THE CORAL OASIS

Acclimation of Livestock


Acclimation

During shipping, the quality of the water will obviously decline. Metabolic waste produces acids, which lowers the pH of the water. Therefore, care must be taken in acclimating marine life that has been transported.

Please adhere to the following steps for acclimating your new coral into its new habitat. Though the process is lengthy (about an hour), these steps will reduce the amount of stress and ensure a long life for your new arrival. We recommend that all new specimens be quarantined in a separate aquarium for 10 to 14 days.

Frank Burr (The Coral Oasis), recommends that aquarists who maintain exotic stony corals should be setting up a small quarantine system The Coral Oasis runs all newly obtained corals through a quarantine system consisting of 3 separate 20gallon quarantine tanks. It is a simple and inexpensive system that utilizes water changes and sand, rock and algae filtration and low intensity Halide lighting (175w). Corals actually recover from transportation stress very quickly in the system and will usually start some growth as well

 

Acclimation Procedures

1) Allow the sealed bag to float in the aquarium for 20-25 minutes. (Do not open the bag at this time.) This allows the water in the shipping bag to adjust slowly to the temperature and climate of your tank.

2) Prepare the container(s) for acclimation of your corals. The container(s) should sit on the floor or a low table and should be large enough to hold the coral specimin(s) as well as the water it came in and the water you will add.

3) Using scissors, cut the bag under the metal clip or rubber band. Pull off the bag and cut the second layer of bags under the metal clip. Put on your rubber gloves. Carefully remove the coral from the bag and place in the smaller container. Try not to touch the soft fleshy part of the coral, as this will damage the living part of the coral and possibly lead to a bacterial infection. Pour the water from the bag, over the coral. Repeat until all corals are removed from their shipping bags. Putting more than one coral in each container is fine as long as the corals do not touch and they are completely submerged with water.

3) Add a half-cup of aquarium water to the container with the coral. Repeat every 10 min until the water in the container is 50% your aquarium water. This is important, as adjustments to pH, alkalinity, and specific gravity take time. (Skins/membranes need time to exchange salt/water to equalize with the new aquarium water. Speeding up the process will suffocate the new specimen.)

4) Now it’s time for the iodine dip. Iodine is only to be used on SPS and LPS stony corals. Do not use iodine on soft corals or clams. The iodine dip is an important step to ensure the health of the coral(s) and to keep from transferring any possible pathogens to your tank. The iodine treatment should be optional. The dip can cause further stress to an animal after the long process of shipping. Some corals are completely healthy after arriving to your door (with polyps out in the shipping bag) and therefore probably do not need to be dipped. However, if a coral arrives with any ill affects from shipping a short dip should be done. But this should also be done with caution as this coral is already stressed to a point of possibly being inflicted with some sort of ailment. If in doubt please call us and we will give you further advice. Read the manufacture’s directions on the iodine medication bottle for the proper application. Take the disposable cup, fill it with tank water, and then add the iodine to the water. Mix well with the plastic utensil. Slowly pour into the container with the coral(s). Let the solution sit for no more than 5 minutes. To ensure proper and complete circulation of the water and iodine, use a small powerhead in the container with the coral(s) during this 5 minute period

5) Take a clean container and add some tank water. Wearing gloves, carefully remove the coral and swirl it in the clean water to rinse it. Then place place the coral in the quarantine tank and just simply reduce the amount of time that the most intense lighting source is on for. For example, keep the lights off for the first day, then the following day reduce the normal amount of photoperiod by half. The following days after that bump up the total by two hours each day for every consecutive day until you are up to the full photoperiod that your tank originally had. This procedure is done to ensure that the coral can slowly adjust to its new environment. Never release shipping water directly into the aquarium. This will pollute your aquarium.

6) During the quarantine period, run your medications in the quarantine tank. i.e. Interceptor, Flatworm Exit, Fluke-Tabs, etc.....Each according to their specific instructions.

7) After the 10~14 day quarantine period has passed, once again follow steps 2 and 3 and 5 to move the coral(s) to your main system.

 

Guidelines

Do not rush. Be patient. This will only take an hour to acclimate and 2 weeks to quarantine but will ensure a longer life for your new friend.

Watch salinity. Keep specific gravity at 1.023-1.025. Inverts & plants are more sensitive than fish to salinity changes.

You may shake off excess slime off a coral. Remember not to touch the sensitive flesh of it, though.

For Soft Corals and Clams do not use iodine dip

If no quarantine system is being used, a coral dip procedure can kill surface disease organisms. Our recommended dip is 20 minutes in 1 liter of 100 % captive reef water that has 10 drops of 5 % lugols solution (or 20 drops of the tincture of iodine found at local drug stores which is typically a 2.2 % solution). There are also quite a few commercially sold coral dips on the market. We recommend Seachem Reef Dip. Please use their recommended dip procedures. After the dip you can then place the coral or fragment into your reef.


IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ACCLIMATION PROCEDURES
PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO CALL US AT 626-284-2607
or EMAIL US AT: sales@thecoraloasis.com
FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE


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