drip acclimation question.

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mrpope

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Nov 16, 2003
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Location
San Francisco, Ca.
My tank is a 30 gallon with 50 or so pounds of live rock and a 4" DSB. My question is if I were to drip acclimate a star or something else that requires a lengthy time of acclimation, wouldnt that take a lot of water from my tank? There is not really that much water in my tank, so I would have to replenish with a good amount of saltwater after the hours of acclimation and it wouldnt even be the same tank water then, right?

Any hints or recommendations to properly drip acclimate a star would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks, Brian
 
It shouldnt be much. I generally will do about one drip per second. That wont fill up a 5 gallon jug in 3-4 hours. If your concerned about it...consider it a partial water change and replace it with fresh salt water.

The usual method is to take a hose and tie a knot in it. I would suggest buying a box of valves from your pet store. It has a little knob on top that will allow you to adjust the drip easier.

Squishy
 
def wont come close to the top of your 5 gal container...i just did a 3 drip a sec acclimation for 2 hours on some hermits and it didnt even come a quarter of the way up the bucket (probably took 1-1.5gal out of the main)
 
Yep. This PM I drip acclimated a Blood Red Fire Shrimp (Lysmata debelius) for 5 hours. A few drips per second and after 5 hours the bucket (5 gal) was only about 2/3 full. :mrgreen:
 
I drip all my livestock as well but I have wondered on long acclimations about the temp of the water. Seems like with a very slow drip that the temp would not stay level. I have dripped for 3 hours before but my water felt a bit cooler too.

I read someone dripped a star for 10 hours. Is the drip water keeping the temp up on that length of a drip?
 
No, it will not.

I feel that hardier livestock (such as damsels, clowns, etc) can be acclimated in other ways. I just float the bag in the tank and change out one shotglass (1 oz) of water every 10 minutes or so. That usually does the trick. Only the more delicate stuff needs a drip.

If you want to drip acclimate, you need to bag the fish again after the drip is done and float them a while so the temps can equalize. My apartment stays at 75 degrees, but due to the lights, heaters, pumps, etc, my tank will be anywhere from 80-82 degrees. After dripping the water in the bucket will be no higher than 76 degrees, even on a very fast drip.
 
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