Acclimating corals..who does what

[JPotter]

From the first hermit crab and shrimp I brought home acclimation..gradual and thorough ..was ingrained in me from the LFS. Same when I got my first fish. When I purchased my corals they have said..simply put it in the tank..no acclimation required.
Quarantine, prophylactic dosing of anything was never brought up by the LFS.

Thus, upon reading posts on the forums, I feel I have been leaving out big steps!!

So what steps do most of the experienced reefers do before actually putting newly aquired (1) corals..soft, LPS,SPS (2)invertebrates and (3) fish into your main tank where you would like them to remain and thrive.

If the response is large and the methods varied it would be nice if someone could also set up a poll to indicate what are the preferred methods.

Too much to ask I hope not as I find SPS often look great in the LFS and a later don't look so great at home.

Also I have a tank that has good parameters, mainly softies and LPS that had no new pieces for 2 months and out of the blue lots of flatworms cropped up. I peer at the tank daily so don't think I missed it for 2 months. I added a wrasse and hope it nibbles them away.

Thanks for any and all suggestions and descriptions of acclimation tecniques for various livestock. If you dose pls include product and active ingredient, dose strength, duration and cycle.

[Ryan]

Coral go right into the tank I dont float them (unless I can feel a big difference in water temp)

Fish get put into an ice cream pail then I have a little scoop I just scoop water in over the course of half hour hour until the ice cream pail is full then the fish goes in.

Inverts get dripped. 1 drip/second until 200% of the water is replaced.

[Drock169]

The only acclimation I do is float everything. Some coral will get a dip in Revive but thats it.

[whatcaneyedo]

Every new addition is drip acclimated. I find its less work than most other methods because all I have to do is set up the drip line with some 1/4" hose and a john guest ball valve and then walk away for a little while. I know I should QT everything as well but the only thing I take the time with is acropora. I set up a QT tank and treat it with interceptor for potential red bugs then leave them in it over night. However my systems are pretty full now, these days all I purchase is the occasional little frag. If I was trying to fully stock a new system and didnt already have things like flatworms, aptasia, bubble algae, hair algae etc I might do things differently.

[untamed]

Coral is 100% removed from any substrate it might be attached to (rocks, plugs etc). Visual inspection for unwanted critters, then soaked 15 minutes in iodine/interceptor/dip/in my tank water to further remove anything unwanted. It goes from there directly into the system. I don't do any kind of acclimating because the dip is composed of my tank water.

As for fish, I generally float the bag to match temperature...then begin to extract water from the bag and replace it with tank water using a turkey baster. If the fish isn't showing any odd behaviour or reaction to my tank water, it usually goes into the system within an hour or so.

I already have ich...so that isn't a concern.

[Leah]

I always float for 15 mins fish/corals then I put everything in a bucket in their bags.
I then add a cup of water wait 10 mins and a cup more for an hour when the bag gets to full I dump about half out. I do the same for inverts but I use alot less water or split the cup of water amongst all the inverts, if I have ordered alot. I then put fish only into
a Q.T. tank for a month maybe, depends how and where the fish have come from.

[fishytime]

This is what I do personally...not what I recommend at the store

corals get temperature acclimated, dipped and visually inspected
fish get temperature acclimated and released
snails and hermits get temperature acclimated and released
clams, shrimp and other more sensitive inverts get dripped.

[marie]

All inverts and corals except shrimp are floated for 10-15 min and then placed into the tank. Shrimp are drip acclimated

Fish are quarantined for at 6 weeks but I just lift them out of the bag with my hand and place in the quarantine tank...no acclimating

[Lance]

Originally Posted by marie

All inverts and corals except shrimp are floated for 10-15 min and then placed into the tank. Shrimp are drip acclimated

Fish are quarantined for at 6 weeks but I just lift them out of the bag with my hand and place in the quarantine tank...no acclimating

Pretty much the same here, except I add a little tank water to bag water and use Reefchem Sea Dip for corals.

[JPotter]

I have lots of aptaisia but to my knowledge not the others
I have access to interceptor..what is the standard dose?

Also what is Revive that several refer to..what is the active agent?