leaving lights on for coral?

[munki]

after letting a coral adjust to the water (floating in bag for a half of an hour...correct?) how long would i need to leave pc lights off for.


thank you

[lcstorc]

First floating the bag is only the first step in acclimation for corals or fish.
After that you need to slowly introduce water from your tank into the container they are in. This is best done with a small airline with a knot tied in it so it drips one or two drops at a time. When the bag is full discard half of the water and repeat until the bag is full again. Then remove the coral from the bag and put it in the tank. Do not put the water from the bag into your tank. Depending on the coral you may also want to dip it in Lugols or a fresh water dip but without knowing the coral type it is hard to say yes or no on that.
I have never heard of leaving the lights off to acclimate corals only for fish. For fish you leave the lights out to reduce agression. Depending on what light the coral was under at the store you may need to slowly acclimate it to your lights by placing it higher or lower in the tank so it can adjust to more or less light.

[munki]

thank you.

[flricordia]

I disagree totally. A coral should be placed directly into your system as long as your parameters are correct and if they aren't you shouldn't be adding corals. I and every reef shop and about everyone else that keeps corals knows to place the coral right in. Do not acclimate it by drip method. I use to do this and would sometimes loose corals, but since I learned to not do this I have never lost a coral whether softie, sps or lps. You should only acclimate fish and inverts by drip method. Corals can secrete a toxin that can lead to their eventual demise in thier bag and especially when being acclimated by drip. No harm will come if placed in the tank right away. They do not breath in the way fish and inverts do and do not need to be drip acclimated, Too many people think they need to do this to their corals and too many people end up loosing their corals and blaming water parameters or the LRS or the collector.

[goldenmean]

Thats very interesting flricordia
I have seen your tanks pics full of beautiful corals so there must be something to not acclimating corals.

Anyone else that does not acclimate their corals??

[biju708]

I agree completely with flricordia, one thing I would like to add though is something that works for me. I know that corals need to acclimate themselves to the light setup you have in your tank and if you expose them to a rapid change to a stronger light they can literally get sun burnt releasing toxins in your aquarium.

What I do with new corals is to first place them at the bottom of the tank and give them a day or two to adjust themselves, when I see that they are fully expanded and looking ok then I move them to the desired position.

[prow]

i think, like lynn pointed out, it depends on the coral. many corals are exposed to air daily and would have no trouble just being dropped into the tank. others come from areas where they never have to deal with such changes. still others come from the pacific with a salinity of _ and others from the red sea with a slalinity of _. i would think depending the coral some do need to adjust to the changes in water parameters. just the difference in salinity form the red sea and south pacific changes the osmotic pressure and the corals need to adjust. then there are those from deep waters that may need to adjust to atmospheric pressures. sps, leathers or lps all very in their ability to adjust. one coral that comes to mind that may fall into the, needs to be acclimated, is the elegance coral.

not that i know, i dont, but seems to me it would be wrong to lump all corals and their needs togather. even us, someone that lives in low altitudes can go up to the mountians no problem. take that person straight from the beach and just put them on the hill may pop their ear drums and lead to an infection. ok i suck at explaining, but dont think it would be wise to lump the care and handling of all corals togather.

[Melanie]

This is VERY interesting! I have been drip acclimating my corals and then using a Lugol's dip for 10 min. then a quick rinse in another container of tank water (to avoid ODing the tank on Iodine.) Then I place them. I am very curious about placing them directly. What flricordia says makes sense and it didn't occur to me before!

[prow]

not considering the coral itself, i would not just place them in. only because of the risk of introducing bad things. i say always do a dip or QT and whatever acclimation goes with the treatments. i just got through, stupid me, dealing with red bugs. i have QT'd all prior additions and treated/dipped when needed. this was going to be the last additions, no more room. so i just placed them in there. before i noticed, i lost two acros to a red bug infestation. for this reason, i would say always do, whatever way you choose, whats needed to prevent unwanted additions.



back on the lighting. i always turn off the lights for that day and place at the bottom. then lights back to normal. depending on how the coral reacts i move to shade it or up to the place i want it. some i have to stage, going up a few inches at a time, others not.

[burning2nd]

wow this threads geting twisted....

I just got a new montipora frag...

its acclamateing right now..

the light it was in is about the lighting its going to... so no problem

with out checking the salt (i dont really care 2) i will drip acclamate it from the main tank to the sump where its floating right now in a bag..

after 1 or 2 bag dumps i will put it in my tank...

i dont know what big deal is..

if its comeing from a tank that had less light.. you should place it lower first. 2 help the coral...

all things that are wet should be QT'd