How to acclimate sea stars
- Thread starter harndog
- Start date
T
thomas712
Guest
Originally Posted by Harndog
How do you get them in your tank without putting the shipping water into your tank? You cannot allow them to be exposed to air correct?
Very slowly. Trick is to drip acclimate them, when the bag starts to get full you simply dump some water out, then as it fills up again dump some more, repeat until you are certain that it is mostly your tank water, then you can add the star. By very slowly I mean very slowly, some star accimations take 4 hours or more.
Thomas
How do you get them in your tank without putting the shipping water into your tank? You cannot allow them to be exposed to air correct?
Very slowly. Trick is to drip acclimate them, when the bag starts to get full you simply dump some water out, then as it fills up again dump some more, repeat until you are certain that it is mostly your tank water, then you can add the star. By very slowly I mean very slowly, some star accimations take 4 hours or more.
Thomas
ophiura
Active Member
Exposure to air is not an issue so long as it is quick. Improper acclimation is the major issue. BE SURE you have a proper tank, especially with proper parameters (eg specific gravity at 1.025-1.026) and a mature tank. This is especially true of any Linckia star or relative which I encourage a lot of research before buying.
If your LFS fails to keep their tanks with the stars at 1.025-1.026 I would seriously reconsider purchasing from them...or at least be sure the animal has been there several weeks (a month is better).
Everyone has slightly different methods for drip acclimating. I tend to poor the contents into a container that I can wedge in my sump. This way, the water temperature acclimates to the tank as well as other parameters. I dump some out as needed. But for many stars, acclimation should take several hours...especially considering the change between the water in the bag and your own tank.
If your LFS fails to keep their tanks with the stars at 1.025-1.026 I would seriously reconsider purchasing from them...or at least be sure the animal has been there several weeks (a month is better).
Everyone has slightly different methods for drip acclimating. I tend to poor the contents into a container that I can wedge in my sump. This way, the water temperature acclimates to the tank as well as other parameters. I dump some out as needed. But for many stars, acclimation should take several hours...especially considering the change between the water in the bag and your own tank.