acclimating fish

[matthew_raw]

whats the best way to acclimate fish, drip, float in a bag ? and if drip how do i set it up ?

 

[Dubs1281]

Drip is the best, but most time consuming so thats why it is less popular, what I do is get extra water from the store so I can pit the fish in a 5gal bucket. Then you use airline tubimg as a siphon. It should get a good drip going. When the bucket is has trippled, or if theres enough room, quadrupled, in volume from the start, the fish is ready.

Hope this helped.

 

[matthew_raw]

thanks for the info, i have had my tank running for a while now but if i add filter start will it help with controlling ammonia becuase i have had a couple of high readings ?

 

[Dubs1281]

thanks for the info, i have had my tank running for a while now but if i add filter start will it help with controlling ammonia becuase i have had a couple of high readings ?

If your ammonia is high, you should do a pwc, probably around 25%. What you can do instead of buying bottled bacteria, is ask your lfs for a handful of gravel, then put it in your filter. Im assuming its a hang on the back filter, just drop the gravel right before it passes the cartridge. It should have a deep pocket. This will help start up bacteria.

 

[matthew_raw]

i have an external filter on my 57 liter tropical, all my tanks have a sand bottom, how can i boost the bacteria easily ? i don't think my lfs will give me any gravel, will the sand from my 160 liter cold water have bacteria on it and is there anyway i can put that into my external, btw my external was only set up around 1 and a half weeks ago but i left the internal running, should i take media from my internal and put it in the external, if so were abouts in the external should i put it the filter is an aqua-vital avex 600

 

[Dubs1281]

i have an external filter on my 57 liter tropical, all my tanks have a sand bottom, how can i boost the bacteria easily ? i don't think my lfs will give me any gravel, will the sand from my 160 liter cold water have bacteria on it and is there anyway i can put that into my external, btw my external was only set up around 1 and a half weeks ago but i left the internal running, should i take media from my internal and put it in the external, if so were abouts in the external should i put it the filter is an aqua-vital avex 600

Your lfs will give you gravel if they are truly knowledgeable, just tell them what its for. I got mine from petco. And you could add a couple handfuls off sand from your coldwater to your tropical, just not in the hob filter, you will have to put it on your sand. You could also put in the cartridge thats been running for awhile, that could work too.

 

[matthew_raw]

okay i will move some sand, will a filter foam from my cold water tank that is heavily seeded be okay in my tropical or will it cause any problems ?

 

[Dubs1281]

okay i will move some sand, will a filter foam from my cold water tank that is heavily seeded be okay in my tropical or will it cause any problems ?

Wouldn't rish it but it might be okay.

 

[jlk]

okay i will move some sand, will a filter foam from my cold water tank that is heavily seeded be okay in my tropical or will it cause any problems ?

As long as your other tank is healthy and well established, this is perfectly fine to do.

I think you need to figure out why ammonia is present in this first before even considering adding any more fish. New additions will only further contribute to the problem.

 

[octanejunkie]

Hey OP, is this an ammonia spike for you, or has it been steadily increasing/high?

FWIW, I drip acclimate all livestock, at the rate of 1 drop per second, to 3-4x volume. No need to bag-float if dripping.

I thinking about quarantining all inbound livestock. I have heard both 1 week and 2 weeks for a quarantine period. I will have to gear up if I want to do that, but I'm doing it on the cheap

Don't pour the LFS/drip water into your tank, net your quarry and transfer. There could be anything in LFS water.

Good luck

 

[matthew_raw]

steadily increasing but im not sure because i only just started testing my water a couple of days ago so im not too sure, some days its at 0.6 then it can go up to 1, i had a wrotting plant in there but i took that out today

 

[T1KARMANN]

It all depends on how long the fish has been in transit

I have always use the dump water in the bag or box wait 15 mins then remove the fish from the bag box and put in the tank

You don't want the transit water in your tank as it will be full of nitrates at the very least

It's best to get the fish in your tank ASAP as the water in your tank will be 10 x better than the transit water

The drip method will stress the fish out longer than needed

 

[octanejunkie]

It's best to get the fish in your tank ASAP as the water in your tank will be 10 x better than the transit water

The drip method will stress the fish out longer than needed

T1KARMANN: wouldn't you want to drip acclimate IF your water conditions are different (pH/GH/etc) than the LFS to ease the transition?

Also, do you quarantine your incoming livestock?