Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Corals and Coral Reefs - by Eric Borneman / Adding new corals to your tank / Latest Posts

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:45:48 GMT

>>My question is this... What would be considered acceptable, or otherwise " not makeshift "<<

Again, I think it's important to distinguish between a treatment tank and a quarantine tank. Many hobbyists and even facilities consider quarantine as a tank filled with water and some minimal form of filtration. This is also what is considered quarantine for other animals -a waiting area to check for disease, etc. The problem is that such unnatural conditions can cause stress and actually exacerbate the likelihood of disease/parasite manifestation. For a wild organism, getting into a more natural environment without exposing other species that could contract potential diseases/parasites and that caters to its health is quarantine. Treatment tanks, on the other hand, because of the use of medications, etc., must almost by necessity be nearly devoid of anything but treatment water and basic filtration. I consider a proper quarantine tank to have all the characteristics needed for the organism - shelter, good water quality, plenty of food, proper light, no predators. I think a small matured rock-only, well-lit reef tank just running without livestock is an excellent quarantine tank. It is not fed much except a sprinkling of maybe phytoplankton or fine particulate food every once in a while to keep diversity up, and some snails to keep algae in control. I don't think it needs skimming or filtration, just water flow and top off with kalkwasser or whatever is normally used to maintain calcium and alkalinity. When the fish or coral is quarantined, you then feed well for whatever species it is, and if water changes need to be done, do them with the water from the display tank, replacing that water with freshly made seawater. I would not introduce newly prepared seawater into a quarantine tank. I think the same could be done with a rubbermaid container and one of the 65 watt or so outdoor PC fixtures from Home Depot that are about $30. That's enough light and the opaque walls may actually be less stressful than an aquarium with its clear glass and interior reflections. Water flow with a small wide-flow powerhead is great - The smaller Tunze, Hydror Korallia, Seio, Maxijet with retrofit kit, etc. are great.

>>Also, is it useful to use refugia as a quarantine spot, or will the pests make it to the display?<<

Yes, they very well could. You could do this if you ran all the outflow of the refugium through a UV sterilizer and cut the risk, but I think its more complex and with more risk and expense as you will then also be killing the production of the refugium.

>>Could I make a small container that can tie into the sump, just for acclimation/quarantine... Then take it down in between these practices... Maybe, pump water slowly into and out of the container while lighting it
I would not want to take a chance on something getting through the refugium into the main tank. Even with a good UV some things could make it through. I would suggest a separate tank.<<

agreed

>>Bob Fenner has some thoughts about allelopathy in regard to QT and acclimation. He suggested that once the coral is free of nasties, to add water from the QT to the display as well as from the display to the QT several times over a few days. This way the inhabitants can adjust to each other in regard to toxins and defense mechanisms. I have been trying to come up with an efficient method to try this out.<<

Not to rain on Bob's parade and correct advice, but I think I proposed that first. I mention it above, as well. I am more hesitant to suggest adding QT water to the main tank and it also depends on tank volume as to how effective this is to the display (i.e a few cups of QT water to a 180 is not the same as a few cups of 180 water to a 10 gallon QT.) There is also some risk as without a microscope one can't be sure if the risks of adding QT water outweigh any benefits.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:35:51 GMT

Can I get back to this post a bit later? It will take some time I don't have right now to compose. thanks, fazgood, for the comments to the question.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

fazgood — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:23:33 GMT

I would not want to take a chance on something getting through the refugium into the main tank. Even with a good UV some things could make it through. I would suggest a separate tank.

My thoughts on the statement are that you want to be sure your QT system is reliable and robust as to not kill its inhabitants. I keep a sponge filter that has been cycling in the display tank fuge and move it to the QT to help keep the ammonia/nitrites spikes to a minimum and filling the QT with display tank water would be ideal. You would want to have the QT constructed with quality equipment as well. Use a properly sized heater and pump and do regular water changes on it using display tank water. Lighting too should be similar to the display but I could see getting away with some T5s for the short term and acclimation the coral to the display lighting when it is pest free. Just because it is temporary does not mean that you want to have it be really cheap. The Biocubes are nice since they have just about everything included and you can pick them up used for a good price if you keep your eyes peeled.

You also may need to nuke the tank with some form of pest treatment and many of those solutions can kill off any beneficial bacteria so you need to have a plan in place in that event. Could just be have a couple of sponge filters in the fuge.

Bob Fenner has some thoughts about allelopathy in regard to QT and acclimation. He suggested that once the coral is free of nasties, to add water from the QT to the display as well as from the display to the QT several times over a few days. This way the inhabitants can adjust to each other in regard to toxins and defense mechanisms. I have been trying to come up with an efficient method to try this out.

Just my 2 cents. I am sure the regulars here can add some details.

Faz

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

lukinrats — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:00:26 GMT

Also, is it useful to use refugia as a quarantine spot, or will the pests make it to the display?

Could I make a small container that can tie into the sump, just for acclimation/quarantine... Then take it down in between these practices... Maybe, pump water slowly into and out of the container while lighting it

Thanks,

Nathan

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

lukinrats — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:56:01 GMT

3) Quarantine: It is and has been repeatedly stated that quarantine of all new livestock is essential.It is mandatory for public aquariums such is the importance of not introducing disease or parasites. Corals today are rife with pest species - from algae, sponges, nudibranchs, flatworms, snails, and crustaceans that are ridiculously difficult to eradicate and should never be introduced into a tank. Quarantine is the best and perhaps only way to deal with this issue, and no coral should simply be acclimated and put into a display without quarantine. Given the long acclimation time potentially required when the history of the coral is not known, quarantine is an excellent place to allow the coral to acclimate prior to display introduction. Of course, quarantine tanks have to be places where the specimen can thrive, and not be a makeshift holding container that ultimately results in deterioration of health, causes stress, or is even farther from the display in terms of water chemistry and light parameters

I am interested in the statement above, and specifically this: "and not be a makeshift holding container that ultimately results in deterioration of health, causes stress, or is even farther from the display in terms of water chemistry and light parameters"

My question is this... What would be considered acceptable, or otherwise " not makeshift "

Thanks,

Nathan

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Reefski — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:58:03 GMT

that is such a great idea to dilute tank water to match the salinity and get them out of the shipping water ASAP. that should be no problem when i get everything set up.

"What's the PAR in that tank compared to the QT with lights dropped down? The other factor, then, becomes the species themselves. If your tank is very brightly lit, then some species just won't be happy no matter what you do because they are not found in high light."

i don't know yet as i don't have the QT set up yet. the tank has had PAR values up to 900 which i don't think i can match with halides. see the link below to my thread for the setup. i am a little worried about the LPS but i have some areas of the tank that should not be so brightly lit, at least most of the time. between rocks, etc. will test with PAR meter. just putting sand in this week.

i put a couple of tester corals, that were broken off from specimens in the main tank have lightened up considerably. an orange monti cap has turned a light pinkish color and a darkish green has turned pastel green with a purple rim it never had in the old tank. they were only a few inches under water under 10K 400 Watt halides. they are still growing well too.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:40:19 GMT

>> is it ok to print and distribute this to other hobbyists and my LFS, keeping you byline.<<

Of course, provided credit is given.

>>you say

"If someone bags a coral with an oxygen cap in 35ppt water at 78 degrees, ph 8.2, low N and P, and ships it for less than twelve hours and on receiving the salinity should still be 35ppt, the temp may have changed, the pH may be slightly different (generally lower), and N and P should be the same. Small acute stress, no acclimation needed except for light (takes a few days) if not known and quarantine for pests and disease."

so if the parameters are as you say within normal values one could/should just put the coral into the new QT tank? if light is known that could be done to the same as well.<<

Yes

>>what if other parameters are the same but light is unknown? i have an Apogee PAR meter. what levels should one begin at and how long until adjusting the light to a higher lever, at what frequency, duration, etc?<<

150-200 PAR (UE/m2/s-1) is probably not going to cause bleaching in any coral as a factor of light alone.

>>how big a jump in PAR can a coral take at once? i know, which coral? mostly stonys and some LPS in my system.<<

Quite a bit. It can rain in the monsoon season for days, allowing sufficient time for low-light acclimation, and then the sun comes out. This, of course, happens daily even as squalls and clouds pass and the change in PAR can be on the order of hundreds to a thousand PAR units.

>>can you give more details for optimum light acclimation?<<

The light levels under substandard temporary holding can be 20-40 at the low end (zero in a box). That's why I think a jump from the low end to 150-200 is not going to bleach the coral alone, provided temperature is not high. They act synergistically.

>>in my new setup i will have separate QT system with a hanging light to adjust up or down for intensity.<<

ideal

>>are you for drip acclimation for corals if salinity is off or do you think it is better to just float the bag if possible to adjust temp and then put in into the new system where the real acclimation will occur over many days, weeks, and months?<<

I might do something of a slow (over the course of a day) acclimation if the shipping water and especially if long-term exposure to low salinity is known to have occurred. I would not do it in the bag. I would remove the coral immediately and into aged tank water of good quality diluted to that salinity with distilled water and bring it up using full strenth aged seawater. I would avoid using freshly mixed seawater if possible.

>>how to weigh the effect of no water circulation in the shipping bag, low O2, vs effects of putting the coral into new water where the parameters and more ideal but different than the shipping water.<<

see above

>>in my new tank i am especially worried about light acclimation from my old tanks to the new which has much higher light intensity from the sun. <<

What's the PAR in that tank compared to the QT with lights dropped down? The other factor, then, becomes the species themselves. If your tank is very brightly lit, then some species just won't be happy no matter what you do because they are not found in high light.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Reefski — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 08:08:43 GMT

Eric-

great information. is it ok to print and distribute this to other hobbyists and my LFS, keeping you byline.

you say

"If someone bags a coral with an oxygen cap in 35ppt water at 78 degrees, ph 8.2, low N and P, and ships it for less than twelve hours and on receiving the salinity should still be 35ppt, the temp may have changed, the pH may be slightly different (generally lower), and N and P should be the same. Small acute stress, no acclimation needed except for light (takes a few days) if not known and quarantine for pests and disease."

so if the parameters are as you say within normal values one could/should just put the coral into the new QT tank? if light is known that could be done to the same as well.

what if other parameters are the same but light is unknown? i have an Apogee PAR meter. what levels should one begin at and how long until adjusting the light to a higher lever, at what frequency, duration, etc?

how big a jump in PAR can a coral take at once? i know, which coral? mostly stonys and some LPS in my system.

can you give more details for optimum light acclimation?

in my new setup i will have separate QT system with a hanging light to adjust up or down for intensity.

are you for drip acclimation for corals if salinity is off or do you think it is better to just float the bag if possible to adjust temp and then put in into the new system where the real acclimation will occur over many days, weeks, and months?

how to weigh the effect of no water circulation in the shipping bag, low O2, vs effects of putting the coral into new water where the parameters and more ideal but different than the shipping water.

i think i am looking for more step by step info. the short term how to get the coral into the QT system and then acclimation in the QT for eventual move again to a permanent place in the display.

in my new tank i am especially worried about light acclimation from my old tanks to the new which has much higher light intensity from the sun.

i am not sure i am making sense this morning and hope this is not too redundant.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:12:22 GMT

>>A little clearification please.
"I'd also keep a cleaner shrimp or two in"

On another forum there is a sticky with loads of info about Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans). In this article the author states, "THESE MARINE LIFE DO NOT EAT THE PARASITE NOR WILL FISH OR SHRIMP REMOVE THE PARASITE FROM THE INFECTED FISHES" I have also read this elsewhere. It seemes like cleaner shrimp would just remove the evidence that ich was present, and lead the aquarist to believe the tank is ich free and they will transfer this disease into their aquariums.<<

The post was about corals, primarily. If the author or anyone would like to start a thread in my forum and discuss the symbioses, ecological roles, and quantitative data of cleaning stations (shrimp or fish) on parasite loads of fish, I would be happy to do so and provide a list of peer reviewed articles dealing with the subject. I am also not discussing the life cycle of C. irritans specifically, and quarantine for fish over a proper length of time will unquestionably eventually show the presence of C. irritans if the fish is parasitized and will allow for treatment if necessary - and often it is not necessary. C. irritans is also not a disease, and even using the proper term and allowing for the accidental introduction of C. irritans at any life stage does not mean the main tank's fish will become parasitized, either (although it would not be a risk I would encourage).

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:05:17 GMT

>>I have started working at a LFS a couple months ago where there coral and invert holding tanks are slightly lower then reef salinity. When I asked the owner why it is they do this they say that all of the distributors and transhippers send the corals in with very low salinity.<<

Point 1: Convince the distributors and transhippers to stop this harmful practice or request full salinity seawater for shipping. Or, find ones that don't do this.

Point 2: This goes back to the point I raised about knowing the durations corals were in a given salinity to know if it can be treated as a temporary acute stress or a chronic long term stress. Generally, livestock doesn't sit around too long.

>> It is the stores belief that since the corals are only supposed to be in these systems for a short time the store acts like a transition zone between the lower salinity and the reef like conditions the hobbyist should be maintaining.<<

Dumb rationale. Corals do not do well in reduced salinity. They can take quite elevated salinity without a problem but not low salinity for any extended periods of time. The corals should be assessed for time spent in reduced salinity and get them back into full strength seawater as soon as possible.

>>What are you thoughts on this practice?<<

I think it should be entirely eliminated from the moment any coral leaves seawater. They should be in normal salinity from collection all the way to the tank, and if there is any period of reduced salinity it should be as short as possible and the source informed as to why it is a bad idea - not only in terms of coral health and survival but ultimately in terms of the economics which is generally, and unfortunately, the larger motivating factor.

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Gordonious — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:33:37 GMT

Question two:

I have started working at a LFS a couple months ago where there coral and invert holding tanks are slightly lower then reef salinity. When I asked the owner why it is they do this they say that all of the distributors and transhippers send the corals in with very low salinity. It is the stores belief that since the corals are only supposed to be in these systems for a short time the store acts like a transition zone between the lower salinity and the reef like conditions the hobbyist should be maintaining.

What are you thoughts on this practice?

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Gordonious — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:29:35 GMT

A little clearification please.

"I'd also keep a cleaner shrimp or two in"

On another forum there is a sticky with loads of info about Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans). In this article the author states, "THESE MARINE LIFE DO NOT EAT THE PARASITE NOR WILL FISH OR SHRIMP REMOVE THE PARASITE FROM THE INFECTED FISHES" I have also read this elsewhere. It seemes like cleaner shrimp would just remove the evidence that ich was present, and lead the aquarist to believe the tank is ich free and they will transfer this disease into their aquariums.

Jon

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:46:46 GMT

I don't really buy or acquire any livestock anymore. The last thing I bought was another long-spined sea urchin about six months ago for baby Bangaiis, and before that it had been more than a year since I even brought any frags home. I did trade some seagrass for an original F1 SECORE colony, but it was under known conditions from a public aquarium, known to have been quarantined in a single species specific tank and known transport duration and conditions from tank to tank. I have always had my quarantine tank as a ten gallon with two powerheads, established over five years, with a pair of perculas in it, live rock, some non-toxic soft corals that are very common and easily propagated (as a measure of water quality), topped with kalkwasser, two 65 watt PC bulbs and a DSB with a carpet of polychaetes, nematodes, and small brittle stars, multiple snails, etc. Essentially a nano-reef. Never did anything else but add kalkwasser and a little food. Never did water changes, no other filtraton.

All new corals or corals that ever got issues from other tanks went in there. If there was an issue, I could easily remove or treat in a separate small 5 gallon tank that sits on the shelf. The tank had 90PAR near the surface, and the bottom of my big tank in a corner where there is open space and shielded behind large rocks is about the same. That's where initial introductions go. I haven't had a fish that required medication treatment that would harm a reef tank (i.e. copper, etc.) - well, since I started keeping tanks and my youngest fish are the offspring of Bangaii's, but other fish are from 3-18 years old now.

I took the ten gallon tank quarantine tank down, but if I need it, all I would do is siphon ten gallons of tank water, take some of the live rock out of one of my tanks, add a clump pf macroalgae, stand the lights up on the tank (they sit awaiting in the closet) and plug in two powerheads. Everything would be ready in ten minutes.

For fish and inverts, I would suggest the same - the rock provides grazing substrate or safe haven and protection and is structurally complex, like the reef. I'd also keep a cleaner shrimp or two in there. Lights go on a normal photoperiod, and I would treat any fish that needed treating, again, in a separate tank. Alternately, its easy enough in a ten gallon just to pull the couple pleces of rock out, put them in the sump or another tank and then treat.

During introduction, lights usually go off with fish additions, even when they go in the main tank to discourage territorial aggression until they naturally come on the next morning (or I add them at night). I actually try to add corals at night, too, but only because my 18 yr old Premnas will swim clear across the tank to dislodge or bury anything new in the tank.

As for treating corals. I always treat in a separate vessel as generally chemicals are involved and I want to be able to assess the treatment on the corals, not the tank. Also, I can easily inactivate chemicals prior to disposal, handle treated species with greater ease, and keep the quarantine in healthy condition for replacement if treatment was required. As for fish ills, I have not had any for longer than I can remember, except a few years ago a lawnmower blenny lost one eye from an aggressive surgeonfish. I was concerned for infection, so I fed antibiotic medicated and gelled food (he eats by hand, so it was easy).

RE: Adding new corals to your tank

Reefmo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:37:50 GMT

Hi Eric,

Thanks for writing all of this down! I appreciate it. As I am sure is the case with many reefers I struggle with the whole idea of quarantine. I would love to do it, but space and cost are often prohibitive. Also, if you are trying to keep fish and coral, you might need to treat an incoming fish for ich or something. It almost seems like you need 2 qt tanks... one for fish with basic filtering that can be used to treat with medicines that would not be reef friendly and one for coral.

Would you be willing to share some photos of your quarantine setup with the members? Or at least share some quarantine wisdom?

Matt

Adding new corals to your tank

Eric Borneman — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:07:53 GMT

I decided that I should probably do a quick post about adding new corals to tanks. This has always been inherently risky and has a number of old hangover-type beliefs that still pervade the hobby to the point where vendors even promulgate wrong information with little instruction handouts that come with their shipments.

Acclimation:
The old and still continuing view of introducing corals to tanks follows the same methodology as for fishes and other invertebrates. Most people think that the exceptions that require longer acclimations are things like seastars and snails or species known to be sensitive to abrupt water quality change. The main reasons given are generally bag pH and temperature, with ammonia being an issue for fish once the bag is opened. For snails and seastars, it is hopefully known that salinity changes are the primary reason for slow, long acclimations. Generally, drip-type acclimations are performed in any and all cases.

Problem: Most invertebrates and fishes are light years more advanced than corals and acclimation is rapid by comparison. Acclimation in corals can be viewed as acute or chronic stress in transport and these may require very different actions in terms of acclimation. There are also other factors to consider.

1. Always test the bag water of specimens (corals or other species) and not just for pH and temperature. Corals are remarkably more resilient to short-term (acute) changes in pH and temperature unless the range is outside their physiological tolerance. If the water after shipping is really cold or really hot, chances are good that the coral will bleach or die in the bag - doesn't take long for this to happen. If there is a 5-10 degree difference between the bag and the tank in the range between 70 and maybe 88, temperature acclimation is not going to be that big of a deal. pH will change - is probably quite low if a bag has been sealed in a dark box for more than 12 hours, but will come right back up again in the bag if light is provided. pH is also probably not an acute stress that will kill corals in shipping or that is critical in acclimation.

2. Corals in shipping suffer most from their abundant production of mucus which is a medium for bacterial growth. Oxygen levels, especially in the dark of a box and in a small bag of water, can drop precipitously. Oxygen capped bags maintain high oxygen levels, but if a bag is deflated or capped only with air, watch out. Fouled bagwater is common and corals will die quickly. Also, the bacterial load in bagwater filled with mucus is not a good thing for oxygen or changes in bacterial composition as the pH, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous ratios are rapidly changed. You can wind having a bag full of "bad" bacteria that are opportunistic or pathogenic when before bagging there were only a few and easily managed by the "good" bacteria on the coral surface. In these cases, I would get the coral out of its shipping bag asap, flush with fresh seawater, and get it into good conditions as quickly as possible.

Summary here: If the coral looks great in the bag and the bagwater is clear and with water that is within tolerance levels for temperature, pH, oxygen, salinity, then I wouldn't consider drip acclimation a priority. If any of the above items are dramatically off or the bag is fouled, I would get the coral into new water as fast as possible.

Major issues to consider beyond what is written above are in regards to three things: 1) light 2) salinity 3) quarantine 4) source and 5) transport

1. Light acclimation is well known and most people probably realize to acclimate even those species that thrive under high light initially to lower light levels. Photoacclimation can begin quickly, but more importantly is that unless the coral came from another tank where it's history over weeks to months is known and the transport duration is 12 hours or less (online overnight orders, local retail purchases, a friend's tank), you don't know what light the coral has been under and has become acclimated to prior to your purchase or acquisition.

As an example, you go to your local fish store and they just got a new coral in and you buy it, noting it was under metal halides and you bring it home and put it under the equivalent amount of light. A few days later, it bleaches. Why? The coral may have only spent a day or even hours under that light but had previously spent days or weeks at a wholesaler or collector with no direct light, fluorescent light only, or something very different from where you saw it and that is the light environment to which it has become acclimated. It may have come from high light on the reef, to a shaded holding shack for a few days, to a shaded or minimally lit exporter, spent over a day in a dark box, then into a fluorescent lit wholesale tank not meant for long-term sustenance or ideal care before arriving at your retail store or online vendor who sells it within a day. The coral is not acclimated to metal halides but is dark acclimated at this point and would have bleached at the store if it was there longer.

If the coral has been at a retailer or another tank for a long time, it has photoacclimated there and this is the acclimation for light that must be dealt with. Much easier than the unknown.

2). Salinity poses the same problems as light. It is amazing how many stores, wholesalers and shippers have water that is kept hyposaline from NSW levels, and occasionally through lack of diligence, hypersalinity. At least some of this is still a hangover from the notion and myth that marine fish do better in reduced salinity (lower parasites, higher oxygen) even though there is no good evidence to support any of the purported benefits. Often, all system tanks in a facility are run at the same salinity. Sometimes, fish are in hyposalinity and inverts in normal salinity.

The question becomes the same as for light. Is it an acute short term immersion in hyposalinity or chronic? How do we know without having followed the history of the specimen since collection? I know I have more often than not received bags or checked coral bagwater and found it to be hyposaline. This, of course, has implications in the stress level of the corals and its ability to acclimate to other stresses (the shipping, new light, new water chemistry). The same phenomenon holds true for nitrogen, phosphorus, alkalinity, pH, etc.

As an example, even if light and temperature (the major factors in coral bleaching) are known and taken into account during acclimation, the combined or synergistic stress of prior acclimation to, say, low pH, low alkalinity, high N and P and low salinity will all impact the ability of a coral to deal with new tank conditions and its ability to preperly acclimate. Such acclimation takes place over days to weeks, not the time it takes to drip acclimate a bagged coral the way it can a bagged fish or invertebrate. They are very different in this regard.

Summary: Always try to know the history of a purchased coral in terms of time spent and conditions to properly acclimate it over days to weeks in the tank and do not expect that acclimation by drip-type bag-to-tank acclimation will suffice as it does for fish and many other advanced non-photosynthetic invertebrates.

3) Quarantine: It is and has been repeatedly stated that quarantine of all new livestock is essential.It is mandatory for public aquariums such is the importance of not introducing disease or parasites. Corals today are rife with pest species - from algae, sponges, nudibranchs, flatworms, snails, and crustaceans that are ridiculously difficult to eradicate and should never be introduced into a tank. Quarantine is the best and perhaps only way to deal with this issue, and no coral should simply be acclimated and put into a display without quarantine. Given the long acclimation time potentially required when the history of the coral is not known, quarantine is an excellent place to allow the coral to acclimate prior to display introduction. Of course, quarantine tanks have to be places where the specimen can thrive, and not be a makeshift holding container that ultimately results in deterioration of health, causes stress, or is even farther from the display in terms of water chemistry and light parameters.

4 and 5) The source of the coral specimen and the length/conditions of any transport should be known to assess whether any stresses or variables in the shipping water represent transient acute stresses that are generally well tolerated without the need for lengthy acclimation responses or if they are represntative of longer term chronic stresses and variables as described above. Is the chemistry of the bag water an artifact of ideal seawater having undergone changes during transport, or is it simply water pulled from a system that was already long ago far from ideal for corals to be healthy.

If someone bags a coral with an oxygen cap in 35ppt water at 78 degrees, ph 8.2, low N and P, and ships it for less than twelve hours and on receiving the salinity should still be 35ppt, the temp may have changed, the pH may be slightly different (generally lower), and N and P should be the same. Small acute stress, no acclimation needed except for light (takes a few days) if not known and quarantine for pests and disease.

If someone bags a coral and it arrives in 30ppt and high N and P, with unknown lighting, it would be nice to know how long the coral was in those conditions, if the bag water source was different from the holding tank source, and prepare for longer acclimation periods in quarantine unless the bag water for shipping was the only poor water source (i.e. transhipped, and then an acute stress PROVIDED that the previous holding tanks were of high quality water and conditions which is probably NOT going to be known and in most cases is NOT going to have been the case). I would also avoid purchasing from this source again.

Overall summary: Acclimation of corals requires a little more knowledge, precautionary skepticism of the conditions to which the coral specimen has been exposed and for what duration (assume the worst), and they cannot be simply drip-acclimated with respect to temp and pH and have had adequate acclimatory care as is largely perceived by hobbyists and suppliers. This is evidenced by directions that come with coral purchases suggesting that simple drip-type acclimation is all that is needed. Instead, suppliers should supply a paper that cites the tank parameters from where the corals were shipped and their duration at that facility. It would (hopefully) not be a stain on their facility but simply provide needed information to help ensure successful introduction of coral specimens to individual hobby tanks by allowing proper accclimation and quarantine.