Acclimatising Critters And Corals

[yorkcoparamedic]

I drain off some of the water in the bag that holds the specimen and then place the bag in the tank and clip it in place. I use a empty 500 ml IV bag that I got from the ER I work at and some IV tubing with a 20 gtt rating (gtt = drops)( 20 gtt = 1 ml ). I then use a syringe and fill the IV bag with 500 ml of tank water. I hang the bag about 3 feet above the tank and set the drip rate for 250 ml/hr (84 gtt/min) or (21 gtt/15 secs). For more sensitive corals or fish just refill the bag and repeat.

I slow drip every thing now. Made one or too mistakes and learned the hard way. And I too turn off the white lights and just leave the actinics on.

 

[Lynden]

with Zoas, mushrooms and bubbletips....do you just let them fasten themselves on their own or do you manually do it? If I intend to let them do it naturally, you do need to turn of your powerheads for a moment I assume.

Mushrooms/zoas need to be glued or tied, but a healthy bubble tip will attach within seconds (can be a real pain in the ass). Turn the powerheads off for a few minutes.

 

[SkiFletch]

You can also use the plastic cup trick . Put the rock you want them to attach to into a short-walled plastic cup or small plastic storage container. Sink that to the sand bed, and put the coral you want to attach in there with the rock. The walls of the cup/container will keep the flow from buffetting it around and it'll snap on itself

 

[BigC]

A lot of excellent replies on this topic guys, many thanks. Great source of information
Regards
BigC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

You can also use the plastic cup trick . Put the rock you want them to attach to into a short-walled plastic cup or small plastic storage container. Sink that to the sand bed, and put the coral you want to attach in there with the rock. The walls of the cup/container will keep the flow from buffetting it around and it'll snap on itself

Doing this myself for the first time but one thing I havent seen written anywhere yet is how long (roughly) it takes for the average zoa/mushroom to attach itself to a rock.

 

[SkiFletch]

Each species is different, a handful of days to a couple weeks

 

[eschaton]

I've tried doing the gradual acclimation thing with marine inverts before, but I run into an issue with snails - they tend to climb out of the container entirely if I don't stop them, meaning I need to be constantly watching during the acclimation process. Nassarius are probably the worst for this, but nerites, cowries, and astraea seem to like leaving the acclimation container as well.

Anyone know a way around this? Obviously, you can put a lid on the container, but is it really acclimating if it climbs out of the water entirely?

 

[Lynden]

Shouldn't be too much of a problem, just push 'em back in.

 

[eschaton]

As I said though, I don't want to stand over a bucket for an hour of a slow drip process, yaknow?

 

[Lynden]

Maybe a screen of some sort would help? An... electrified screen?

Heh, just kidding. A non-electrified screen could really help, perhaps place it underwater to stop them from getting out.

 

[andywg]

Throw a tea towel over them and look in every 15-20 minutes. It's what I would do.

 

[Musho3210]

with all my meaty corals (softies and lps), a simple shake to make them release water, then i put them in my tank.

Fish and other inverts i put them in a styrofoam box, get a drip line ready, and let it rip (slowly)