FishProfiles.com Message Forums

how long do you guys spend acclimating fish when you get new ones? I wanna make sure I have been doing it right, I usually take about 3 hours.

I found the longer I keep the fish in, the more stressed out they get. Even with supposedly sensitive fish such as rams, I usually only aclimate for an hour tops.

I use 1 hour as a minimum for ocal fish, 2 for fish I've received in the mail. For most, though, I shoot for three hours. In a dark bucket with a drip, I've never found the process stresses them.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

I don't mean to steal your thread...but I've always wondered how the drip method worked?

i've taken as long as 6 hours to acclimate fish to my tanks, but only when i know there is a big discrepancy with the ph from the lfs and my tank.

---

"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Very simple - tie a knot in a piece of airline tubing so the flow is very small, then get it siphoning from the main tank intothe bucket, about a drip every second. You can walk away, no worries.

-Molly
Visit shelldwellers.com!

I also drip... I take readings from the bag water and the tank water and use a lose formula to decide how long it should take..

If the bag pH is 7.4 and the temp is 76F and my tank is 7.6pH and the temp is 78F.

I do 30mins per point pH difference and 30mins per degree. So in that case I would acclimate for 2 hours.

Actually, I think the above poster has several shots of the bucket drip technique in photo booth.

Oh yeah... Here ya go...



[/font][/font]

thanks guys!! maybe i'll have to try that next time!

To be honest, I never "properly" acclimate my fish. I just open the bag and dump them in. I have never suffered any acclimation problems, either.

But then again, I work at the store, so I know the exact parameters of the water in the store and if the fish have been sick or anything.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I acclimate an average of two hours. I use a baster and add very small amounts of tank water every 5-10 minutes. Maybe sounds tedious but I enjoy it and get to check out the new fish that way.


~~~~


[/font]

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

You can use a valve on the end of the airline to adjust the drip. You get the siphon started then plug the valve in.

To answer the original question, I float bags from my local LFS to get the temp the same and that's it. Their water is the same as mine but I do not add their water to my tank. Once the temp is equalized I dump the bag into a bucket of tank water and net the fish.

For out of town fish I drip.

Once I got Apistos that I knew were coming in ph6.0 water and adjusted the water on a 29 down to 6.0 for them. I took 2 weeks to bring it back up to 7.6 by changing 1 gallon twice a day at the start and working up to 3 gallons twice a day. What a pain that was.

Mike

Couldn't really say how long it takes me.. Generally, I take half the store's water out of the bag and then do half cup increments of my tank water every 20-30 minutes.. Once the bag is full, I dump out half that water and start over.. Once the bag is full again, I net out the fish and into the tank they go.. Easy fish only get once cycle.. More expensive stuff gets two cycles before they go into the tank.. Inverts for my saltwater tank get dripped..

about 15 minutes... just to get the temps right.

Depends on the fish. Some, I only take about an hour, while most are about 2-3 hours. However, the longest was my shark, 24 hours. In SW you should always take longer, because you really shock your fish hard if the specific gravity (salty level) is different. Not so bad going high to lower salinity, but can kill fish easily going low to higher concentration.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...