Taking the New AccuDrip for a Test Drive

A couple of days ago, we wrote about the newest addition to the Innovative Marine Auqa Gadget lineup, the AccuDrip aquarium livestock acclimation device. Well, we were fortunate enough to get our hands on one of these new gadgets, and after a full week of fish and coral acclimation, we can safely say it truly removes all of the hassle involved in the normally tedious process. We drip acclimate virtually everything that enters our aquariums, and two of the biggest issues we’ve come across is constantly getting a mouthful of saltwater and always getting our hands wet because the little DIY acclimators we use just don’t have all the necessary hardware to prevent such occurrences. But, the AccuDrip solves both of those issues and makes our acclimation a bit easier.

When we start our drip acclimation, the first thing we normally do is reach into the aquarium to attach the tubing so that it can actually draw in water. Our acclimation gear does have a small “U” tube attached to it, which makes attaching it really easy, but our setup is very limited because it barely reaches into the water and doesn’t fit over the eurobrace on the aquarium at all, hence us having to reach into the aquarium to attach it to something. The “J” tube on the AccuDrip, on the other hand, is relatively massive. It measures out to an overall length of 10″, and reaches into the water approximately 5″ depending on how high the water level is in the aquarium. And even though the narrowness of the “J” shape made the fit over our eurobrace a bit awkward, all that length made reaching the water level quite easy.

The other headache reducing feature on the AccuDrip that we enjoyed was the squeezable siphon/drip chamber. With a simple squeeze of the bulb, the water from the aquarium enters into the acclimation device and makes its way downward into the container temporarily housing your new livestock. No more do we have to suck on the tubing to jump start the siphon, which also saves us the risk of swallowing a mouthful of saltwater.

In addition to the “J” tube and siphon chamber, the AccuDrip also has thumb wheel rolling clamp that regulates the drip rate of the water. Unlike the nylon screws that determine the flow-through rate that have a big problem in leaking and letting in air, the rolling clamp just compresses the tubing, slowing the flow.