Acclimation

[Calif-Reef]

Let's see your systems to acclimate your fish and coral.
I need a better way of doing it besides the way I have been which was to put the fish in a bowl with the LFS water and putting a cup at a time of my water into the bowl and than pour the fish into my tank getting some LFS water in my tank in the process. I don't want to do it this way anymore.
Mark

[MissInk]

I use a drip acclimator. I float the bag for 15 minutes, then put the fish with the water from the store in a bucket. Then I start the siphon on the drip line and do a slow drip (about 2 drips per second) for 15 minutes, then I increase the drip to a nearly steady stream (nearly as in you can just barely distinguish the drips) for another 15, and then if it's an expensive or sensitive fish, I bump it up to a small but steady stream for another 15. Then I dump all the water into the tank, but in either my method or yours, you could just net the fish out or capture it in a cup or something (which would still get some LFS water in your tank, but significantly less).

[Hop]

I use the drip acclimation method found here:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157

[schmnr]

I have never seen much point in temp acclimating. If they are in a bucket with a slow drip for 30 min to an hour after you temp acclimate. Won't this slowly change the temp to match the tank temp or more likely room temp. I think thats 15 min extra of the fish wishing it could get to one of the hiding spots it can see, but cant get to.

[MissInk]

Originally Posted by schmnr

I have never seen much point in temp acclimating. If they are in a bucket with a slow drip for 30 min to an hour after you temp acclimate. Won't this slowly change the temp to match the tank temp or more likely room temp. I think thats 15 min extra of the fish wishing it could get to one of the hiding spots it can see, but cant get to.

that makes sense. I mean, if you float it, ALL the water that the fish is in will be at the same temperature once the drip line starts, but I can't say I'm confident that that actually makes a difference.