a coral disinfectant containing Iodine.

[Myka]

For both fish and corals I am VERY sure that not a drop of bag water will make it into my tank. The corals are always rinsed with tank water, and fish are dripped so they get a rinse off too.

After a recent brush with Red Bugs on an Acro frag I have changed my procedure. All frags get floated in the tank for 30-45 mins for temperature. Then I use the bag water in a bowl, add the dip chemicals, dip the coral. Then I use a turkey baster, and baster the show with tank water after the dip to remove the TMCC. Then I place the coral in the tank in an area of low flow and low light, and slowly move the coral to where I want it. There is no acclimation to the water, just the temperature.

All Acros - Tropic Marin Coral Cure (as per label) and Interceptor dip for 15-20 mins.

All other SPS - TMCC as above. Although I have found Montis to be sensitive to the TMCC, so they only get dipped for about 5-10 mins.

LPS - I find to be sensitive to TMCC, so they get dipped only for a few swooshes, so they are in there for less than 1 minute, but still at full dosage.



Fish get a different approach. All are inspected. All fish are floated for 20-30 mins to warm up the bags (if needed) and drip acclimated for 1-2 hours into either the quarantine tank or the display tank. Some species won't do well in QT, so they are never put there no matter how bad they look. If fish are in the QT they will either be watched or medicated depending on what's going on. In both cases (display or QT), once the fish are done dripping they will be floated in the tank again for 30 mins to match the temp since the temp in the drip container usually falls by a few degrees. Inverts get the same treatment as fish except they never go into QT, and they are dripped for 2-4 hours depending on how sensitive they are.

Ime, I have come to the conclusion that most clownfish have "something". So all clowns get QTed with PraziPro treatment for a week as per the label.

I have been looking to find a reliable dip for fish mainly for parasites including internal ones, but I haven't been able to find much. So my search continues. Any suspect fish will get QT with a week's PraziPro treatment as per the label.

My drip procedure for both corals and fish is to use the smallest container needed, and pour only enough bag water in the container to cover the specimen. Drip 2 drops per second (inverts are 1 drip per second). Let it drip until the water volume has doubled or close to, then pour off the excess water until the specimen is just covered again. Do that 2-4 times. Inverts take twice as long because the drip rate is half. To drip I use airline tubing and a matching ball valve (TLF makes them).

[Snappy]

Personally, I think an iodine dip like sea chem or TMCC should only be done for about 2-3 minutes maximum. Flatworms tend to come off right away in my experience and leaving the coral in longer creates a lot of stress. I use a one gallon bucket so I can shake the coral in the water to help the process along. An interceptor dip actually needs to be done for a minimum of 30-45 minutes and even then you may still have a few stragglers that hang on. If you find red bugs upon inspection use a QT and give it the full 3 week treatment.

For fish, I find shrimp, snails & mandarins seem to be need more acclimation than most others especially since some stores have their salinity very low so be mindful of that. I have seen the SG at one LFS in particular as low as 1.017 so I always test to see what needs to be done as my system is generally at 1.026 SG.
Also as mentioned some fish are more sensitive than others so my acclimation procedure will vary depending on the fish.

[Myka]

Personally, I think an iodine dip like sea chem or TMCC should only be done for about 2-3 minutes maximum. Flatworms tend to come off right away in my experience and leaving the coral in longer creates a lot of stress. I use a one gallon bucket so I can shake the coral in the water to help the process along. An interceptor dip actually needs to be done for a minimum of 30-45 minutes and even then you may still have a few stragglers that hang on.

I have found more and more corals being sensitive to the 15-20 minute TMCC dips, so I have been dipping for shorter and shorter periods it seems. I have been tossing around the idea of dipping TMCC and Interceptor separately too. Hmmm...