Acclimating New Fish (Help)

VO6 · Sep 10, 2018

Hey everybody, this is my first post here on this forum!!
I bought a fish off of Divers Den on Friday, and it arrives tomorrow.
What would be the best way of acclimating it?
I heard people say to drip acclimate it and some say to just temp acclimate it and drop it in the tank.
So I'm a bit confused

nereefpat · Sep 10, 2018

If you drip acclimate the fish, the ammonia in the shipping bags will burn the fishes' gills.

Ideally, you have a qt ready that matches the salinity of the water in the shipping bags (Diver's den ships close to reef salinity). Therefore, you just need to float to temperature acclimate, then scoop the fish out of the bag into the tank.

cracker · Sep 10, 2018

good advice above and Welcome ! what cool fish you have coming ? Please tell us about your tank .

VO6 · Sep 10, 2018

nereefpat said:
If you drip acclimate the fish, the ammonia in the shipping bags will burn the fishes' gills.

Ideally, you have a qt ready that matches the salinity of the water in the shipping bags (Diver's den ships close to reef salinity). Therefore, you just need to float to temperature acclimate, then scoop the fish out of the bag into the tank.

What if the salinity of the water in the bag is lower than The water I already have in the quarantine?

cracker said:
good advice above and Welcome ! what cool fish you have coming ? Please tell us about your tank .

I have a yellow banded possum wrasse coming in!! I currently have a 20 gallon long set up with 2 Banggai Cardinals and 1 Juvenile Golden Nugget Maroon. I plan on upgrading soon so it really is all just temporary

nereefpat · Sep 10, 2018

VO6 said:
What if the salinity of the water in the bag is lower than The water I already have in the quarantine?

In that case, scoop out some saltwater and replace with fresh in the qt. If it's within a point or two, then I wouldn't worry about it.

fishnchip · Sep 10, 2018

The way I have acclimated all my fish is floating them for 30 minutes, then add small amounts of water every 4 minutes until the volume of water has doubled. Just the way I have been doing it!!

Ruben's Reef · Sep 10, 2018

!!! Welcome to R2R !!! I do put the fish bag on the QT water for about 15min and test the temp and salinity. If is a huge difference, I will put a little bit of water every few minutes from the QT tank on the bag and then release the fish to the QT. It works for all my fishes.

cracker · Sep 10, 2018

@spyder813 so if salinity is lower in the bag(which normally is) I just add some fresh water to dilute it to match. then let the water evaporate out .this slowly raises the salinity & the fish can adjust much better.
I understand that a fish can go from high to low fairly quick . But not low to high quickly.

Ruben's Reef · Sep 10, 2018

cracker said:
@spyder813 so if salinity is lower in the bag(which normally is) I just add some fresh water to dilute it to match. then let the water evaporate out .this slowly raises the salinity & the fish can adjust much better.
I understand that a fish can go from high to low fairly quick . But not low to high quickly.

Exactly. I keep my QT on 1.022 for the same reason.

cracker · Sep 10, 2018

Same here spyder I sent the hail to the wrong person !

alton · Sep 10, 2018

https://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157
I mean no disrespect in my post but there is only one person/company that is going to warranty your fish if something goes wrong. And if they ask you did you drip or float? Can they deny your claim if you did not follow their instructions? I have been drip acclimating or floating and then adding a cup of my tank water making sure not to get any of their water in my tank since I was 10. That makes about 48 years with no issues.
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/content-acclimation
https://fishybusinessaquatics.com/acclimation-guide/
https://www.yourreef.com/acclimation-and-live-arrival-guarantee.html

nereefpat · Sep 10, 2018

alton said:
https://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157
I mean no disrespect in my post but there is only one person/company that is going to warranty your fish if something goes wrong. And if they ask you did you drip or float? Can they deny your claim if you did not follow their instructions? I have been drip acclimating or floating and then adding a cup of my tank water making sure not to get any of their water in my tank since I was 10. That makes about 48 years with no issues.
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/content-acclimation
https://fishybusinessaquatics.com/acclimation-guide/
https://www.yourreef.com/acclimation-and-live-arrival-guarantee.html

Interesting take.

I have ordered from LA a couple times. Transit is hard on fish, so I have lost at least one fish each time...it is what it is...

LA honored their guarantee each time, and they didn't ask about acclimation. I wonder if anyone has been denied the guarantee due to acclimating a different way?

joseserrano · Feb 27, 2019

Does anyone add anything to the acclimating water, medications specifically? I add some food sometimes, let them eat a little before going in to the tank.

reef lover · Feb 28, 2019

I wouldnt add anything to the bag they come in its already polluted enough.
Is this from an lfs or delivered?

joseserrano · Feb 28, 2019

reef lover said:
I wouldnt add anything to the bag they come in its already polluted enough.
Is this from an lfs or delivered?

Mine would be from the LFS.

reef lover · Feb 28, 2019

I do drip when i buy from lfs...but not when i order online.

mattzang · Feb 28, 2019

fwiw I believe DD ships fish in higher salinity than LA does. if you're not qting, maybe just lower your DT salinity to .024 or so and you should be good

also fwiw but i emailed LA asking what salinity all of the fish would be coming in (i did an order with fish coming from DD, LA, and ORA) and the numbers they gave me weren't good. LA was really low, like .019, DD was high like .024