How to Acclimate Your New Coral Frags Properly (and Safely!)

When it comes to acclimating new coral frags, there are lots of online tutorials to help you do this. Every coralhead has their own way to do it and some approaches are good, others just OK and many others that are very, very ill-advised. So what is the proper way to acclimate a coral frag? We are going to outline our recommendations for acclimation our online coral frags to your system based on our education and careers in aquarium science, not anecdotal advice from online forums or YouTube videos. Here are the steps we recommend for acclimating your new coral frags:

1. Take care to make sure that your frags stay under water as much as practical – As you know, coral tissue is very delicate and easily damaged. The weight of water within the tissue can cause lacerations against the stony skeleton of the coral if exposed for too long or handled improperly so take care to keep the frags under water as much as practical at all times. We also recommend wearing thin latex gloves whenever handling corals to help prevent damaging their protective outer mucous layer.
2. Place the shipping bag or cup in a larger container – If the corals were transported in a bag, place it in an empty yogurt container or similar vessel to hold shape during acclimation. If the frags arrive in a cup, consider gently pouring into a larger cup. Then place the container in a larger bucket, plastic storage container or similar container large enough to hold acclimation water.

   Note: We do not recommend floating the shipping container in your system to equilibrate temperatures. This is risky from a biosecurity standpoint, as that coral frag was probably packaged on a counter wet with water (and potential pathogens) from several systems.

3. Start your acclimation drip – Check the temperature and salinity of the shipping water and compare it to the temp and salinity of your system before starting the drip. If the temp and salinity are close, you can make the drip rate fairly rapid. If farther apart, make the drip rate a bit slower but always watch the temp, as the ambient temp in the room will make it hard to equilibrate the temperatures. Use airline with a knot in it to control the drip rate or add system water a cup or so every few minutes. We like to use micro-valves in airline for precise control.
4. Add coral dip(s) and stir – Add one or more coral dips to prevent importing unwanted coral pests and stir into your acclimation water for even distribution. (Carefully examine your frags before adding the dip(s.) There may be a little Acropora crab living in the branches of an Acro frag that you might want to keep!)
5. Flush coral frags with turkey baster or pipette – During the time that your new coral frags are in the dip, use a turkey baster or pipette to gently dislodge and flush out flatworms and other unwanted pests that can cause big problems down the road if imported into your system. Pay special attention to nooks, crannies and the underside of larger frags, as these are the most likely hiding spots for hitchhikers.
6. Add frags to quarantine system – As we mentioned in our Quarantine/Biosecurity page, we strongly recommend setting up a dedicated quarantine system for newly arrived fish and invertebrates of all kinds and leaving them in the system for at least 30 days or longer. This is the most effective way to prevent the nuisance, expense and soul-crushing disappointment of unknowingly importing parasites and diseases into your reef display. An ounce of prevention is worth a lot more than a pound of cure in this case.

Our Pledge to You from the Staff at CoralFrags.com

We use these same acclimation protocols when we acquire new broodstock and animals for our holding systems and practice strict quarantine and biosecurity measures to keep our systems (and yours) as free as possible from unwanted pests. We carefully inspect each coral frag multiple times before packaging and shipping our corals to our customers but it is impossible to guarantee that our online coral frags are 100% free of coral pests. The most effective ways to protect your system and animals is to do what the pros do: have a cycled quarantine system set up and have dedicated tools used for only that system. We also recommend that all tools get rinsed, sanitized and rinsed again after each use. Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading!