CIPS: What is your Coral Induction Protocol Score?

[JMR5]

Right around 50. I temp and drip acclimate (heater and pump in acclimation container), dip in Bayer, inspect visually, and sometimes cut them off the plug, depending on what it is and where it needs to go. Seems to work pretty well so far! (I recently added....well, 44 new pieces - HEY IT WAS A GOOD LIVE SALE and then ASD had a mega sale and STOP JUDGING ME hahahahaha)

 

[AdamH300]

Ummm, 5 points. I float the bags for 15-20 minutes and put em on the frag rack for a week or two.

 

[Doglips56]

I scored a 40!

I also scored 40. Gave myself half points if I don’t do it every time. It just depends on who I get them from.

 

[Popkorn0407]

Score 100% happy coral

 

[Jjd531]

In my humble opinion people way overthink this hobby and acclimation, i scored 20.. In theory, or at least in my mind, most reefs should be running within a certain range of params, and hopefully your LFS is reliable but as long as your tank is within this range, (which honestly isnt huge compared to freshwater ranges) I feel like you don't need to acclimate more than 10 minutes. BUT I do believe its highly beneficial to dip your corals although I never do. I have NEVER lost anything from a botched acclimation, most livestock I've had in my reef doesn't die 'naturally' and is stung, killed, or eaten. My routine is float the bag for 10 minutes, acclimate in a bucket for 5 to 10 minutes and your good. I feel like my lax approach and non number chasing mindset is why I've had so much success. As a matter of fact me and my one LFS always get into this conversation about people asking 'why is your tank running so good whats your secret' and in reality he has no secret, and runs his tanks in store about as lax as I do and never has any problems. Although one thing we agree on is that stability is an important factor. Don't get me wrong if I just picked up some expensive fish or coral, im gonna probably take an extra 10 minutes or so to acclimate for me to feel safe and more secure about my livestock surviving but thats about it. This doesn't just apply to coral, I do this with all my inverts as well, starfish, shrimp, crabs, urchins.

 

[Blknovass]

Well I’m not as good as I thought only a 20.

 

[Fishy Art]

40 points; temp, parameters, dip, inspect

 

[Uncle Bob]

60, I don't dip, cut off plug (unless plug covered with something bad - bubble algae etc), and I don't quarantine anything.
If something doesn't look healthy enough to put in my tank, I don't buy it.

UNLESS OF COURSE IT IS SUPER COOL!

 

[kkelly007]

Coral Induction Protocol Score is a fancy term I came up with for adding corals to your reef tank. Very unscientific but somewhat fun! HA!

Recently I have received a couple of coral orders and I was thinking about how I am going to add them to the main display tank and wanted to hear your thoughts on it as well. Obviously I have added many corals over the past 17 or so years but there's still opportunity to learn! So let's get a little more detailed today and answer the following questions please!

So what is your Coral Induction Protocol Score? Give yourself the points assigned for each if you answer yes.

5pts: Do you acclimate new coral to temperature of your tank?
10pts: Do you acclimate new coral to the water parameters of your tank by replacing water in the bag over time?
20pts: Do you dip the coral to eliminate coral pests?
5pts: Do you visually inspect your coral or frags before adding them?
30pts: Do you quarantine coral before adding to the tank?
20pts: Do you cut the frags off of the frag plug or rock they are attached to before placing them?
10pts: Do you place new coral on the sand bed for light acclimation?

Should we add something else to the scoring criteria?

Frags from @Corals.com

 

[Dempsey941]

Iodine dip and into the tank they go. Usually on a rack or near the sand bed. Ain't nobody got time to drip acclimate them.

 

[damselindistress]

50 to 70 depending on if I cut off the frag plug or not, sometimes I do sometimes I don't. Do everything else except quarantine.

 

[Rogueaquariums]

I scored a 60. I temperature acclimate them as well as visually inspect them and dip them in Brightwell’s Coral MD, Furan 2 and Brightwell’s lugols iodine with Coral aminos..

 

[Thunderrap]

I only scored a 25 , I used to cut the frag off the plugs but I accidentally broke a dragon soul goniastrea doing it so now I just cut the stim off the plug and place it. I should have done a better job of inspecting but so far besides aiptasia I've been lucky.

 

[kkelly007]

I'm a 60. All but QT and acclimate water parameters. A Dremel with a diamond blade works very well to cut corals mounted to a plug with glue--just need to be patient when sawing through the glue as it is brittle and the coral mount can pop off with great force . . . don't ask me how I know this. The key is to not apply too much pressure when sawing: let the Dremel do the work.

Will eventually have a separate frag tank lagoon when I upgrade--hoping to move from a 105g DT to a 360 within the next year.

 

[Ferrell]

65. I do not quarantine. I got half a score for not long term acclimation to parameters. I use a frag rack near the bottom so that counts for light acclimation

 

[725196]

I got a 70%. I do everything except quarantine as I do not have anyplace to put a QT. Personally I would give myself another 10% because I dont just put water in the bag it came in I drip acclimate. Also after the coral dip I dip the coral again in untreated tank water before it goes into the tank. The water I dip it in is to clean any dip that maybe still in/on it. That water never goes back into the tank. Lastly I have dedicated containers and colanders that are used just for dipping corals.

 

[Michael@CoralVue]

Ummm max points ... ;Stig

 

[Acrocrazy725]

50-70
I don't quarantine. I cut off any plug that has any algae growth. Sometimes with a fresh cut from a very reputable guy where the glue is pearly white still and its not an overly big plug and it fits where i want to put it, I MIGHT leave it. 9 times out of 10 no, re-plug for frag rack for lighting acclimation! I don't like look of plugs on rocks in display either. Coral seem to grow faster touching seasoned live rock then fresh plug and look more natural from day one. So i re-use a lot of plugsa
I don't have a sand bed, so i lower frag rack almost to bottom glass to acclimate for a week or so.

I don't know about everyone else, but with some very expensive acros. I am afraid that maintaining a second small system for quarantining for 3 months plus without having swings in parameters that would come with setting up any new tank weather it was meant for a quarantine or not could pose problems as well.
I think you can get away one time quarantining set ups for fish, but just curious how many people leave their quarantine system going all the time, as opposed to those that set it up just for new purchases?? Those that leave it running all the time do you mirror your perimeters ??

I ran a 29 biocube for 10 years as my primary tank loaded with coral and for me it was a lot more work then my 125gal and 100gal tanks that are currently separate systems.

 

[howitzer]

Coral Induction Protocol Score is a fancy term I came up with for adding corals to your reef tank. Very unscientific but somewhat fun! HA!

Recently I have received a couple of coral orders and I was thinking about how I am going to add them to the main display tank and wanted to hear your thoughts on it as well. Obviously I have added many corals over the past 17 or so years but there's still opportunity to learn! So let's get a little more detailed today and answer the following questions please!

So what is your Coral Induction Protocol Score? Give yourself the points assigned for each if you answer yes.

5pts: Do you acclimate new coral to temperature of your tank?
10pts: Do you acclimate new coral to the water parameters of your tank by replacing water in the bag over time?
20pts: Do you dip the coral to eliminate coral pests?
5pts: Do you visually inspect your coral or frags before adding them?
30pts: Do you quarantine coral before adding to the tank?
20pts: Do you cut the frags off of the frag plug or rock they are attached to before placing them?
10pts: Do you place new coral on the sand bed for light acclimation?

Should we add something else to the scoring criteria?

Frags from @Corals.com

75. I may need to relax lol

 

[DrewBR]

I honestly didn't expect to get a 70. I don't quarantine and I personally think that my acclimation method is really easy and simple.

One of the LFSs near me does the diping for me whenever I buy there.
Than it's a short float, and a drip to aclimate to the water.
While it drips I inspect everything and cut of the plug since I hate the look of it.
I usually blast the coral with a turkey baster so I can get any particles of.
Straight to the sandbed it goes to sit there for a couple weeks while I figure out the best placement for it and observe if anything is going sideways.

I really don't think it's complicated or any work actually. Doesn't take long and requires basically no effort. Am I the crazy one?