Acclimating coral?

Saaqib_Ansari · Nov 4, 2020

Hi if I’m buying a large colony of coral I will be picking it up via car and it’ll be in a bucket for 1.5 hours. Once I get home how would I go about acclimating something so large? As I cannot float it and temperature will have dropped a lot during the drive ? Should I just match the salinity and drop it in or?

dank reefer · Nov 4, 2020

Just drip acclimate in the same bucket for 40 min to 1hr.

Saaqib_Ansari · Nov 4, 2020

dank reefer said:
Just drip acclimate in the same bucket for 40 min to 1hr.

Won’t the drop in temperature over the time cause a problem?

dank reefer · Nov 4, 2020

Depends on how you go about transporting it.
Can it be put in a styrofoam cooler? That way temp wont drop to much.
Do you have access to a car inverter? Depending on size of inverter you can connect a small heater (25w) just for the ride.

Sometime we overthink these things, cause the first thing that comes to my mind is when corals get shipped overseas they don't temp control them while is traveling. Some are put in a crate wrapped with wet paper for the entirety of the trip.

Tastee · Nov 5, 2020

I would add an airstone and a small heater and try to match temperature over 30-60 mins. If salinity varied more than 2ppt I would also gradually match that - more an issue if the corals are lower salinity than your DT than the reverse. Also a small pump/powerhead to get some water movement If you have the space. If you use a pump and get surface agitation you wouldn’t need the airstone.

homer1475 · Nov 5, 2020

The real question is what type of coral?

If it were something like a montipora capricornis, I would just chuck that bad boy right in the tank. Now if were talking something a little more delicate like an euphyllia or SPS, you might want to just temp acclimate(I would throw a heater in the bucket).

I would assume since were talking coral here that salinity would be very similiar(1.024 to 1.026 won't hurt anything)

Saaqib_Ansari · Nov 5, 2020

homer1475 said:
The real question is what type of coral?

If it were something like a montipora capricornis, I would just chuck that bad boy right in the tank. Now if were talking something a little more delicate like an euphyllia or SPS, you might want to just temp acclimate(I would throw a heater in the bucket).

I would assume since were talking coral here that salinity would be very similiar(1.024 to 1.026 won't hurt anything)

It’s a large colony of stylophora milka

Sharkbait19 · Nov 5, 2020

It really does depend. I recall when I got a torch in the mail I was a little pressed for time so just chucked it right into the tank, and it’s doing great, but then there’s leathers which I acclimated and still won’t open up. I don’t want to say it’s luck of the draw, but it certainly sometimes feels that way with coral. However, seeings you’re dealing with an SPS, you might want to consider a 30-40 minute drip period.