acclimating my new fish

[mrbacony]

Just got my fist fish through the mail (normally go to my LFS). It is a Midas Blenny. I floated the bag for 15 minutes (unopened) and then put him in a bucket and started a drip acclimation. The salinity is 1.023 and my QT tank is 1.024 so that is close. But the pH was 7.7 in the bag and 8.2 in my tank. Also, I tested the water and it had about 0.5ppm of ammonia. I added some Prime to the bucket and continued to acclimate.
Should I still leave him in there to acclimate for 30-60 minutes even though I know there is ammonia in the water? I was scared to put him in the tank with such a big difference in pH.

 

[MickeyR]

You are better than me, I drip for an hour and put them in. Seeing the differences maybe I should check

 

[Alchameth]

PH drop in the bag is normal, it has to do with the fish respiration and waste. The lower PH also makes ammonia produced by the fish waste less toxic... So when you open the bag and let fresh oxygen into the bag with the PH raising it's possible to get an ammonia spike.

I usually put a few drops of Prime, a heater, and air stone in the bucket during acclimation.