(drip acclimating) how do you go about it?

[strat]

for acclimating corals and fishes using the drip method, what equipment does one need?? ive always just used a bucket and put the fish in it and slowly add water with a cup from the tank over 30-45 mins (freshwater fish)..,. seems to work fine but i want to do everything as best i can for my future reef. so what do i need and maybe a pic if its not too much to ask. thanks alot in advance..


strat

 

[Witfull]

i have a bucket (tidy cat litter with the attached lid) and have a hole in the lid. i have a 8' lentgh of airline tubing with a knot tied in it. i put fish/invert in the bucket and start a syphon. i adjust the knot so that i get approximately one to two drips a second. close the lid and let it do its thing. let water double in volume then remove half, let it double again and introduce the critter. dispose of all water and replace with fresh mix.

 

[strat]

sweet, thanks witfull for the as always for the quick and informative reply... one more stupid question, how do you get the siphon started, (dont tell me ya suck on the end of the hose :barf: )

tahnks again


strat

 

[Witfull]

well thats the easilest way to do it!

 

[strat]

u serious??

 

[Witfull]

you will not get a mouthfull of water. yes im serious.

 

[Cougra]

lol Only a half mouth full of water and then you learn really fast that you keep a VERY close eye on the water coming out the line!


Here is my setup:

I use my brineshrimp hatcher base, with a dedicated pop bottle for clean tank water and a 1-way air valve to regulate the drip rate. (This way I don't need to start a syphon and taste saltwater )

 

[naru]

This is what I use:
A 5 quart paint bucket (Available at Lowes)
Air line tubing and rigid tubing.
Plastic Air line gang valves.
And the most important equipment: Nose aspirator for babies.
You can buy this at any grocery/pharmacy. It's used to suck snot out of baby's nose.
Fill the bucket with your tank water and put it on top of the hood. Stick the rigid tubing in the bucket and connect the tubing. This is done so that you can get that last bit of water from the bucket. Connect the tubing to the the gang valve. Connect additional tubings and place it inside the bags with the fish, but leave one tubing out. Now close all valves except for the one for the tubing that is left out. Stick the aspirator at the end of the tube and draw water from the bucket. Once the siphon is established adjust the valves to get the correct drip rate: one or two drops per second.

Naru

 

[strat]

cool, thanks people for the ideas and the pic cougra. very good stuff. i will have to go with one of these methods. thanks again, its amazing all the help one can get here, you all rock.. take care and g'night

strat

 

[swissgaurd]

I use an Intervenus dripper from the hospitals.with out the bag
i drip into a juice container for approx 1-2 hours and double the amount thats in the bag the specemin comes in.

the I V works great it even comes with a self primer and can drip very slowly.


vic

 

[wooddood]

great info all thanks,much appreciated.

 

[Curtswearing]

I go with the same low-tech method Wit uses. However, the other ideas in this thread are intriguing.

 

[Gina]

We use a square plastic container that we hang on the side of the sump along with a thin airline tube. And yes, we suck on it to get the drip going. We leave it there for about 2-3 hours then dump the fish or place the corals in.

 

[TDEVIL]

i learned along time ago that you dont have to suck on the hose to get the suction started















ok, i will tell you how
take the air tubing, hold it under the water (about 10" or so), then place finger/thumb on the other end of the tube, hold the tubing up and let the water go to about the middle of the tube(Not draining the water out) now put the the other end back in the water and take your thumb off and this will start the siphon

hope thats not confusing, when i use to breed Chichlids, i would take the babies to the LFS and acclimate them myself, this can also be used with the siphon hoses (waterchanges) if you dont have a Python

TD

 

[openbrain]

We use push pins to attach the open bag to the inside of the hood so they don't float away. Then we use a glass pipette ( kinda like a really small turkey baster ) and take a little out and put a little in. Keeping the bag in the tank helps to bring up the water temp at the same time.

 

[strat]

again, good stuff. its funny how you can read about something for months and then when you think about a simple procedure, you kinda scratch your head, and think i wonder how thats done.. anyways, ill have lots of simple ???s like this to come when i get going. thanks again

strat

:smirk:

 

[64Ivy]

Originally posted by strat
how do you get the siphon started, (dont tell me ya suck on the end of the hose :barf: )

tahnks again


strat

Oh come on strat, everybody knows you can't be a real reefer until you swallow a little tank water every once in awhile. Now go on, it won't hurt ya. Tastes like chicken, hee-hee-hee.

 

[mnreefman]

Originally posted by 64Ivy
Oh come on strat, everybody knows you can't be a real reefer until you swallow a little tank water every once in awhile. Now go on, it won't hurt ya. Tastes like chicken, hee-hee-hee.

lol i can vouch for that

 

[ScottT1980]

Now on to another debate, whether or not the drip acclimation causes more stress than good with fish that have been in the bag for extended periods of time.

I have mentioned this before on another site but I just thought it would be appropriate again. Disclaimer: I am not chemist and so I am very hazy on the details (although I once understood them)...

Anyway, the pH of waterin the bags recieved is typically very low in comparison to the pH of our tank water. This low pH causes a shift in regards to NH3 thus converting much of it to NH4. NH4 is not harmful to our fish. But, when we begin to add our higher pH tank water, it shifts the equation back the other way, therefore reconverting the NH4 to the harmful NH3. So theoretically, as we add water from our tank, drip by drip, we might be adjusting the pH and salinity but ultimatly we could be causing more harm by freeing up so much NH3.

Just something to consider when drip acclimating bags that have been shipped over night. I know many now that prefer to just dump in a Q/T type tank, away from other inhabitants, as it perhaps is less stressful than drip acclimation. Just something to consider

Here is the thread (I found it)

Take er easy
Scott T.

 

[Witfull]

i agree with you on this scott, when i had my store and fish came in, i would float the bags fo 10 minutes or so, then dump as much water out as possible from the bags, add a drop of Amquel to each then dunk the bags to fill with water to the original water level, let them float till i made the circle back to the beginning and then release them into the tanks. that seemed to help all the fish out being that many were bagged and packed in the wee hours of the AM and not delivered unto sometime in the afternoon.
my drip acclimation prossess is for critters that have come from the LFS and have been bagged for less than a hour or so.