Acclimation Length?

[Pico Perfect]

I have a 3g pico, and have had problems in the past with acclimation (not long enough) that has not ended very well with a good amount of moola down the tube. :headwally: What do you recommend lenghtwise in acclimation? I use drip method into small fish bagger (because of small tank and livestock size.) Acclimation for small fish, and softies like xenia, or kenya tree, or capnella. My hermies dont seem to have problems, but my snails dont acclimate well. Help? What do you guys recommend?:uhoh3:

[dlp211]

Snails should be temperature acclimated and then immediately placed into the water. They are intertidal creatures and Ph and salinity changes don't have large negative effects on them. They may go into shock and be 'paralyzed' for a few days.

If your snails are dying, you may have a NO3 problem.

For corals, do temp acclimation, dip, into the water.

For fish, temp acclimate and use the float method. Get them into the tank within 30 minutes.

Long acclimations are bad for most creatures because of NH3 build up in the bag. Basically what happens when the fish is in the bag is NH3 builds up, but it builds up as NH4. It does this because PH drops do to lack of O2 in the air. Once you open the bag fresh O2 enters the bag, PH rises, and NH4(which is not toxic to fish/inverts) turns into NH3(which is toxic to invert/fish).

HTH

[tebstan]

In my 1.5g the snails I ordered from reefcleaners got dropped in, no acclimation. No losses.

When I purchase snails from a local store, I float for temp for about 10 minutes, test salinity to see if it matches, then drop them in without mixing water. I would ask if they can put the critters in the bag without water to make it easier and faster.

There was a good thread on acclimation recently:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959576&highlight=acclimate

[tebstan]

Snails should be temperature acclimated and then immediately placed into the water. They are intertidal creatures and Ph and salinity changes don't have large negative effects on them. They may go into shock and be 'paralyzed' for a few days.


Interesting. The shock is not from salinity/ph changes though?

I've seen the shock issue. It makes introducing snails to a tank with existing hermits awkward.