Mr. Saltwater Tank

Terrible Advice Tuesdays (T.A.Tues): The Most Important Step In New Coral Acclimation?


Terrible Advice Tuesdays: The first step in acclimating new coral to your tank is to put them towards the top of your tank so that they get used to the pressure.

The rest of the story: Wait…wait…I have to wipe my monitor screen down because I just spit sweet tea all over it from laughing so hard.

I’ll make this really easy: The pressure in your tank is virtually non-existent or negligible at best so you don’t have to worry about acclimating corals to this pressure. (I’m referring to the pressure of the water pressing down on the corals)

Even if you wanted to worry about pressure, most corals in your tank are collected in water much deeper than 18-36″ which is the depth of nearly all saltwater tanks. Therefore, your tank’s pressure is much lower than what they are used to. And, there is no way to pressurize your tank such that you take the corals back to the pressure they are used to, then acclimate them back to your tank’s lower pressure.

Don’t worry about pressure acclimation for your corals, it’s a complete waste of time.

(Thanks to Shannon for passing this one on to me.)

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Comments for this article (46)

  • Arthur says:

    Come on, iam not a profesional at this and I knew that was bull! Who ever told them, needs to stay out of this hobby.

  • Jason says:

    That is so ridiculous I can’t help but wonder if the person who gave the advice was joking and the one who reported it to you didn’t realize their leg was being pulled.

  • Jason says:

    Just remember to use a diving bell when cleaning the bottom of your tank. And if you lift your hand out of the bottom of your tank to quickly you will die.

  • Jason…just in time for my tank cleaning today. Where can I find these “diving bells”? 😀

  • Geoff says:

    Let alone that they are not depressurized when taken harvested from the wild.

  • They’d probable bleach the coral thinking it was water pressure.

  • Leif says:

    This look like a backward twisted version of the fact that you might want to start with your corals closer to the bottom of the tank to get them used to your intense lighting so you do not burn them?

  • JasPR says:

    Absolutely! Spot on Mark. I love this hobby, but sometimes we take things a “inch too far”. For the scuba divers amongst us, you know–one atmosphere is one atmosphere.
    These are primitive creatures and the ‘zone’ they thrive in is all about light intensity/spectrum, and current ( and its associated food content).
    Acclimation is a real thing so don’t get me wrong– acclimate! PH variation, temperature variation, nitrogen content etc are key to happily settling in. But atmosphere depth is the least of the concerns in systems that range from 10 inches to the typical massive depth of a giant aquarium of maybe 5 feet.
    Inverts and even fish appreciate above all else — consistency or at least range of ideal parameters. Especially during the acclimation phase. IMHO JasPR

  • Tyler says:

    C’mon Mark. I think you’re making this stuff up.

  • Anthony says:

    ….twitch…. reminds me of my favorite internet image. http://www.plognark.com/?q=node/1129. I hope you are making this up but…some how i doubt it… Thanks for the laugh.

  • Tyler…not making it up. Checkout my FaceBook page where I tagged the person who passed it onto me. In the comments on my Facebook page you can see their response.

  • Matt says:

    Bang goes my pick me up cup of coffee…. Unbelievable … unless you have had no schooling at all there’s no excuse on this one…

  • Jerry says:

    There’s always a noob, pinhead; it seems, who has to chime in with advice when what they should be doing is asking questions! Our local forum gets them and the funny thing is, they never last long in the hobby. The type that doesn’t have the patience to learn nor the humility to admit they don’t know everything, doesn’t have the mindset to do well in an endeavor where no one knows everything…even Mr Saltwater Tank (no offense, of course. You know more than I, which is why I’m here!). They usually believe there’s an untapped fortune to be made, as well and most that I’ve seen try to use that fount of knowledge by becoming basement coral retailers. It just seems to go hand in hand with that mentality

  • Adam says:

    Whoever wrote that must use forgot that the coral has been sitting at the LFS for a week or so before they bought it.

    This is hilarious.

  • Mithun says:

    hmm.. i would generally suggest the opposite.. if you got a high light sps tank its a better idea to put the corals at the lower parts so that they get used to the lights before putting them up top.. light acclimatizing is more important.. pressure acclimatizing is immaterial by the time coral reaches in your tank ..

  • Craig says:

    It amazes me at the lack of common sense people have. Mark I would also suggest to this person to stay of step ladders they may get dizzy or worse get elevation sickness.

  • Beetle Bailey says:

    As they say ’tis better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it’ , I think someone opened their mouth

  • Buddy says:

    What… GOOD GRIEF!!! CHARLIE BROWN!!!!

  • John says:

    Pressure really has no effect on inverts. They are mostly water anyway, and have no gas pockets to compress under pressure or expand when pressure is released.

  • Tina says:

    Ack, what about the light? I was always told to put new corals towards the bottom and move up slowly to acclimate to different lighting conditions.

  • Tina..you’ve got the right idea for light acclimation of coral.

  • Tom Stewart says:

    Well that’s a real good one no wonder you laughed I’m sitting outside in the sun and fell off my chair laughing. I wonder who thought that brainwave up I certainly hope it wasn’t a supplier waterproof lifts.

  • Tyler says:

    Oh boy. I just bought a pressurized acclimator too. Cost me 7,000,000 doll hairs and I had to get it from the navy. My tank is a whole 90 gallons so there’s got to be some hardcore pressure at those depths.

  • Jason says:

    Mark – I don’t know which stores carry the Diving Bells so I was thinking we need to make a DIY Diving Bell using a Brute Trash Can and lots of PVC pipes for no particular reason…

  • Sean F says:

    Funny! I think someone out there has been watching too many Jules Verne movies, next there going to tell me I have a Kraken to release? but what of acclimating it first…….how do you acclimate a Kraken?

  • Lucas Cronin says:

    Now I want sweet tea… thanks a lot Mark. 😉

  • todd says:

    Hey what about putting your tank on a motorcycle
    And riding around to make it cycle faster…
    Or just say HERE’S YOUR SIGN…….

  • Jon says:

    Of course you have to acclimate the Krakan at the bottom of the tank because that the pressure he’s used to,, then raise him up slowly if you want to place him higher,,,, 😉
    Hehehehehehe!

  • bill sawyer says:

    i have some of those diving bells around here , but they are not for sell. my friends and i use them when all the ladies want to talk about are spending habbits… bill

  • John says:

    That’s funny stuff, better get the dive gear out to clean the bottom !

  • JD says:

    Yea sometimes you’ll get a really crazy fish that ascends to fast and complains about abdominal pains you have to lay him on his left side ….pains of the hobby

    Thanks Mark for the laugh…if you ever have fall on hard time you could do stand up at reef club meetings

  • Frank says:

    If you never have used a dive bell take warning DO NOT DIVE HEAD FIRST.

  • P.Bouic says:

    That kind of stupid advice reminds me of the most ridiculous thing we’d ever heard someone do after asking ” what does a certain kind of fish eat? ” to which the lady was told ” Its a meat eater”. A week went bye till she rang this store where she’d asked the question originally, & she complained to the LFS “my fish is dead & you told me it was a meat eater & so I gave it a steak”. True story from Australia, we have lots of Irish here too.

  • NYNikki says:

    Someone seriously said this??

  • Optimum 9400 says:

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  • JasPR says:

    You know it amazes me ,as a proud Irish American that racist jokes still prevail in places like England and Australia. I’ll match my brain power against that Aussie racist jerk any time. Just say’n JasPR ( could you imagine if Bouic used ‘black’ instead of ‘Irish’ in his comment!? Yips!

  • JasPR says:

    atmosphere, depth is measured in atmospheres. Many of you are divers I’m sure and know this concept of pressure well. location of sedentary species light based and current based and not too particular about death based. In my 120 gallon mixed invert/fish tank, the rose anemone are quite particular about where they will set up camp. They seek out current and have formed two columns along the rock work where a large Tunze power head propels water from back to front of the tank. it happens that the rose columns are loaned up in 5 inches of water within a 26 inch deep tank. The halides shine and the current rushes— They grow they feed and now there are ten daughter cells where there was once one.

  • JasPR says:

    Mark, just wondering if its possible to post pictures on any of your pages? Love to share shots of my rose anemone colony? Best, JasPR

  • JasPR…you can link to the picture online as my site doesn’t host pictures or allow the uploading of pictures.

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