acclimation question

jasony

jasony

Member
i just watched the flash presentation on the left...
my question is:
1) when acclimating how much stock aquarium water do i have drip into the styrofoam lfs water box that houses my new purchase?
do i let an equal volume of my aquarium water mix with the lfs water? or do i double the volume of lfs water in the styrofoam box with my stock water?
please help
jay
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
The idea is to use enough water so that the fish remain in only a small portion of the original shipping water.
Generally, you want to double the volume at least a few times over.
What I do is once floated, I dump them into a bucket (or the styrofoam container, etc) and pour out water, leaving just enough for them to be able to swim freely with the bucket/box tipped. Drip in enough water to double the volume, then pour off again. Double, pour, and double. So that's like this:
1. Place in bucket
2. Pour off excess water
3. Drip tank water in until you have doubled the volume of water you started with (after pouring off the excess).
4. Pour
5. Double
6. Pour
7. Double (you can increase the drip rate here if you like)
By the time you are done there should be practically none of the original shipping water left and almost all tank water from your system. Then you use a small container, such as a tupperware, to scoop out the fish, pour off as much water as you possibly can, lower the container into the tank letting the tank water flood in, allowing the fish to swim out on his own.
Expect to go through at least several gallons while acclimating. This may seem extreme, but it also serves as a water change too because you are disgarding tank water and making it up with new seawater, so it's not all bad.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
SCS thanks. Can you (someone) elaborate on the water change while doing this. My concern is that during acclimation, the water level in my sump/fuge will decrease and thus decreasing the water level in my skimmer chamber. Do you add the new water during the acclimation or after the fish has been introduced? Hope this makes sense. May not even be an issue IDK?
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
You are exactly right... as you acclimate, you go through a good deal of tank water which does NOT get returned to the display tank (DT). Your DT water mixes with the shipping water, and since you never introduce shipping water to your system, you need to discard it.
I always have new seawater ready to go in some quantity, in case of emergency or whatever. As the sump drains, my tanks have at least a gallon of tolerance between "full" and when the pumps start sucking air, so when the sump drains down some, I just dump in a gallon or so of new seawater to keep the sumps topped off while I am acclimating.
As you continue to discard acclimation water (that came from your DT), and introduce new seawater, it's the essence of a water change.
It's just a way I prefer to think about it... seawater is expensive to make and use, and if I think about it as a water change I tend to have an easier time thinking about how much water I am using to acclimate a fish.
 
earlybird

earlybird

Active Member
Thanks and that's what I figured. One last question. You said you always have new seawater ready in some quantity. When storing your water do you keep it circulating for aeration? Do you cover it?
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
I have a number of tanks, so I go through it pretty quick.
Generally, I keep about 6 gallons mixed and ready to go, and 32 gallons of RODI in a storage tank. The seawater I mix in a bucket. I keep a powerhead in there while it sits to keep things mixed up. When I do a water change (every 2 weeks) I mix 30 gallons of seawater, enough to do my saltwater systems all at once. Then I drain 6 gallons off into a bucket, which becomes the new standby, and dump the old standby bucket into the 30 gallon container, mix for an hour, then do my water change.
This way I never have seawater sitting around for more than two weeks.
As for RODI, I go through at least 100 gallons a month, as I have freshwater systems that use it as well so it never sits in the storage tank long enough to stagnate, so I don't use pumps or anything in that.
 
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