The top of the line is held in the tank with a clothes pin. A knot in the line at the bottom slows the siphon to a controlled drip. Minimize the water of the creature you want to drip.
Al least triple the initial water volume
of the creature your are dripping. Do not add the water in the bucket back to your tank.
This can take an hour or 6 hours depending on your schedule. A long drip is highly recommended for sensitive creatures like shrimp, starfish and urchins. Fish require long drips when they have been in a bag 6 or more hours. Hermits, snails, crabs, corals and live rock do require any acclimation.
Use a hospital or quarantine tank for all incoming fish. Other things do not need to be quarantined.
There are special recommended methods for rays, linkia starfish and sea apples and cucumbers. Here is where you have to trust your local fish shop. First get a cup of water from the store's tank. If the store has a problem with you taking a sample then they have something to hide. FIND A NEW STORE If not, using your hydrometer and test kit, compare your water to the store's water.
- pH should be 8.3 to 8.5 ideally
- Alkalinity should be "high"
- Salinity 1.023 to 1.024 (be sure your hydrometer is calibrated )
Most important is that parameters are reasonably similar. If not fix them
Cucumber acclimation - take a quart of water from your tank - take the cucumber directly from the shipping bag and drop him in. Wait 30 minutes then take him from the bucket directly into your tank. More then 1 cucumber - acclimate separately. Toss the water
Rays and sensitive starfish - works when you have a sump
Put your starfish and shipping water in a container that fits inside your sump. Start a 1 drop per second drip from your tank to the container below. Let drip overnight - release into your tank
If your store is handling this type of livestock correctly there will be no copper or medications or disease
This can take an hour or 6 hours depending on your schedule. A long drip is highly recommended for sensitive creatures like shrimp, starfish and urchins. Fish require long drips when they have been in a bag 6 or more hours. Hermits, snails, crabs, corals and live rock do require any acclimation.
Use a hospital or quarantine tank for all incoming fish. Other things do not need to be quarantined.
There are special recommended methods for rays, linkia starfish and sea apples and cucumbers. Here is where you have to trust your local fish shop. First get a cup of water from the store's tank. If the store has a problem with you taking a sample then they have something to hide. FIND A NEW STORE If not, using your hydrometer and test kit, compare your water to the store's water.
- pH should be 8.3 to 8.5 ideally
- Alkalinity should be "high"
- Salinity 1.023 to 1.024 (be sure your hydrometer is calibrated )
Most important is that parameters are reasonably similar. If not fix them
Cucumber acclimation - take a quart of water from your tank - take the cucumber directly from the shipping bag and drop him in. Wait 30 minutes then take him from the bucket directly into your tank. More then 1 cucumber - acclimate separately. Toss the water
Rays and sensitive starfish - works when you have a sump
Put your starfish and shipping water in a container that fits inside your sump. Start a 1 drop per second drip from your tank to the container below. Let drip overnight - release into your tank
If your store is handling this type of livestock correctly there will be no copper or medications or disease
DRIPLINES