Drip Acclimation question

[Sasha T]

I'm curious if I've been overthinking this (probably):

Every time I've seen people (normally LFSs) talking about acclimation, I only ever see a time listed. "Sensitive to parameter changes, 45-60 minute drip acclimation recommended", etc.

"Dripping is the preferred method of acclimation for all inverts. Most invertebrates are best with a 1 hour drip. More sensitive invertebrates like starfish and urchins should be dripped for longer"

I've gotten some orders where there was barely 200 ml of water in the bag, and some that have more than a litre, so a 45 minute drip acclimation would have a very different end result if no water was removed from those bags beforehand, right? Is it usually assumed or implied that the water volume is doubled by the end of the drip acclimation? Normally when I'm drip acclimating I try to double/triple the amount of water by the end of the drip time, so I dump enough water so that the fish/coral/invert is comfortably covered by the water they shipped in, and the rest is dumped.

 

[Pistol]

I drip at a rate that will double water in 15 minutes then remove 1/2 the water and double it again

 

[TORX]

Almost none of this hobby is standardized across the board. All the information is generalized and adapt it to your situation. Drip acclimation will matter on what coral and how much water you are storing it in while dripping. Then the drip rate is taken into consideration. You can drip faster if you were acclimating in a liter of water vs 200ml of water. I try to double the water volume then poor half out, and do that 3-4 times depending on what I am acclimating.

 

[Sasha T]

Wouldn't it make more sense then to say "Drip acclimated to 75% of your tanks parameters over 45 minutes" or something similar?
More on the LFS/Retailer side, less for standardizing it and more to indicate what it is you're actually trying to achieve, just having a time seems excessively nebulous.

 

[The PITH Column]

Most times I dump a bunch of the water out, and drip until it is 2 or 3 times the volume and add to tank. Not sure how much acclimating does for corals since it is also likely to go into this nasty dip stuff. Seems worse then putting into a nice healthy tank

 

[Reefgrrl]

IME what matters most doesn’t depend on the time span of the acclimation - unless you’re dealing with a large difference in salinity when adding fish. If the shipping water is higher in salinity than your tank, it’s not a problem (except for starfish). But if the shipping water is more than .01 SG lower than the tank, you need to raise it slowly by small exchanges of water. This can take about an hour per .01 difference, the slower, the better. If the salinity jumps too quickly, it can be really hard on the fish and can lead to death overnight from osmotic shock (I speak from experience).

I drip until I can match temp, specific gravity, and pH in the new livestock water, to the tank water. The trickiest one is temp because unless your room temp matches the tank water temp, your livestock water will drop in temp during acclimation. 1-2 degrees isn’t serious but in my case, my room temp is usually 69-70°F and my system temp is about 78F. So I use one of those tiny betta water heaters (5 watts maybe? Can’t remember.) and monitor the temp closely so it doesn’t get too high. And if there’s any way to avoid it, I never add the vendor’s water to my tank. Sponges are the only exception to this.

My final step (a bit trickier with fish than coral) is to have some tank water in a container where I dip/rinse the new livestock before adding it to the tank.

And then there’s the process for dipping coral/QT for fish before they are added to the display......

I know a lot of ppl aren’t as anal about this as I am but it sounds like it matters to you so I hope this helps, and please feel free to ask questions if I haven’t explained very well. Good luck!

 

[Sasha T]

IME what matters most doesn’t depend on the time span of the acclimation - unless you’re dealing with a large difference in salinity when adding fish. If the shipping water is higher in salinity than your tank, it’s not a problem (except for starfish). But if the shipping water is more than .01 SG lower than the tank, you need to raise it slowly by small exchanges of water. This can take about an hour per .01 difference, the slower, the better. If the salinity jumps too quickly, it can be really hard on the fish and can lead to death overnight from osmotic shock (I speak from experience).

I drip until I can match temp, specific gravity, and pH in the new livestock water, to the tank water. The trickiest one is temp because unless your room temp matches the tank water temp, your livestock water will drop in temp during acclimation. 1-2 degrees isn’t serious but in my case, my room temp is usually 69-70°F and my system temp is about 78F. So I use one of those tiny betta water heaters (5 watts maybe? Can’t remember.) and monitor the temp closely so it doesn’t get too high. And if there’s any way to avoid it, I never add the vendor’s water to my tank. Sponges are the only exception to this.

My final step (a bit trickier with fish than coral) is to have some tank water in a container where I dip/rinse the new livestock before adding it to the tank.

And then there’s the process for dipping coral/QT for fish before they are added to the display......

I know a lot of ppl aren’t as anal about this as I am but it sounds like it matters to you so I hope this helps, and please feel free to ask questions if I haven’t explained very well. Good luck!

Very thorough answer, thank you. I'm not overly specific about acclimation process, I'm just curious as to why "drip time" always seems to poorly defined when looking up livestock, although I 100% agree with Torx that coming up with a "Gold Standard" that is agreed upon hobby wide would be difficult.

I've had only two unexplained fish deaths since I started, same species, same shipment, both died within 48 hours (tail spot blennies) which every time I mentioned it to someone, osmotic shock was the first offered diagnosis. Those were a while back, and I've increased my drip time and shipment:system water ratio by the end of acclimation, and haven't had any problems since.

I've never heard of someone rinsing fish though, is your goal removing as much of the original system/shipping water from the surface/system of the livestock, or do you do a medicinal treatment like Safety Stop (for fish) at the same time?

For temp control, I assume your tank has a sump(?), so would you be able to float the bag clipped to the side of the refugium section of the sump and run your drip line down from the display down to the bag?

 

[Reefgrrl]

Very thorough answer, thank you. I'm not overly specific about acclimation process, I'm just curious as to why "drip time" always seems to poorly defined when looking up livestock, although I 100% agree with Torx that coming up with a "Gold Standard" that is agreed upon hobby wide would be difficult.

I've had only two unexplained fish deaths since I started, same species, same shipment, both died within 48 hours (tail spot blennies) which every time I mentioned it to someone, osmotic shock was the first offered diagnosis. Those were a while back, and I've increased my drip time and shipment:system water ratio by the end of acclimation, and haven't had any problems since.

I've never heard of someone rinsing fish though, is your goal removing as much of the original system/shipping water from the surface/system of the livestock, or do you do a medicinal treatment like Safety Stop (for fish) at the same time?

For temp control, I assume your tank has a sump(?), so would you be able to float the bag clipped to the side of the refugium section of the sump and run your drip line down from the display down to the bag?

I do have a sump but it’s composed of four Rubbermaid vats. I acclimate now using buckets of an appropriate size, and this is where a heater is needed for longer-term drips.

When I had my previous tank, I used to acclimate exactly as you suggest (clipped the open bag inside the middle chamber) and it’s a bit tricky accounting for displacement as well as replacing the tank water that goes into the shipping bag. But I found it was the best way to maintain temp.

It’s always something in this hobby....it would indeed be great to have a standard to follow for this type of thing but there are just so many variables. ‍