Acclimating Fish

by **spongebob4460** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:53 am

I read a good piece of advice about acclimating your fish to your tank from the store... upon bringing home the fish in the plastic bag, make sure to wash the bag off in water first, and drying it with a towel before placing it in your tank water to sit and warm. The bag might have chemicals, dirt or such stuck to it, from the fish store, which will affect your water once you drop the bag in to warm up. Any one else with good tips, post them here.

by **saltwaterpimp** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:02 am

also if you place the bag in the tank be sure to shutoff your lights , or just make sure your fish dont cook.you could also slide your lights back, the bright light will stress your fish,after shipping/bringing home in a dark brown bag

by **miami754** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:12 am

The drip method is by far the best. Floating the bag in the water does nothing except acclimate the fish to the temperature (if even that, as the top of the water tends to be warmer from the lights). It does nothing to acclimate the fish to the other water parameters. I have used the drip method for years now and I will never use anything else. Just my opinion though.

by **Peterkarig3210** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:18 am

Get the fish used to the "new" water of the tank by putting some of the tank water into the bag and some from the bag into the tank in a few steps until you have mostly tank water in the bag. Then you can put them in. What's the "drip" method?

by **snowboss** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:08 pm

Miami,

I have been reading on the drip method - -and like the sounds of it - -my concern is after I am done the water in my 20 gallon tank will be a couple inches low - -how long should I wait until I top off ?? keeping in mind that this will basically be a water change as I will have to add saltwater in this case.

Pete - check out this link for drip acclimation - -looks very solid to me other than my above posted question.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/gene ... &subref=AI

by **snowboss** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:10 pm

sorry - - the reason for the question above is because - -if i just spent an hour or more acclimating a new arrival - -won't I be shooting myself in the foot by adding 2-4 gallons of new saltwater to the tank???

by **miami754** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:47 pm

I'm not really sure about saltwater to be perfectly honest with you. I take care of my mother-in-laws nano reef when I am in town and I always use the drip method to acclimate corals and fish. You are right - it does turn into a water change. It usually takes a couple of gallons from the tank and I just replace it with new water (this is the case for both the SW and FW tanks I have done this on). I have never had any problems. I usually drip a little faster than recommended though because I don't like leaving the fish in there for an hour or so. I usually drip for about 30-40 minutes. Also, if you don't have anything to do the dripping with, a modification I used to use is to just add about a cup of tank water to the fish store water per 3-5 minutes. Keep repeating until the fish are acclimated. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions or if I did not answer your question very well.

by **snowboss** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:37 pm

nope i think you got it - - I just bought an air gang valve that will hang on the side of the tank for me to syphon with and control the drip - -i'll just make sure I have enough saltwater prepped ahead of time so i don't shock the tank - -thanks for the input, snowboss

by **miami754** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:32 pm

No problem - glad I could help.

by **saltwaterpimp** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:16 pm

peterkarig, i dont think it's good to add transport water to your tank, you should dump it in the sink. {high in nutreints,amonia,fish waste}

Acclimating Fish

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