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Douglas
07-01-2011, 11:16 AM
Do most people acclimatize coral? I bought a couple of full colonies of sps coral, the other day, and didn't acclimatize them, like i would fish or inverts. Within 2 days, they have signs of death. I have several established frags of sps, that are now small colonies, and are thriving but were never acclimatized. My tank has been running for a couple of years, and it's fairly stable. Just wondering what might of went wrong, and want to know if acclimatizing them might have helped. Thanks

kh 8
mg 1300
cal 380
sal 1.025
temp 78 - 82

Aquattro
07-01-2011, 01:20 PM
Yup, they need some sort of acclimating, especially if they're coming from a very different tank. At least temp should match, but salinity would be something as well. If it came from a LFS, the SG could be way off. I always match temp, then often add a bit of my tank water to the container. Not as much as I would with fish, but I spend a bit of time.
I have added colonies before without this, and they've been ok, but try to acclimate as best you can to get the best chance of survival.

spawn
07-01-2011, 02:50 PM
Do most people acclimatize coral? I bought a couple of full colonies of sps coral, the other day, and didn't acclimatize them, like i would fish or inverts. Within 2 days, they have signs of death. I have several established frags of sps, that are now small colonies, and are thriving but were never acclimatized. My tank has been running for a couple of years, and it's fairly stable. Just wondering what might of went wrong, and want to know if acclimatizing them might have helped. Thanks

kh 8
mg 1300
cal 380
sal 1.025
temp 78 - 82
Is that a daily temp swing? Raise your Ca & Mg.... & no I did not spend alot of time acclimating my corals, even though it is probably a good practice to follow. As Brad said it depends on where there coming from & what they're getting into IME.

Douglas
07-01-2011, 08:36 PM
Yes, that's my temp swing. The MH heat things up, during the day. I have had some higher temps over the last couple of weeks, because of the summer heat. Temps of a high as 84.5 a few days, but am trying to keep that at a more even level. I will try to raise my cal and mag. The mag seems to be the tricky one to keep at a more even level. Still very depressing to see whole colonies die in a couple of days. I think in the future, i'll acclimatize my larger, more costly, pieces of corals. Just to try to give them the best chanced at surviving.

bignose
07-02-2011, 12:29 AM
I always acclimate just to be safe. I've had water from my lfs with a salinity of 1.019 and had to raise it up to 1.026

chandigz
07-02-2011, 12:51 AM
I never aclimate my coral other then for temp and sometimes salinity if its drasticly different. I Float the bag then into a dip then quarantine.
I'd be worrying about that temp swing tho. 4-6 degrees is a lot especially on a regular basis. I would try to keep the swing to a couple degrees. In the wild a 3 degree spike in temp has been blamed as the cause of mass bleaching and die off events in reefs. You could try moving your lights higher, changing your light cycle so that the halides come on during a cooler part of the day, adding fans when the halides are on, frozen bottles of water, or a chiller. When the weather is hot I usually shift my light cycle so that my lights come on in late afternoon after the hottest part of the day then I float a couple of frozen 2 ltr bottles of water in my sump when I home from work. On real hot days my tank gets a simulated "cloudy day". No halides just actinic.

jostafew
08-22-2011, 05:08 PM
I always acclimate, and treat corals as I would any other inverts. Slow drip for an hour, remove excess water, fast drip for a half hour, again remove excess water, another half hour fast drip. During this time I'm watching temp of the bucket(s) that are acclimating and making sure that it matches that of the QT tank they're headed for. Then when temp is right it's a dip and into QT.

That being said I know guys who just float the bag and plop the frags straight into the DT. It wouldn't be my reccomendation but as you'll see in this thread many people have success with that method.

Haloreef
08-22-2011, 06:46 PM
I have never acclimated an SPS coral. I soak them in a container containing whatever water was in the bag and enough water out of the display to equal a gallon and them add Coral RX at a little over the recomended dose and let soak for 15 minutes or so. I have forgotten corals for almost as long as a half hour and they have survived.
I then remove from the dip, rinse with tank water, and put them some where that the slime gets carried away by the current, and then put them in the place I have selectrd and keep an eye on them for the next week or so.
Works for me.
I figure that what ever my tank levels are at, they have to be better than the dip.
Keith.

Myka
08-22-2011, 07:37 PM
All corals get a dip or two depending what they are, then they are placed into the tank. No acclimation. I've lost the odd frag here n there, but they were usually lookin like crap to begin with.

dreef
08-23-2011, 02:06 AM
All montis and sps just get the dip..and dump,never lost one.

Lance
08-23-2011, 03:19 AM
I dip and acclimate to temp and salinity. Surprising sometimes to see the bad guys that fall off during a dip.

fishytime
08-23-2011, 03:23 AM
dip whilst temperature float, then in the tank for all of the coral Ive ever bought.....no real issues I can speak of.....sometimes corals move well.....sometimes they dont.....

JTang
08-28-2011, 01:11 PM
Yes, that's my temp swing. The MH heat things up, during the day. I have had some higher temps over the last couple of weeks, because of the summer heat. Temps of a high as 84.5 a few days, but am trying to keep that at a more even level. I will try to raise my cal and mag. The mag seems to be the tricky one to keep at a more even level. Still very depressing to see whole colonies die in a couple of days. I think in the future, i'll acclimatize my larger, more costly, pieces of corals. Just to try to give them the best chanced at surviving.

84.5 sounds pretty high. I was told (Paul @ Oceanic Corals) that 82 is quite high for SPS. Your new coral might not be used to the high temp. Well, I should let the experts talk since I'm still new to reef.... LOL

PFoster
08-28-2011, 03:10 PM
I dip all my coral (especially sps) but I dont acclimate them.

It sounds like you could have 2 potential issues there.

First off the temp is WAY too high. A lot of these sps could be coming directly from the reef crest where the temp is much lower. Several years ago I have my temp go up to the 84-85 degree range and I lost a several LARGE and very well establish deep water colonies.

Second you could also be shocking them with too much lighting. When you first introduce sps to your system from the wild I would recomend starting them lower in the tank and gradually bringing them higher. Raising your lights or reducing your photo period would also help with this as pointed out in a previous post.

IMO your other parameters are just about spot on.
I like my mag around 1350 and Ca at 400 but thats also at a salinity of 1.026

BTW dont forget to calibrate your refract!
And NOT with RO water!!

Wayne
09-05-2011, 10:48 PM
I always acclimate just to be safe. I've had water from my lfs with a salinity of 1.019 and had to raise it up to 1.026

Yesh thats not good. I have had some stores with slightly lower salinity but I have never seen that low before.... I drip all inverts for minimum an hour, corals and fish I try for an hour, sometimes time doesn't allow so I just temp match and check salinity. Zero losses to date because of this (knocks on wood)