Acclimatization Station

by Andy Gordon of England, and Michelle Stuart of Ontario Canada
Reprinted, with permission, from their web site Fishtanksandponds.net
Aquarticles

Fish have had millions of years to adapt to their environment. Some fish come from areas that have wildly fluctuating conditions and other fish come from extremely stable environments. Therefore some fish will adapt to change very easily with little side effects, others will take even the slightest change in water chemistry very hard.

When introducing animals to a new tank, they are under a lot of stress from being chased around, caught and put into little bags that have very little room for movement. The added stress of having to adapt to being put directly into a new tank may very well cause so much stress that it'll result in a premature death of the animal. We can help reduce that added stress by using some simple precautions and acclimatizing our animals first.

Ideally, the water parameters in the bag should be measured and compared to the water parameters in you tank. The greater the differences in the water parameters (pH, dKH, Alk, salinity, nitrate and temperature) the slower the acclimatization should be.

At the very minimum, we should float the bags with the fish in them in the water for 10 to 20 minutes (larger the water volume the longer you should float the fish) so that the water temperature will be brought up to the tank temperature slowly enough for the fish to adapt before the fish is released. This procedure is adequate for hardy fish that can handle changes in water chemistry with relative ease, however not a good idea when adding more delicate animals to the tank.

When adding delicate animals to a new environment, I personally prefer to use a slow drip process so the animals have as much time as possible to adjust to the water parameters. This is especially important with marine invertebrates should the salinity or pH be even a little different from what they were previously in.

Acclimatizing hermit crabs   Photo by Michelle

For this purpose I have a simple DIY drip station set-up:

Required:
1 empty 2L pop bottle with the bottom cut out
1 brine shrimp hatchery station base
1 3 foot long airline hose
1 one-way air valve
1 container for the creatures to be in while being acclimatized (Darker container would be best)
Optional: To help the animals feel more secure, add a couple rocks or fake plants to the container for the fish to hide.

Put the pop bottle on the hatchery base then attach the air hose to the bottom of the base. Attach the air valve to the other end of the air line hose. Put creatures in the container where they will be acclimatized with the water they came in. Mark how much water they came with and pour about as much water into the pop bottle.

Use the air valve to adjust the drip rate to one drip every couple seconds or slower, and wait until all the water has flowed into the holding tank. Drain half the water from the holding tank and repeat process a couple of times. Check the salinity and pH of the holding container to see if it matches your main display. Once it matches the main display it's safe to add the creatures to your tank.

The more delicate the species the slower the drip rate should be. For animals such as Linkia Starfish, they need a long acclimatization process that should last up to 24 hours, because they do not handle changes well.

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