Do you acclimate when moving livestock from one tank to another?

Levinson · Mar 10, 2023

When you have 2 or more independent tanks in the same house, do you acclimate the livestock (inverts such as shrimps) when moving them from one tank to another?

mjw011689 · Mar 10, 2023

Absolutely. No 2 tanks are the same unless they are plumbed into the same sump. At the end of the day, why risk NOT acclimating them? Not saying people haven’t done it successfully, but there’s no reason to not acclimate.

Levinson · Mar 10, 2023

mjw011689 said:
Absolutely. No 2 tanks are the same unless they are plumbed into the same sump. At the end of the day, why risk NOT acclimating them? Not saying people haven’t done it successfully, but there’s no reason to not acclimate.

You are right. I have suspected as much but guess I was just hoping for an easier way knowing deep down there isn't one.

nimrod19 · Mar 10, 2023

Depends, acclimation can actually be stressful if you’re not doing it correctly. If you’re acclimating for too long with a small amount of water, etc.

Corals, I’ll probably acclimate. Fish and inverts, if temp and SG is the same between two tanks that I maintain, I probably would rather transfer and lessen the stress on the animal.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Mar 10, 2023

You should, but personally, I don't, I just drop them in, and never had any losses or issue's.

mike550 · Mar 10, 2023

@Levinson I try to keep my QT and DT close in parameters — esp salinity, temp, and alkalinity. If I’m within a few percent I won’t acclimate.

JTP424 · Mar 10, 2023

I go so far as to do a dip when transferring corals. Just in case there is something lying dormant in one of my tanks.

Court_Appointed_Hypeman · Mar 10, 2023

My QT and DT keep the same alk and salinity at the end of the process.

I have not had an issue going from qt, to a fw dip to the new display, OR going directly from qt into a bag of display tank water, and net them right out into the display right after walking them over.

However, I have thought about maybe my last water change after prazi, to use DT water to replace the removal of the QT water.

But, 0 fish loss yet on a move, and not even that much apparent stress on the fish.

mike550 · Mar 10, 2023

Court_Appointed_Hypeman said:
My QT and DT keep the same alk and salinity at the end of the process.

I have not had an issue going from qt, to a fw dip to the new display, OR going directly from qt into a bag of display tank water, and net them right out into the display right after walking them over.

However, I have thought about maybe my last water change after prazi, to use DT water to replace the removal of the QT water.

But, 0 fish loss yet on a move, and not even that much apparent stress on the fish.

I used to use “recycle“ my DT water into my QT during water changes in an attempt to keep things more consistent between the tanks. I ended up changing how I did water changes so this is no longer an option. But I thought it worked really well.