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Hi all,
I'm in the process of moving house and thought I'd set up a transition tank in the new house so that I've got some place to put some fish between houses.

Anyhow, once I had the tank set up (with no fish), I tested the water only to find that the pH is 8.0 whereas in the previous house (different city) it was 7.0. I double checked by testing a sample of the tap water, and sure enough it came out the same. The GH worked out as 8 (degrees) at both sites. I believe the new house is supplied with water from a water tower and the old with water from a reservoir.

I've read several threads here and elsewhere and most say that it's too complicated to lower the pH consistently and that the fish should just learn to deal with tap water. I'm afraid though that the pH change will be too much - I have 3 tanks of community fish in total, consisting of corys, danios, harlequin rasboras, pencilfish, several species of small tetras, a couple of killifish, and the largest fish being gouramis and plecos. My tanks are moderately planted with live plants.

Assuming that allowing the fish to adjust to the tap water is the best tact (and not throwing in some R/O units or otherwise), what is the best procedure for acclimating the fish to the new location?
I'm also expecting that my tanks will go through at least a mini-cycle once setup since the filters will have to be shipped to me. Is there anything else I can do to minimize the stress to my fish? (I haven't been successful in sourcing some Bio-spira!)

Thanks in advance for any pearls of wisdom! (anything welcome!)

Hello..

You can haul fresh water from the new house to where you are now and perform a partial water changes with it to help acclimate the fish to the new water. Do a couple of these partial water changes over the week prior to the move and you should have your fish acclimated to the new water by moving day.


Depending on the size of tank you are talking about, those big plastic tubs you can buy at Wal-Mart would be excellent to haul the water in.

Good Luck...

A common practice is to plastic bag (tall, half filled) the fish and float them in the new tank slowly adding a half cup of tank water to the bag(s) every five minutes until the bag is full.

Dump half of the water out and duplicate the action once more. The fish will be ready for the host tank.

--garyroland.

--When fish were invented, I was there.




Last edited by garyroland at 07-Oct-2004 12:33

Unfortunately, the distance between houses is too great to consider moving a useful volume of water, so all that I will have is the bags they will arrive in.
My alternative is to set up a couple of tanks before the fish arrive with a pH somewhere in the middle, and then just let the water do what it wants over a couple of days.

Is it safe to subject them to such a significant pH change (7.0->8.0) within a short period of time (1-1.5hrs)? I normally use the technique you describe, garyroland, when adding new fish to the tank. I guess before I hadn't considered that the my LFS could have wildly different water parameters than my tanks!

OK, what is the chance that you could move the fish in the tubs that I suggested. Fill the tub half full. When you arrive at the new house put an air stone on the tub and a heater. Leave the fish in the tub over night adding water every couple of hours until the tub is full. By morning they should be ready for one final acclimation from tub to tank. You could also ask your local fish store for a few of the insulated boxes that they receive shipments of fish in to use instead of the plastic tubs.

You asked if the fish could go from a pH of 7 to 8 in an hour to an hour and a half. I've done it but I would never advise it. I wouldn't want to be personally responsible by saying to do it. Your fish are already going to be stressed due to the move itself. Having to adjust to a different pH may put them over the top.

All you have to do is be a bit creative in how you move the fish from one tank to the next and what you do with them in between, I've given you two good ideas.

Last edited by Tammy at 07-Oct-2004 16:07

I find it strange, but not totally unusual, that a store would run 8.0 Ph water...

Commercial shippers, at least all the bags I've tested, ship their fish in 7.0 pH water. That would mean the store would have to acclimate all their new fish to 8.0 pH water, a hassle indeed.

--garyroland.

In my opinion your best option is to acclimate them using the drip method. It's very easy and allows your fish to acclimate over a couple of hours. The best part is you don't have to do anything except set it up. All you need to do is this, pour the water out of the container you are carrying the fish in until you have about a quarter of the original water left. Next, take air hose and tie a loose knot in the line. Then stick one end into the tank and let the other end hang in to the container. After you make sure you have enough hose, suck on the end not in the tank and start a siphon. Once the siphon is started tighten the knot in the airline hose until you get a slow but steady drip (about two drips per second). This will allow the fish to slowly acclimate over a couple of hours to temp., PH, Hardness, etc... and like I said before the best part is that you can let it drip away until the bucket is full. No messing with a bag every five minutes (although I used to do that myself) no carrying excess water. Just a one time deal. I've done it with fish that were shipped to me and had extremely different water parameters than my tanks, and no losses yet. This includes pleco's, rainbows, and all kinds of cichlids. So it works well with all types of fish. HTH

I'd agree with the drip method. I use it all the time when introducing fish. It's easy!

Around here, you can buy big jugs of R/O water from most supermarkets. Would it be possible to combine the R/O water with the tap water, so that the pH is closer to 7? Then, with each successive water change, you can change the ratios of R/O water to tap water so that there is more and more tap water. This way you're adjusting them over the course of a few weeks, not a few hours.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I think I will go with the half-cup/drip method over a number of hours and keep my fingers crossed :/

I'm just worried that my fish won't like pH 8.0 at all, after they've been used to 7.0 for so long. Here's hoping!