Drip Acclimation vs keeping water at NSW params

[Yuki Rihwa]

The LFS in my area do drip acclimate the new fish shipment for at least 1 hour before they put them into a sale tank but they do not quarantine new shipment.
I did test their water and oddly their salinity from their coral frags tank and clam tank are +/- 0.01 compare to my tank salinity but most of the time dead on 1.025 (I'm running mine at 1.026), however their PH quite vary between 7.8~8.0 so I do drip acclimation to match up PH and I take advantage of drip acclimate time to investigate my live stock (clams) for parasite and clean them up before it goes into my tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The LFS in my area do drip acclimate the new fish shipment for at least 1 hour before they put them into a sale tank but they do not quarantine new shipment.
I did test their water and oddly their salinity from their coral frags tank and clam tank are +/- 0.01 compare to my tank salinity but most of the time dead on 1.025 (I'm running mine at 1.026), however their PH quite vary between 7.8~8.0 so I do drip acclimation to match up PH and I take advantage of drip acclimate time to investigate my live stock (clams) for parasite and clean them up before it goes into my tank.

FWIW, I do not think that pH is something that one needs to adjust slowly. It doesn't cause osmotic pressure differences, and the only thing an organism might do in response to pH changes within a normal range is potentially adjust the numbers of various types of transporters that might take advantage of a pH gradient, and that adjustment process will be slow since it involves turnover of membrane proteins.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Thanks, good to know

 

[CherBear811]

I remove from bag and into a bucket, airstone and a little bit of methylene blue while drip acclimating til the volume in the bucket doubles, usually about a half hour, longer if the bag water is more than .003 difference from my QT. Then a formalin bath and finally a methylene blue bath.

I do think if the fish looks in distress or the bag has a terrible stench upon opening that dripping should be skipped and just try to match their salinity at least in a bucket so you can then slowly adjust them to your QT if it's much different.

Corals.... depends. Acros and sensitive LPS like torches and gonis get drop aclimated. Zoas not so much. But all corals get a dipped before going into the tank.

 

[Christopher B Keyes]

This is not true. I’ve worked in LFS for years, salinity can and does vary. When an LFS gets fish many times they’ve been in a box for a day or more, the ph has crashed from co2 buildup to unsafe levels and ammonia buildup is high. Most hobbyist otoh take a fish from the store to home usually a trip lasting less than a few hours. I️ can say that we drip acclimate for 1/2 an hour. All fish come out into a tub in their water, prime and praziquantel @ 8x the normal dose. We don’t start the drip until all the fish are in the tub. And when the timer goes off they all go into qt for 3 weeks with copper or cp and enrofloxacin. Once done in qt they each go to the sales system they belong in and it’s just a drop and plop.

I wish every LFS had that level of care!

 

[cody hendrix]

This is not true. I’ve worked in LFS for years, salinity can and does vary. When an LFS gets fish many times they’ve been in a box for a day or more, the ph has crashed from co2 buildup to unsafe levels and ammonia buildup is high. Most hobbyist otoh take a fish from the store to home usually a trip lasting less than a few hours. I️ can say that we drip acclimate for 1/2 an hour. All fish come out into a tub in their water, prime and praziquantel @ 8x the normal dose. We don’t start the drip until all the fish are in the tub. And when the timer goes off they all go into qt for 3 weeks with copper or cp and enrofloxacin. Once done in qt they each go to the sales system they belong in and it’s just a drop and plop.

What fish store is that? I have never seen one store actually quarantine for any length of time. I would gladly pay extra to see fish quarantined!!!!

 

[keddre]

I don't think drip acclimating is needed for fish. While I'll drip acclimate my inverts, all fish I only do a bag float then plop.

 

[wopadobop]

We always quarantined for 6 weeks. No drip acclimation just adjust salinity and ph (if necessary say more than .04 out of what our qt tank was) even if someone wanted to buy your name was put on a list and the fish marked as sold, see you in 6 weeks. If it died. We order another for the client.

FWIW Justin Lefevre (sorry if i butchered the spelling Justin) has a great talk on qt and fish acclimation from last years macna. We pretty much followed the same system for the last decade with less than a .5% fish mortality. No medication unless necessary.

 

[Gladmaker]

I don't think drip acclimating is needed for fish. While I'll drip acclimate my inverts, all fish I only do a bag float then plop.

Not sure why you treat inverts differently than fish. Also don't know if you're getting them from your LFS or online. Reef Cleaners will not guarantee inverts if you drip acclimate them. They say that being closed up for a day causes ammonia to spike and opening the bag makes it worse so leaving the inverts in the shipping water while dripping causes more harm than putting them into the tank after floating with the bag still closed to even the temperature.

 

[Newb73]

I don't acclimate my fish very often but i always drip acclimate sps corals.

I have noticed however the temps drop fast without a heater in the acclimation bin so its only about 20 to 25 minutes that ill drip.

I use my apex DOS

 

[Jamie7907]

What are you using the enrofloxacin for with CP? I have used it on a fish that had a bacterial infection not responding to the usual antibiotics, just wondering what the thinking is combining it with CP as a standard protocol..

We import fish directly and have played with various different medication routines and for whatever reason this combination has helped the most. Wild fish seem to come in with everything under the sun so we needed something that works 99.9% of the time. When I first started fish losses were unacceptably high, most notably wrasses sometimes I’d see mortality rates as high as 90%. I was given leeway by the owner to fix it. He keeps almost every fish medication under the sun in bulk and after trial and error this was the best combo we found. Fish losses now range from 1-3% on average, a huge overall improvement and we offer a 4 day guarantee on all livestock that has been through quarantine. We will sell fish without qt but it’s at the customers discretion and we still recommend that all livestock be quarantined by the purchaser on top of what we do.

 

[aeras1131]

Perhaps the LFS you work at is distinctive; very few of the ones I have shopped at over the years did much of a drip acclimation, if any at all; and I did say ''mostly", a wonderfully nuanced English word.

I love the word "mostly and sometimes" they are my favorite words in my toolbox at work.

 

[kamike91]

I love the word "mostly and sometimes" they are my favorite words in my toolbox at work.

"Mostly, sometimes, known to, might, slight possibility of, may, usually dont, and usually do" can't go wrong with these. I used it these all my jobs. No one can hold me accountable lol.

 

[aeras1131]

You're the boss.

 

[aeras1131]

And when someone tries to pin you down to a specific time frame. The magic answer is "Can I please get back to you?"

 

[aeras1131]

 

[ca1ore]

I don't think drip acclimating is needed for fish. While I'll drip acclimate my inverts, all fish I only do a bag float then plop.

Hmmn, doesn't really make sense to me. All of the places I buy inverts keep them at 1.024/25, which negates the need to drip them. Fish, on the other hand, come in all over the place, as low as 1.015. I don't drip them either because I adjust my QT, but if I didn't I'd be inclined to do some kind of salinity acclimation.

 

[LoneStarReef]

What fish store is that? I have never seen one store actually quarantine for any length of time. I would gladly pay extra to see fish quarantined!!!!

I was just out in the Los Angeles area this week for work and stopped by Age of Aquariums. They actually do quarantine all of their fish. It was pretty impressive. All of their fish look really healthy. I almost took a fish back with me to Texas! Maybe next time.....

 

[cody hendrix]

I was just out in the Los Angeles area this week for work and stopped by Age of Aquariums. They actually do quarantine all of their fish. It was pretty impressive. All of their fish look really healthy. I almost took a fish back with me to Texas! Maybe next time.....

wow nice, I love in central Florida and have more lfs then I can count. Some of them being some of the biggest names in the country and non of them do.

 

[Scottshopinc]

Plop and drop, anything else you're just wasting your time thinking you're doing something.

 

[Scottshopinc]

Plop and drop, anything else you're just wasting your time thinking you're doing something.