Acclimation question - It's Fish Day!

[Enki]

w00t! w00t!

Finally, after stalling out at high nitrites, after massive water changes and re-inoculation, my ammonia AND nitrites are reading 0, 24 hours after the latest ammonia addition.

Ammonia eaters have been strong all the way through, but the re-inoculation was key for the nitrite eaters.

I think I'm cycled! w00t!

Fish are arriving very late evening Tuesday (~10pm), so I have a few days to observe the levels and be sure all remains stable.

My plan is to do a water change on Tuesday AM, pick up a bushynose pleco in the afternoon and acclimate him first, let him get a chance to pick a hide out. He will also be my canary, just in case there is some weird water problem.

The rest of the fish arrive around 10pm (10 Aulonocara stuartgranti 'Ngara flametail' & 4 Labidochromis caeruleus 'Yellow Lab', all ~1"). I can't wait!

I do have a question though...

I have always floated and hand dripped fish-bags (open, clipped to the side of the tank, scooping in a little tank water every 20 minutes or so), but I have read about a technique using surgical tubing and a clean 5 gallon bucket.

You put the fish and the bag-water into the bucket. Then get a slow drip going from the tank into the bucket. Cover the bucket and wait a couple hours.

Does anyone have any experience using this technique? Recommendations for or against? Should I be worried about putting ALL these guys into one bucket for the acclimation period?

I have to admit, the timing of the fishes arrival is a little inconvenient (they were going to be arriving on Sunday evening, but things have changed), so the ability to get things going and walk away for a while is REALLY attractive.

 

[Allivymar]

Yay! Its about time

As for the acclimation process, I have never used the tubing/slow drip, but its often done with SW fish (least with the folks I know). Should be a fine way to go; just keep an eye on things to be sure you don't overflow the bucket *grin* I doubt the few hours they will all be in the bucket would be an issue.

 

[tkos]

Make sure to keep feeding those bacteria until you get fish to them. The last dose of ammonia should be around 24 hours before the fish are put in.

The bag method you have use should work fine, but if you wish to try the other method then I say go for it.

 

[Enki]

Thanks for the replies!

In hindsight, I think I should have re-inoculated sooner, but articles/info leaned towards patience vs action. I, for one, am convinced that a second inoculation is a great idea, right after nitrites start to show up. It seems to me that the number of nitrite eaters still around after several days of no nitrites would be very low. Reinforcements are in order.

I am going to go for the bucket, 9-10pm is the ETA, but they (the LFS guys) are driving here from SFO, so they could be delayed.

I have tickets to the midnight show of Return of the King (Shelob! OMGOMG!) and the last thing I want to do is rush the acclimation. So the bucket will go into the rubbermaid container, and the drip will get checked just prior to showtime (I live a block from the theater )

I am so fired up, I can't believe I went almost 20 years with no tanks...

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, going to the midnite show too eh? Hubby is buying tix tonite or tomorrow LOL

 

[Enki]

Got my tix already, the first auditorium is already sold out. Had to change the placeholding schedule to adjust to fish arrival.

 

[BrianNY]

Cool Enki. I use the tubing and bucket drip method when acclimating my discus. You can speed things up by taking a PH reading of the water your fish arrive in, and making a comparison to the ph in your tank. If they are close (within .4), increase the drip and you should be finished in under 20 minutes. That'll give you plenty of time to get to the show

 

[Enki]

Ok to throw a big wrench in the whole thing, I was doing some more research and I have found a lot of people advocating a fast 'dump' acclimation for shipped fish, cichlids in particular.

What these folks do is float the sealed bags for about a half hour to adjust temp, snip open the bag and move the fish(by net or hand) immediately into the tank.

The theory is that the shipped fish have been in the bag a long time, much longer than a fish just coming home from the LFS. This longer time in the bag will cause a much higher ammonia concentration in the bag-water, along with an increase in co2 levels, bringing down the Ph. Lower Ph and higher ammonia levels are ok, as the ammonia is less toxic at lower Ph.

According to the 'dump' advocates, once you open that bag the co2 concentration drops and Ph starts to rise, rendering the ammonia MORE toxic. Add to this mix high Ph water that you would have in a cichlid tank.(My tank water is about 8.2 right now) and you have a recipie for disaster

These folks believe that the sudden Ph change is far less stressful than the increase in ammonia toxicity from the lost co2 and the addition of the highPh water, particularly for african cichlids who don’t like the low ph water anyway.

This goes against everything I have learned about acclimating fish, but some folks have said that they have never lost a fish since they started doing acclimation this way, while they had been losing fish now and then doing it the 'old' way.

I am torn. I am also glad that I still have a few days to think about it...

Any thoughts?

 

[mattrox]

I ususally go the dump method, but have never gone more than 10 mins when introducing tank water into the lfs's bag. But the water source for the LFS and home have almost always been the same. I can't remember losing fish due to acclimitisation, some due to PQ fish from the lfs though.

 

[grimlock3000]

"These folks believe that the sudden Ph change is far less stressful than the increase in ammonia toxicity from the lost co2 and the addition of the highPh water, particularly for african cichlids who don�t like the low ph water anyway.

This goes against everything I have learned about acclimating fish, but some folks have said that they have never lost a fish since they started doing acclimation this way, while they had been losing fish now and then doing it the 'old' way."

The most important thing is to assess the fish for yourself when they arrive. If you get a bag of healthy looking fish that are swimming happily, the slower acclimation will generally be better. The dump aclimation is good if your fish arrive in poor shape. When you open the box and pull out the bags, you could end up with fish that are near death and a one hour acclimation might take more time than the fish has left. In the case of ill looking fish, a tank full of fresh cycled water can often be the best cure.

Whatever you do for acclimation, the best advice I have is do it in a dim room and put the fish in the tank with the tank light off. This helps to make sure the fish are more calm when they go into the tank and reduces stress.

 

[Enki]

Hey everybody!

So it is finally fish day! YAY! ETA is 10pm PST. Any last minute advice is appreciated!

Don't worry, pix coming ASAP