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superman1981 
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 Topic: The Acclimation Myth...
Posted: March 10 2008 at 11:53am |
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Like the creative title? I was hoping that would get people to read this. Anyway, I'm curious about everyone's acclimation rituals. I used to be hardcore about acclimating for hours, but these days (there are exceptions of course), generally with fish and corals I float the bag for 30 mins and toss the fish or coral in. I haven't had any casualties since I started doing this, so now I'm wondering how many other people do this.
I do acclimate shrimp, crabs, stars (minus chocolate chip), fish that cost more than $20 and so on. But now I'm curious what everyone else does.
Edited by superman1981 - March 10 2008 at 11:57am
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pa_reptileman_4
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 11:56am |
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i dont do it and i havent done it in months, with one exception i had a foxface i tried to acclimate and it was dead with in 2 hours. i have gotten many new corals and fish and other critters in the past few months and i dont acclimate them and all are living and doing well.
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pitiful guppy tank.
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pa_reptileman_4
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 12:01pm |
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pitiful guppy tank.
shane
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reptoreef
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 12:03pm |
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If you can trust the source then maybe you will be ok, but for the chance of something bad being introduced to the system, I caution you to be very careful.
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unixnum1
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 12:03pm |
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If I buy it on line, I am careful how I aclimate it. 1-2 hours, float, 1/4 cup tank water every 10-15 minutes.
From an LFS, I float it for awhile add a little water and then plop it in.
Those who scuba/snorkel will know that the ocean has quite a few temperature variables near islands and the fish don't seem to care to much.
Coral is different, I am alot more careful.
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cl2ysta1
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 12:30pm |
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i am the opposite. I never acllimate corals other than temp. fish are a different story. SOME lfs do lower salinty, or copper so changing to your tank is quite stressful. ESPECIALLY if going from a lower salinity to a higher salinity.you can put the fish into shock. I never drip acclimate more than 30 mintues because of temp dropping and the stress of it. You want to do the least stress possible. so a 20 min drip acclimation is usually sufficient
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CrimsRayne
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 1:52pm |
I have found the best thing to do is check the salinity of the source water and acclimate accordingly.
For example, I got a couple figure 8 puffers and a sailfin tang at Bird World and they have their salinity between 1.016 and 1.018 so I do slower drip acclimations (30-60min) in a bucket and rebag and float if the temp is different. Marine World (sadly moved back to his home) kept their fish around 1.0235 which is where I keep mine so I did quick 15-20 min acclimations.
After starting this method I haven't lost any directly from acclimation. (Who really knows why a fish dies half the time anyway...) They are also usually more active and adjust to the tank better. I've had fish eat and swim around as if they'd been there all along, just hours after entering the tank.
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unixnum1
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 3:12pm |
 The funny thing is if two different groups are doing the opposite and if it works for them then I guess the real answer is, it doesn't matter. Do it the way you want.
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220G with 30G sump, SPS/LPS. RoboTank Controller. =====================================
If life is a bowl of cherry's,
why am I always the stem?
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superman1981
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 3:22pm |
You know Kevin, I was thinking the exact same thing I guess I'll stick buy the under $20 toss it in, over think about acclimating it...
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jfinch
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 3:54pm |
I think acclimation is great.
I never do it.
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superman1981
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 4:08pm |
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hammerhead
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 4:45pm |
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I always drip acclimate for about 30 minutes. Works great.
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pa_reptileman_4
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 4:51pm |
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i normally dont have the patience to do that.
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pitiful guppy tank.
shane
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Mike Savage
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Posted: March 10 2008 at 9:43pm |
I always acclimate fish and corals.
Mike
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ct79
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 12:12am |
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I Drip acclimate fish/soft corals/LPS for 30 minutes to 45 min. and only temp acclimate SPS.
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GARFVolunteer
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 6:18am |
I temp aclimate fish and then spend about 15 minutes or so adding tank water a turkey baster full at a time for a few minutes before adding them to the tank.
Hermits and snails are the ones I think most people handle wrong when they come shipped with moist paper and little or no water. I float the bag until the temp is the same and dump them in. Drip acclimating them especially if they have been in the bag for more than a few hours is a death sentence. Sure they might live for a week or more but...
Thanks,
Scott
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superman1981
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 1:20pm |
 Mike Savage wrote:
I always acclimate fish and corals.
Mike |
Mike, you're a better man than the rest of us 
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Corey Price
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 1:34pm |
Coral, just temperature acclimation.
Fish, I put them in, get the temp to come up, then dump out half the water. I then fill the bag back up with some tank water and let them acclimate to that. After about 15 min, I get the fish out of the bag and let it loose. Of course, if the bagged water has a lower salinity than the tank, I might prolong this a bit.
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Kynneke
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 2:17pm |
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Wow, overkill I guess... I do the 3-4 hour drip acclimation to anything breathing, well, except a killer diamond gobby that jumped out of the acclimation tank (I think he was after my juglar). He took a carpet dive and went directly into my tank... only to suicide onto the carpet that night through difuser panel tops.. oh well. Short and Sweet... I had NO idea what to do so I followed a movie I saw and still do the 3-4 hour drip acclimation.
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unixnum1
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Posted: March 11 2008 at 2:46pm |
See, as I said before, as long as you have success at what you do. It doesn't matter. 
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220G with 30G sump, SPS/LPS. RoboTank Controller. =====================================
If life is a bowl of cherry's,
why am I always the stem?
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