Climatizing corals

[no_name]

I just want to know if i climatize corals (lps, sps, anemones, soft, etc.) same as fish? by dripping it for 2+ hours?

[JENnKerry]

whenever we get new corals from a reputable place, we ask them what salinity they keep their corals at. Most places will keep them around 1.026. That being the case, all we do is float them for an hour or so, so the bag water gets up to the same temp as our tank.

[IslandCrow]

I do pretty much the same as JENnKerry, although I just test the salinity in the bag myself. If it's pretty close, I just temperature acclimate. Otherwise, I do a variation on the drip method, where I take out about 1/8th of the water at a time and replace it with tank water. I do this about every 5-10 minutes over the course of about an hour. I also dip my corals in Kent Tech D (there are many other similar products) to remove any (though not necessarily all) parasites that may have tagged along. I do this after I've acclimated the corals. A buddy of mine had a different technique, where he'd just take the corals out of the bag for about 30 seconds and let them slime up a bit. The theory was that the slime layer would protect the coral from the shock of entering a different environment. It seemed to work for him, but it's not a practice I ever adopted.

[thegrun]

Yes I acclimate and also dip my corals. Two hours of acclimation is too long for fish IMHO, the stress of being stuck in a small bag will be worse than a quicker one hour acclimation period. It will not matter to corals, so a longer period is fine, although I still use a one hour period.

[Jhutto]

Done it both ways...salinity, temp and ph are critical factors.

[HOZER62]

I let them acclimate about 30min. floating the bag and then transfer them to a small container and slowly add some of my tank water for about another 30min.

[no_name]

Thank you for all your responses. Another question, I've read some corals are poisonous, which are the poisonous ones and how should they be handled?

[IslandCrow]

Zoanthid and Palythoas are probably what you've heard about. They sometimes (more often the latter than the former) contain a toxin called palytoxin. It's a neurotoxin that in sufficient quantities can be extremely poisonous and potentially deadly. That said, I've never heard of a hobiest dying from palytoxin poisoning. You do need to take precautions, though:

- Always wear gloves when handling zoanthids, palythoas or protopalythoas.
- Always wear eye protection when fragging any of the above corals
- Always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and hot (not so hot you burn yourself of course) water
- Avoid touching your eyes or mouth when handling these corals
- Don't pour boiling water over a rock containing these corals and breathe in the vapors (this has been done, and the results were not pretty)
- Seek medical attention if you experience any severe swelling, numbness or respiratory problems


Now, this isn't to scare you, just to keep you safe. Many of us own zoanthids and palythoas and never have any problems. Most of them do not even contain this toxin, but you won't know which ones, so it's always best to be cautious. The only other coral I can think of that would fit into this category are your fire corals (I forget the species names), and although painful (I've had a rub up against some while snorkeling), I don't believe they're particularly dangerous.

[no_name]

haha nah I am not scared I'm just cautious but thank you for the help. I will one day be the teacher and not the student haha.

[IslandCrow]

I will one day be the teacher and not the student haha.

Yeah, no doubt. I was actually just deleting a bunch of my really old subscribed threads and realizing I was one the noobiest newbies out there not so long ago. Those with a desire to do so tend to learn about this hobby very quickly.