1 hour acclimation

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Meredith

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Joined
Aug 25, 2004
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Is this ok for hermits? I have to leave for a while and they have been acclimating for almost an hour. Will they make it if I let them out?
 
Some people say hermits you can just throw in. Others say not to. The majority I have heard said throw them in. I do them just like a fish, about 1 hour shot glass method.
 
IMO/IME, you do not have to worry too much about hermits. They are very hardy and quite frankly I never notice any ill effects when not acclimating hermits at all. HTH
 
I have 2 hours to spare when I buy things, so that's my minimum. I'm probably a little picky, but I spend enough on the tank without uneccessary loss.
 
Agree with Bearfan. For inverts, I give a little more time. So far it has worked out well.
 
Well, I actually did have to leave. They got an hour of acclimation and they seem fine. Thanks everyone :D
 
My LFS said 'just drop them in'. I used the shot glass method over an hour with my snails and hermits and had no difficulties...
 
I have seen how a LFS acclimates...I'm not about to use them as an example. Their mortality rate is a lot higher than mine. ALOT!
 
Time isn't as important as making sure the parms matched. If the parms match after 20m then dump 'em in. If it takes 2 hrs for the SG & PH to match then wait it out. Time has little to do with whether or not the animals have acclimated properly.
 
I have seen how a LFS acclimates...I'm not about to use them as an example. Their mortality rate is a lot higher than mine. ALOT!

IMO, if fish stores used drip acclimation, most of their new livestock would die. You have to remember that acclimating something at home that made a 5 minute trip from the fish store to your home is a lot different than acclimating something that has been in the bag for 24 hours. This is especially true for animals that have been transhipped. Naturally the quality of the water in any bagged-shipped animal is going to change rapidly. The fish is constantly producing waste within the bag. The ammonia is increasing and pH decreasing. As the pH decreases more and more ammonia molecules (NH3) are being converted to ammonium ions(NH4+). Because ammonium is essentially non toxic, this conversion is needed in order to keep the bagged animal alive.

I've tested the water within the bag of transhipped fish and corals. Sometimes it is as low as 6.5. At this pH most of the ammonia has been converted to ammonium. Now an extended acclimation time could have negative effects on an animal that is living in a pH this low. Every drip of saltwater with a pH around 8.2 is increasing the pH of the bag water. With the increase of pH, also comes the conversion of ammonium back to ammonia. It is true that the ammonia is also being diluted, but not at a fast enough rate. The combination of the pH increasing faster than the ammonia/ammonium can be diluted and the conversion of non toxic ammonium to toxic ammonia can have detrimental effect on the fish.

IMO, this is why most fish stores will only do temperature acclimation (and the fact that they don't have the desire or time to do a more complicated acclimation procedure). However, just doing temperature acclimation may be the best procedure. The question is which is more harmful: a sudden change in pH or exposing the fish to high ammonia concentrations for possibly hours?
 
Bit o' Prime in the water would allow you to properly acclimate while address the PH/ammonium/ammonia issue on a shipped animal. Best of both worlds for those of you at home who are able to take the time. The fish stores buy a LOT of fish and sell high. They can afford the losses. I as a consumer really don't want to absosrb those types of losses unless absolutely necessary. Your best bet remains matching parms as closely as possible before releasing the animal into your QT setup. :mrgreen:
 
Phyl, I totally agree with you. Again, however, I do not think a fish store would want to spend the time or money on adding a product such as Prime to the water of every new arrival. But I totally agree that matching the parameters as close as possible is the safest way to add any animal. :D
 
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