drip acclimation

[bizzybeas]

I am getting my starfish tommorow! I am very excited and want to give him a good chance at surviving. My question is, if I drip acclimate him for 6-8 hours doesn't the bag overflow? Should I empty it out part way now and then? Should I let it overflow into the bag? I know I am being anal but I do not want to kill him! TIA

 

[jamal-188]

You should scoop water out of the bag as it's filling. What kind of star is it? Not all stars need this long of a drip, only the linkia's.

 

[snapcrackler]

I like to set a styrofoam cooler at the foot of the tank and start the drip, increasing the flow after awhile so that the temperature rises to match that of the tank as well as the salinity and stuff. I end up running a few gallons into the cooler. The last 15-30 minutes of the acclimation procedure I run the airline tubing almost wide open for the temp acclimation part.

 

[bizzybeas]

It looks just like a linkia, but is called a euchinaster. Orange sea star. How long would you recommend? How many drips per second? One? Thanks again. I do not know why I get so nervous about this stuff, except I have heard how hard it is to acclimate stars. Wish me luck!

 

[steve-s]

If you have a sump you can also hang the bag in there so the temp stays constant throughout the process. That is one of the major steps missed when acclimatining sensitive inverts for long periods, the water gets too cool. When you get it, dump out all but ¼ of the water and drip at a rate of 2-3 drops/sec. After the bag is almost full, dump it out and then keep going for about 4ish hours. The Echinaster sp. starfish is generally much hardier than the linkia species so you should have better success depending on how it arrived.

Good Luck
Cheers
Steve