acclimating SPS corals safely

[squidman]

Just got a new Acropora frag and wanna make sure I don't shock it. My tank's a 40-gallon with AI Prime lighting, params are stable at 8.2 pH, 1.025 salinity. How slow should I drip acclimate?

[Lumina9]

I usually drip for at least an hour, sometimes two if the frag looks stressed. What's your alk sitting at? SPS can be picky about sudden swings.

[onyxwolf]

Drip acclimation's overrated for SPS. Float the bag to temp match, then straight into the tank. They handle it better than people think, just keep alk steady.

[heartify]

Drip acclimation's overrated for SPS. Float the bag to temp match, then straight into the tank. They handle it better than people think, just keep alk steady.

That's risky with wild-collected frags though. Captive-bred might tolerate it, but I've seen too many RTN from shock.

[biteon]

My LFS guy swears by the 30-minute dip in Revive, then straight in. Dunno if it's legit, but my montis haven't croaked yet.

[realmix]

Y'all sleeping on the coral QT method. Separate tank for a week, monitor for pests, then transfer. Takes longer but saves headaches.

[irony_22]

Light intensity matters too. If your tank's brighter than the store's, ramp up slowly or they'll bleach. Learned that the hard way.

[Silkline]

Or just chuck 'em in and pray. Kidding! Mostly. But seriously, my acros did fine with a 45-minute drip and low light for a day.

[Sapphe]

Study from 2018 showed SPS acclimate faster under blue light. I run my blues at 30% for the first 48 hours, no whites. Zero losses in six months.

[squidman]

Thanks for the tips, gonna try the extended drip with reduced light. Appreciate the help!