Acclimation ? Is It Completely Necessary?

[pavelow360]

Just starting out and haven't put any animals in my tank yet. A friend got me into the hobby. While reading and looking around, I have seen minor mention of acclimation. Is this a process you need to do for all new things added to the tank, if so, how is it done? I saw an acclimation tube for sale on a website and can guess but wanted a clear explanation.

[Jeremy0322]

Its necessary. There are a few ways to do it. You can tie a loose know in some airline tubing and then start a siphon at the rate of a slow drip and let that run at like 1 drip a second for around an hour, thats usually how I do it. You can also use a small glass and just take some of the water out of the container and replace it with tank water, do that for a while and then you should be alright. Just make sure no water from the bag the fish or whatever came in goes into the tank, it can contain water born parasites which are bad news.

[pavelow360]

so just one hour for acclimation? I just read someone's comment on another post saying a minimum of 4 weeks...I had also saw a guy talking about acclimating some snails for an hour or so... I understand you do not want to do things fast in this hobby but 4 weeks??? that seems like over kill to me... opinions?

[domb54]

if your tank has cycled then your fine to put something in but acclimate temp and make sure ph, alk, and temp are same. The four weeks is for when you already have a big bioload and dont want to risk losing tank members. fighting disease etc. tank cycled most important all readings zero

[domb54]

forgot to put in previous mention four weeks is a great period to get used to, if you want great info read the posts from people who have done it from the beggining of salt. learn from trial and error. three years and some months and i still have a ton to learn

[pavelow360]

domb54/ Jeremy

thank you for your replies, domb54... I can see what you mean about still learning...I only have sand and rocks and have so many things that I read spinning around in my head... I do not know where to start...it appears that my tank hasn't cycled yet, and i already have some green hair algae taking up residence...I am not sure what avenue I will eventually go down, I may just start with the CUC and some fish until I learn enough to go with some corals, but I do not want to go too fast, even when choosing the fish

[becact]

The 4 weeks is probably referring to quarantine, which is also a good idea. But strictly speaking about acclimation, a drip line is best. Just drip water from your tank until 3/4 of the water in the cooler (what I hold the fish in) is tank water. Then scoop the fish and put him in the display (do not pour him in). Discard the water in the cooler.

The easiest way to make a drip line is to get some airline tubing and tie a knot in one end. Then just tighten the knot until you get a pretty fast drip stream. A few drops per second is what I use. Make sure to add the same amount of new salt water back to your system that you used to acclimate and not let an ATO (if you have one) swing your salinity by adding tons of fresh water to compensate.

You definitely need to drip inverts like snails, crabs, and shrimp, as they are sensitive to parameter swings. Fish should be dripped too. Corals on the other hand, I personally drip but many people just float the bag for a half hour and drop them in, or add a half cup of tank water every 10 minutes until the bag is full.

[snorvich]

Acclimation is for: different specific gravities (yours versus the shipping water), different tempertures (same), different Ph, and finally, and equally important, social acclimation. All but the last can be done (and measured) with drip acclimation; the last requires (for fish) a floating acrylic/plastic breeders cup to insure there is not immediate hostility towards the new fish.

Quarantine, on the other hand, is a prophylactic process to keep diseases from being introduced into your tank.

[ricksconnected]

most LFS sell drip kits. they are like $4 or so. pretty nice to have and easy to use.

[EnglishRebel]

To acclimate, put a plastic colander inside another container, pour the water and fish from the LFS bag in (cover if the fish is a jumper), drip acclimate, then lift the colander with said fish out of the water, shake a little, and then slowly lower into the QT tank. This way you minimize the amount of LFS water that gets in your system. Some people like to do a FW dip between the acclimation container and the QT tank.