Acclimatising Critters And Corals

[BigC]

Hi
I have just set up my first Nano Reef Aquarium and pretty soon (after fully cycling) I'll be looking at purchasing my first Livestock namely some snails, hermits and shrimp. I know to go slow and add only a few of the aformentioned at any one time, but what I was really wondering was how to acclimatise these critters to enhance their best advantage of survival. Please relay your personal methods of doing this necessary task to include the actual method, appratus and timescale involved before, and how you actually release the livestock into your tank.
Your help is always greatly appreciated
Regards
BigC

 

[Revision17]

I use a ~500ml soda bottle with two holes in the top for drip.

One hole is just.. a hole, the other has airline tubing which goes from the bottom of the bottle and out for a few feet and a knot to slow flow. I fill the bottle up with tank water, and start the siphon by covering the air hole and squeezing the bottle. I put this bottle on top of my lighting fixture. I use the same bottle for daily top offs.

At the same time the specimen is floating in their back in the tank water to match the water's temp.

I then plop the specimen in when the bottle is done emptying. Usually I do it in about 30 minutes, however you can tighten/loosen the knot to your needs.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The method I use:

Material needed:
Airline tube (long enough to reach from tank to the floor)
Container, big enough to hold the fish/coral but small enough that the water from in the bag is enough to keep them covered.
Cheapo plastic valve for the airline.

Method:
First I float the bag for 10 minutes to stabilise the temp in the bag (for some of my corals on large bits of LR I skipped this step).
I then empty the bag, water and fish/coral into the container. It is important to get the right size and shape of container. If it is wide then the water might end up to shallow and you have a fish/coral which is halfway out of the water.
I fix one end of the airline tube in the tank and put the valve on the other end.
Start a sypthon on the airline tube and adjust the valve so it drips twice a second (into the container with the fish/Coral).
I then leave it a couple of hours.
For corals I then just lift them out and put them in the tank.
For fish I net them out and put them in the tank.

Notes:
If your house is very cold then doing it this way could be dodgy because the water temp in the container could drop (the room my tanks are in is always very warm so not an issue for me).

I might use the method revision mentioned next time Good way to make sure the temp is kept stable.

Make sure that if it is a fish the container or bag it is in is covered incase it decides to jump.

 

[Lynden]

I just plop them in a bowl and mix the water every ten minutes or so with water from the tank, doing this several times. It has yet to fail.

 

[dilbert]

At first, I measure the temperature, salinity, and ph in the water in the bag that came from the LFS. (Everthing measured with electronic salinity and ph meters, so this is an instant reading.)

If the figures have matched those in my tank (i.e. it is within the tolerance of those relatively cheap instruments), I added some water from the tank into the bag over about ten minutes, if not I did this for half an hour, pouring a cap of water every five minutes or so.

Fish I have put into a small tank with dechlorinated tap water of the same temperature of the tank after doing this acclimatisation in the bag. When the fish looked good then I waited five minutes when it looked suspicous to me I took it out after a minute or so.

In every case, I catched the critters with a net and introduced (or simply throw ) them into the tank.

I don't have a quarantine tank so all critters went directly into the tank. As I have only a few and stocking the tank was done in six weeks, I took that risk.

Until now, nothing bad happened and all are happy including me but that's probably a poor man's advice just for completeness. It worked with me and that was the question, but I don't really advise anybody to do it like me.


Just to add here that I also took only half an hour to acclimatise the platys and shrimps that came from a LFS freshwater tank to acclimatise them into the low-end brackish water (SG 1.000 -> SG 1.005). Those animals can live both in freshwater and in brackish water. Also here I never had the slightest problem.

 

[steelhealr]

There is a tendency to overkill sometimes. IMO, it is important to not shock what you put in but on the other hand, chilling them down and letting them sit in their waste isn't cool.

Your inverts are pretty hard. Snails I think you could do a rapid float in. If you know your LFS's s.g., you can plop them in if it runs close to yours. Animals known to be very sensitive you should be more careful with.

I've found with the drip method it's a pain and depending on how you do it, it can be tough to maintain temps.

Honestly, I do a bag float but with corals I am more careful. I have never lost an animal or invert using the bag. Check your lfs and see what they run their tanks at. If like many, they run tanks at very low s.g. to help reduce disease..mid 1.015...and you run your tank at 1.026, I wouldn't plop them in.

SH

 

[BigC]

Many thanks for your replies guys..
Regards
BigC

 

[1entra]

Mate here is what I do to acclimatise my livestock:

1. Turn all my tank lights off and let the bag float in tank for about half hour.

2. Pour 1/3 of the bag water into a a bucket which I later get rid of.

3. Add approx 90ml of water to the bag (I use my turkey baster which holds approx 30ml of water and I add 3 full squirts).

4. Repeat No. 3 after 10mins x 2

5. I then empty approx 1/3 - 1/2 of the bag water out of the bag into bucket and add 90ml of tank water.

6. Repeat No. 3 after 10mins x 2

7. Net out coral/ fish/ invert and place into tank

8. Dispose of all bag water including the water in bucket

9. Leave lights off for at least another 30mins before turning on actinics.

10. Bag stays floating in main tank through whole process.

Others may disagree but I find this method works for me and so far (touch wood) I have not had any losses due to stress during acclimatisation/introduction!

 

[chrissaysyes]

Mate here is what I do to acclimatise my livestock:

1. Turn all my tank lights off and let the bag float in tank for about half hour.

2. Pour 1/3 of the bag water into a a bucket which I later get rid of.

3. Add approx 90ml of water to the bag (I use my turkey baster which holds approx 30ml of water and I add 3 full squirts).

4. Repeat No. 3 after 10mins x 2

5. I then empty approx 1/3 - 1/2 of the bag water out of the bag into bucket and add 90ml of tank water.

6. Repeat No. 3 after 10mins x 2

7. Net out coral/ fish/ invert and place into tank

8. Dispose of all bag water including the water in bucket

9. Leave lights off for at least another 30mins before turning on actinics.

10. Bag stays floating in main tank through whole process.

Others may disagree but I find this method works for me and so far (touch wood) I have not had any losses due to stress during acclimatisation/introduction!

I use this method as well rather than dripping in a lot of cases. It works great even for some sensitive inverts. Ive had success with this method with sea stars and various corals.

 

[andywg]

Aaah, here is where the fuge comes into its own. I leave everything as is (I don't disrupt the light cycle just for a new arrival). I put the bag in the main display tank and run a drip line down from the fuge into the bag. I will set the drips to a level where I can see individual drips at the most, and as low as one per second depending on what it is (fish get fast acclimatisations, SPS corals slower).

I then tend to wander off for an hour or so, return to drain down the bag and leave for an hour.

After I finally remember what I was doing I turf the contents of the bag into the tank.

This way I can keep the temp up while gradually letting the new purchases get used to my tank/system

 

[nanocubeking]

I just plop them in a bowl and mix the water every ten minutes or so with water from the tank, doing this several times. It has yet to fail.

Tah-DA!!!
Same as me. Except I turn off the pump because I use the surface skimmer.

 

[piranha_trader]

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.

 

[SkiFletch]

I just plop them in a bowl and mix the water every ten minutes or so with water from the tank, doing this several times. It has yet to fail.

Heh, I do this with corals, fish I'm a little more careful with and drip. I also dip all incoming corals/frags in iodine, flatwrom exit, and interceptor. No baddies comin in my tank again...

 

[steelhealr]

One comment above...I agree with turning lights down when adding a fish. I also try and assist them to the bottom by keeping them netted and slowing move the net to the bottom. Probably overkill. IMO, SPS corals are the ones that need the effort more. Softies are pretty tough. SH

 

[SeahorseWhisperer]

I clip the bag of the new arrival to the side of my sump and use a drip line from my tank to the bag. I let it go relatively fast, to get the specimen into a strong environment quickly.

Piranha Trader, do you mean fasten their rock or do you mean fasten the frag itself? If you let the frag fasten on it's own, it can take a while...