Acclimation overated?

[stanlalee]

I just have to get oppinions on this. Now I've been keeping saltwater fish for over 10yrs now and I have never done much acclimation other than temperature acclimation. Recently (the last few yrs) I've done short (up to 1hr) acclimations which include dumping 30cc (medicine cup) of tank water into a bucket with the new fish and water every 5-10 minutes or so til I am tired of doing it. I have now (with the last fish purchased and going from tank to tank at home )stopped and went back to just temp acclimation. Here's the thing. In 10+ years I have NEVER lost a single specimen due to lack of acclimation. Not a fish, shrimp, coral, snail right down to the last freakin hermit. I've had snails I didn't even know werent in the tank in a net for over 24hrs and dumped it back into the tank without loss so how important can it be it get a 3hr acclimation upon purchase. Fish, temp acclimated and never had ONE fish refuse to eat or act normal afterwards. Never had a fish just drop dead a day or week or two weeks later. I do give my fire shrimp the benefit of the so called experts doubts since I've had it two years and they are suppose to be more sensitive but hermits and snails just get dumped in after a temp acllimation and at best a 30 min medicine cup acclimation. never owned a starfish so maybe they do require proper acclimation.
So convince me otherwise. Tell me why I need 2-3hrs worth of drip acclimation? Now I realize there are there are some chemical changes that happen with a fish sitting in a bag of water 24hrs being shipped and that unnaturally large desparities between pH and sp grav probably arent the best thing for the health of a fish but from actual practice I have seen NO evidence, ZERO that actual 2-3 and 4 hr drip procedures are neccessary.
dont tell me I've giving bad advice, this isn't advice. this is experience sharing. I'm not trying to convince everybody to start doing what I do. I want some hard evidence or science that can sway me more than 10yrs without a single loss doing it the wrong way.

 

[ruaround]

not only is temp important but, its the water chemestry... you want to introduce your new livestock to yours slowly so you dont shock/stress it out...
there are fish out there that could handle being dumped right in anfter a temp acc... but i wouldnt do that with a mor delicate species that you just paid $$$$$$$$$$ for...
my 1,000th!!!

only took me five years... lol...

 

[ophiura]

This is going to be hard for anyone to convince you. So it works for you...I think there are loads of people who have lost lots of things....both ways (acclimation or no acclimation). You've been lucky - uncharacteristically lucky for anyone in this hobby.
Have you been buying from different sources, or always the same LFS?
Fish, IMO, are not a big issue with acclimation. At least I personally believe they can handle a lot without real issue. Same is true, again IMO, of corals. But snails, shrimp and seastars are a different story.
If you are buying animals from a source that has specific gravity and parameters similar to yours, then you may not need acclimation. So my first question would be what is the specific gravity of the place you are getting the animals from...
But believe me, there are some rather eye opening experiments you can do on invertebrates to demonstrate that many do not do well at all with very sudden and significant changes in salinity.

 

[nicetry]

I acclimate much like you do and also have never lost a fish or invert to the process. I float the bag for 15 minutes to equalize temp, and then add small amounts of tank water over the next 45 minutes or so. If your tank parameters are good, you're not stressing the fish in the bag.
IMO, the three hour recommendation by some vendors is excessive. I've had a few fish over the years that were becoming visibly distressed in the bag during acclimation and which were placed in the DT within a half hour. All did fine.

 

[toughguy80]

I kinda do a little from both schools of thought. Fish and corals I do about an hour or till I get bored. But like ophiura said, IMO inverts are more sensitive. I once lost 2 cleaner shrimp back to back just temp acclimating. The 3rd I acclimated and all was well. It was an expensive lesson learned. So yeah, for me all inverts get acclimated for the listed amount of time.

 

[murph145]

not to sound bad but i dont ever acclimate anything... i dont advocate this becuz its probably smarter to do some acclimation at least temp wise
i add anything i get be it fish or all kinds of corals even sps directly to my tank and to my knowledge ive never lost a thing due to acclimation other than maybe a blue linkia

 

[aztec reef]

Originally Posted by murph145
not to sound bad but i dont ever acclimate anything... i dont advocate this becuz its probably smarter to do some acclimation at least temp wise
i add anything i get be it fish or all kinds of corals even sps directly to my tank and to my knowledge ive never lost a thing due to acclimation other than maybe a blue linkia
i've also done this many times. & also don't recomend to do this for new hobbyists.. i don't quaranteen anymore either..i used to and i strongly recommended. you have to have a mature tank with stable conditions..in order to try this ..and also you got to have an idea where you're getting the livestock from(what kind of parameters they keep their stuff at)...and don't take the lfs's word.. you have to test their water to make sure..

 

[iampumpkinman]

I think it can go either way, sometimes you need to acclimate, not necessarily for three hours, but maybe 45-90 minutes, depending on what paramaters the lfs has, and yours too.
Mature tanks do have less chance of something going wrong, but that little hour and a half period can save you alot of money in the longrun(provided you are losing fish)

 

[puffer32]

I base lenght of acclaimation on my lfs water conditions. The ones with near same as mine I only acclaimate until salinity is the same as mine. For instance one lfs i buy from keeps his tanks at 0.21, so acclaimate shorter time the the one whos at 0.19. But i always acclaimate at least an hr, except my linka, dripped him 3 hrs.

 

[renogaw]

my lfs keeps their fish at 1.020 and i keep mine at 1.026, so acclimating from the lfs to the tank i feel is vital. i maybe do half hr from my QT to my DT though to let the ph balance out since all of my QT water comes from my dt

 

[reefkprz]

***)

 

[adroitmind]

I have to admit that in the 5 months that i have been doing this i aclimated for about an hour or so at first no matter what i got. Then i talked to my lfs (they are very good and have talked me out of a few things i wanted to buy) and they told me not to worry about it. I only asked this because i went in after they got a shipment and saw them just dump a bucket of fish right into a tank. Moral of this story is that i just temp aclimate now and everything is going great. Not one death yet, knock on wood.

 

[alyssia]

I only temp acclimate unless it's something that I know is delicate, like some inverts.

 

[reefkprz]

I'm gonna cry, who knew Bomb acclimating was so popular.

 

[bang guy]

In my experience fish actually do better without a lengthy acclimation. Temperature acclimate only seems to be a good way to go. For inverts, the temperature doesn't seem to be very important but they are extremely sensitive to salinity changes and need to be acclimated gradually to avoid osmotic shock. The greater the difference in salinity, the longer the acclimation period needs to be.
Not acclimating fish voids the Saltwaterfish.com guarantee so my advice is to acclimate accouding to the guarantee provisions.

 

[reefkprz]

ok heres my 2 cents on it.
with fish
while being shipped long distances they are defecating in the bag as soon as you open the bag the ammonia becomes toxic, fast acclimation is better than leaving them in a bath of ammonia.
for short distances the pollution doesn't build up as high so a moderate acclimation makes the transition easiest on them.
with crabs/stars/snails
salinity/water composition change can shock and kill them quite quickly or slowly over the next month depending on what it is. usually the amount of ammonia in a bag after long term shipping is far lower for a single star, than for a single fish regardless of size. Osmotic shock is a big danger IMO a lengthy acclimation is better.
with corals
temp acclimation is all that they need, salinity chemical composition changes don't bother any that I have ever dealt with. though there could be exceptions to this I have never dealt with any.
with LR
there are lots of tiny forms of life that can die of osmotic shock on lr. most people don't acclimate rock, sometimes I do sometimes I don't it depends on the quality of rock, if its a gorgeous rock with tons of life I drip it, if its lower grade I just throw it in.
these are just what I do and I'm not disparaging anyone else's techniques. though I must say I am not a fan of bomb acclimation.

 

[adroitmind]

Wow that is a very interesting post BangGuy. I was waiting for one of the resident experts to bash this thread. I am glad to hear that someone with alot of experience and who gives good advice say that! I should add that I have my SG the same as my lfs.
On a side note, how does this site know how you acclimate your fish?

 

[myrtle beach]

I am kinda a novice, but i would say if you have an aggressive tank, you might not want to dump a new fish in without taking caution. I just added a butterfly and my clown pecked at him while he was getting adjusted. I quickly added some food to distract him from the new guy and the butterfly was fine after five minutes of heavy breathing.
I added a cup of water every ten minutes for an hour. He still seemed dazed and confused. I can only imagine if there was a trigger or something that wanted a piece of him. The clowns caused no harm and he became the bully in an hour, pecking at everything, eating a mushroom coral that came with a piece of liverock, but he is a great addition so far.

 

[tx reef]

I temp. acclimate fish and inverts for about 20 min., thendump some of my tank water in the bag...wait 15 min. and dump them in the tank.
Corals I put a few drops of iodine in the bag and temp. acclimate them and then put them in.

 

[dreamweaver]

Okay... BRAND NEW to the saltwater environment.... (previously had freshwater in my 55 gallon)..... Tank has cycled - with water being tested at my local lfs... As of last week I was good to go! Purchased a few blue damsels at the lfs - then proceeded to order the majority from Saltwater Fish.... MY SHIPMENT ARRIVED TODAY!
Read with great interest your threads concerning acclimation..... I plan to opt for the 3 hours suggested acclimation for 2 reasons. One, the fish guarantee factor - and two, because I am so inexperienced with saltwater....
However, I noted in some of the threads that starfish appear to be a major contender for the lengthier acclimation --- Yet, when my Red Knobby Starfish arrived he was not packed in a water bag... And according to the enclosed reference sheet - I am simply supposed to float the bag for 30 minutes and then release directly into the tank....
Simple enough instruction - yet I am concerned.... There was water in the bottom of the styrofoam box - and after reading the threads regarding taking the time with starfish - I am quite confused! Do you think that my starfish was supposed to be shipped in a water bag? Should I simply release after 30 minutes as instructed or should I include him in the 3 hour process?
I realize that I might not have time to await your answers this time around - but this information would surely serve me well in the future... So thank you for any advice that you can provide.