Hello,
I am just recently starting into the saltwater hobby. I have a 60gal tank with over 60lbs of live rock. I believe the tank is fully cycled, and have recently added some hermit crabs and turbo snails.
I've read both of these are very "hardy" (especially the snails), but I still wanted to do my first attempt at drip acclimation.
Getting a 5gal bucket and a $2.99 tubing w/IV limiter, I was able to easily get the drip set for 2-4 drips per second. I first plopped the store-bought bag into the tank for 15 minutes before dumping the contents into a bucket (tilted to create a higher level of water of course).
Over the course of 30-45 minutes, I dripped... then took out cups of water... continued dripping... then took out more cups of water...
I then simply transferred the livestock from the bucket to the aquarium. But during the process, I noticed a potential serious mishap with this process!!!
I could literally FEEL a significant temperature difference between the water in the bucket vs. the water in the tank. The water in the bucket felt "ice cold" in comparison to the water in the tank (even though I left the bag in the tank initially for 15 min). I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature's difference was way more than 5 degrees (maybe as much as 10 to be honest).
I live in California, and it's a pretty warm season right now... but I'm starting to wonder if this drip acclimation is better than... let's say... acclimating by leaving a bag in the tank and gradually adding tank water to help with salinity, pH, and all the other non-temperature related stuff. At least this way the temperature would remain fairly constant.
I'm at a loss of what to do. It seems like a lot of effort & work to purchase a second aquarium heater... just to heat a "bigger bucket" of water surrounding the "smaller bucket" to acclimate, etc.
Any thoughts from the experts on this site? Any help is appreciated.
Thank you so much,
Sheldon
I am just recently starting into the saltwater hobby. I have a 60gal tank with over 60lbs of live rock. I believe the tank is fully cycled, and have recently added some hermit crabs and turbo snails.
I've read both of these are very "hardy" (especially the snails), but I still wanted to do my first attempt at drip acclimation.
Getting a 5gal bucket and a $2.99 tubing w/IV limiter, I was able to easily get the drip set for 2-4 drips per second. I first plopped the store-bought bag into the tank for 15 minutes before dumping the contents into a bucket (tilted to create a higher level of water of course).
Over the course of 30-45 minutes, I dripped... then took out cups of water... continued dripping... then took out more cups of water...
I then simply transferred the livestock from the bucket to the aquarium. But during the process, I noticed a potential serious mishap with this process!!!
I could literally FEEL a significant temperature difference between the water in the bucket vs. the water in the tank. The water in the bucket felt "ice cold" in comparison to the water in the tank (even though I left the bag in the tank initially for 15 min). I wouldn't be surprised if the temperature's difference was way more than 5 degrees (maybe as much as 10 to be honest).
I live in California, and it's a pretty warm season right now... but I'm starting to wonder if this drip acclimation is better than... let's say... acclimating by leaving a bag in the tank and gradually adding tank water to help with salinity, pH, and all the other non-temperature related stuff. At least this way the temperature would remain fairly constant.
I'm at a loss of what to do. It seems like a lot of effort & work to purchase a second aquarium heater... just to heat a "bigger bucket" of water surrounding the "smaller bucket" to acclimate, etc.
Any thoughts from the experts on this site? Any help is appreciated.
Thank you so much,
Sheldon