How Do You Acclimate Your Fish?

[Krish]

People are always adding fish to their tanks. How do you go about acclimating them? This won't be a public poll so no-one will know who voted for what so be honest. It would be really good to know how many people do what to acclimate their fish.

 

[Krish]

Here's my method...

-I open the bag and let some of the water out in the sink.
-Drop the probe from my thermometer in the bag
-Float bag in the tank
-Every 10 mins I dump a bit of tank water in the bag
-Once temp matches that of the tank as well as I have added tank water into the bag atleast 3 times to where there is a 50/50 ratio of tank water to the water in the bag, I net the fish and toss it in. I never put any water from the bag into my tank, thus the reason for netting the fish.

 

[Sasquatch]

I think I do the Krish method as well, haven't bought a fish in years now and frankly the worry of introducing a plague to my stock means no acclimation worries as there arn't going to be more fishies

 

[Krish]

I think I do the Krish method as well, haven't bought a fish in years now and frankly the worry of introducing a plague to my stock means no acclimation worries as there arn't going to be more fishies

I'm like you. I live less than 5 mins from the ocean (island I live on is only 21 miles long by 7 miles wide with crystal clear water) and I never used NSW. Too afraid to transfer something bad to my tank. I also didn't heavily stock my tanks. I had 4 fish in a 75gal (and small ones at that) LOL!

 

[Sasquatch]

the way stuff is moving around the planet from place to place who knows what is off your door step? Overcrowding is a true sin, we just can't reproduce the habitats required, and after enough years in reefkeeping and murdering enough fish you have to draw a line lol

 

[Krish]

the way stuff is moving around the planet from place to place who knows what is off your door step? Overcrowding is a true sin, we just can't reproduce the habitats required, and after enough years in reefkeeping and murdering enough fish you have to draw a line lol

Yup!! Speaking of things moving around, our waters are over-loaded with lionfish which aren't native to our waters. Fishermen are getting upset, because they are eating up everything! They have lionfish contests to see who can catch the most in an effort to eradicate them. They even brought in chefs to teach people how to cook them! It really sucks!! Why couldn't we atleast get clowns or something cool like that LOL!

 

[Krish]

Bump back to the top for more votes.

 

[NC2WA]

I float the bag in the tank water to get to temp, then before I add tank water, I check the pH and salinity of the bag water..I then add 1 cup of water every 5 mins until the bag is full, dump half the water out and add additional 1 cup of water until bag is the same pH and salinity of the tank water..once this is reached, I release the fish into tank water.

this normal takes 45 mins to 1 hour.

 

[Cherae]

I'm curious why you (Krish) don't dump all the water in after you aclimate the fishy? We have always thought of it as extra bio diversity in our tank.

 

[NC2WA]

I'm curious why you (Krish) don't dump all the water in after you aclimate the fishy?

Because you do NOT want to introduce any nastys or pathegons that may be in that water. For example, if the acclimating water has Ick and you dump that water into your tank, you just now contaminated your main display tank with the ich pathegon. So as a rule, you never dump acclimating water into a main display tank.

 

[Sasquatch]

Im assuming of coarse that this acclimation process is for fish going IN the QT? :tape2:

 

[Myteemouse]

I drip for sure.
I us an old FW airline and little valve.

I put the fish in a dark container. (opaque is best for stress on the fish)
I dump all the water from the bag to the container.
Then I put it on the floor and I run the air line to the sump.
I start the siphon on the air line and valve the flow down to a slow drip.. (about two drops a second.)

( remember to turn off your ATO if you have one. )

Then I check on the container every 5-10 minutes.
If It gets to full I dump a bit out.
After 30 mins I turn up the flow a bit on the air line from the sump. ( a near stream.)
I leave it on that way for another 20 mins..

Also make up a few gallons of saltwater for your tank for when your done.

After the fish has "DRIPPED" for 50 mins or so. I scoop the fish up with a net and in the tank he goes.
I dont QT ( I know, how bad of me)
I dont freshwater dip ( I know, Again a bad habit)

 

[NC2WA]

assuming of coarse that this acclimation process is for fish going IN the QT

For the steps I posted, Yes, going into QT.

 

[Nana Chloropsis]

I do exactly as Myteemouse does. I always assume that the water that the fish is in is full of stress hormones and fish pee, so down the drain it goes.

 

[Krish]

I drip for sure.
I us an old FW airline and little valve.

I put the fish in a dark container. (opaque is best for stress on the fish)
I dump all the water from the bag to the container.
Then I put it on the floor and I run the air line to the sump.
I start the siphon on the air line and valve the flow down to a slow drip.. (about two drops a second.)

( remember to turn off your ATO if you have one. )

Then I check on the container every 5-10 minutes.
If It gets to full I dump a bit out.
After 30 mins I turn up the flow a bit on the air line from the sump. ( a near stream.)
I leave it on that way for another 20 mins..

Also make up a few gallons of saltwater for your tank for when your done.

After the fish has "DRIPPED" for 50 mins or so. I scoop the fish up with a net and in the tank he goes.
I dont QT ( I know, how bad of me)
I dont freshwater dip ( I know, Again a bad habit)

Pretty cool! You take a lot of time into consideration. Very thorough especially for someone who doesn't quarentine (I never did either although most of my fish come from the wild )

 

[mcdonaldjosh7]

I do Krish's method almost exactly, except I will spend an hour moving bits of water until I think there is almost only tank water in the bag, then I net it...I do as much as possible to prevent any other water from getting into my tank xD

 

[user 2204]

I use the drip method (along with temp matching) on all incoming livestock. Always have and probably always will.

Cheers,
Alex