Drip acclimation

John3 · Jan 15, 2018

Of all the corals I have bought I have only drip acclimated 1 which was a lobo. That lobo is the only coral that I experienced tissue recession and unhappiness. I’ve brought in another 20-25 corals over the past 8 months without drip acclimating and have had no problems.

I float the bag for 20-30 mins. Then I’ll do a quick dip in coral-rx, then a rinse in tank water and in it goes. I don’t do the half old water with new water that I have seen suggested figuring the coral is already ticked being in the coral-rx. I’ve never lost a coral yet this way and almost everything always opens up by the next day or sometimes even immediately without damage. This is almost all lps, mushrooms, zoas and a RBTA.

I have drip acclimated snails but I can’t say if that made a difference. Are there any cases where you feel like drip acclimating is a must? Does anyone feel that drip acclimating causes more harm than good?

nautical_nathaniel · Jan 15, 2018

Drip acclimation is most important when there is a significant salinity difference between your tank water and the source water. However, it can be important with corals and critters that are sensitive to other parameter changes. For instance, I always drip acclimate SPS corals because most of them can be really sensitive to alkalinity changes and most of the time the source water from where I got the coral from is different from my tank's water.

John3 · Jan 15, 2018

What’s your procedure on drip acclimation?

chipmunkofdoom2 · Jan 15, 2018

In almost all cases, I don't drip acclimate anymore. I drip acclimate with inverts only (shrimps, crabs, etc). For corals, I temperature acclimate and drop right in QT, provided the salinity is not too different (it usually is right at 35ppt). For fish, I temperature acclimate and check salinity. If the salinity matches, they go right into QT. If not, I lower the QT salinity to match the salinity in the bag, then the fish goes right in.

Drip acclimation can actually be dangerous. For example, if you have a fish shipped overnight, they've been respiring in the closed bag, which releases CO2. This lowers the pH of the water in the bag. At the same time, they're excreting ammonia. At low pH, the ammonia exists as ammonium, which is not particularly harmful to fish. However, as soon as you open the bag, CO2 escapes and the water's pH begins to rise. The relatively harmless ammonium is converted into dangerous ammonia very quickly. Drip acclimating is designed to be slow. Unfortunately, this means that it takes a long time to dilute the very poisonous ammonia that formed when you opened the bag.

I would always do some reading when you get a new animal to see if they have any specific requirements with regard to acclimation. But in general, drip acclimation is not necessary except for inverts and can actually be harmful to fish.

ca1ore · Jan 15, 2018

Always a good idea to check salinity of incoming water. Most of the places I buy corals keep them at 1.024/5 so no drip required. Fish a different kettle of, well, fish .....