Raising Specific Gravity for fish just shipped

[Reflective]

I just got a female flame wrasse from an online mail order. The last time I ordered a fish from this place the SG was 1.025 which matches my tanks exactly, so I thought it would be the same this time. But when I opened the bag after floating it I measured the SG at 1.017.
Do I do a normal drip acclimation? Or do I need to do it slower or try to lower the SG in my quarantine tank?

 

[Djbrandriff150]

I'd do both. Lower yours a bit unless you have a bunch of fish in there already. And do a slower drip

 

[eatbreakfast]

Don't do too long of a drip acclimation, as ammonia will quickly rise and cause more harm to the fish than a change in specific gravity.

If there are no fish currently in qt, just add some freshwater there to bring it down.

 

[Reflective]

Thanks for the help/advice! I did about 10-15 minutes of a drip acclimation while I lowered the SG in my qt to match the bag then put the fish in there.

 

[zemuss]

How long will the fish be in a QT? If over a week, I would start raising the SG to match the tank. Don't bring the tank to 1.017.

 

[Reflective]

4-6 weeks. How slowly should I raise it? like .001 per day or faster?

 

[zemuss]

You can raise the SG from 1.017 to 1.025 over a few days. But you can do it over a few weeks as well. I have bumped .02 in a day without any issue. Do it over a few days to prevent anything from happening to the fish.

 

[ca1ore]

New fish are more likely to be in lower SG than not. My last BZoo order was at 1.018. Best practice is absolutely to prepare the QT tank at the same SG as the incoming fish. Then you just need to temp float the bag for 15 minutes or so. Easy enough to raise it to 1.025 or so over the course of a few weeks by using saltwater in the ATO. I've done QT this way for over a decade and it works really well.

 

[Reflective]

Good to know. I'll start asking everytime I order what the SG is. Luckily I just had to add freshwater to lower the SG instead of having to make saltwater to increase it.

 

[rlman41299]

just wanted to share one of acclimating procedures coming from one of the major wholesalers.

1. Upon receiving fish, take a random sampling of the pH from no less than 4 different types of fish bags. A recently calibrated portable pH meter is best.




2. Using saltwater that is isolated from your system, lower the pH of the saltwater that is to be used for acclimation to no higher than .5 points above the average from the tested bags. Note: White Vinegar works best to lower the pH.




3. Empty fish and water from bags into acclimation buckets and slowly begin to drip the low pH water into buckets. Rate should be no faster than a slow stream. Do this for no less than 30 minutes. Increase time if water is colder than normal, or if fish seem highly stressed. Note: Airline tubing works best as a drip line. The goal of this step is to wash away any ammonia and get the fish acclimated to the new temperature. You can also add a little “ammonia detox at this point.




4. During step 3, it helps to slowly remove a cup or two of water from the buckets every 5-10 minutes. Just letting the buckets overflow works best, but using a cup works just as well.




5. After no less than 30 minutes of low pH acclimation, begin to add normal pH water to the buckets at the same rate that the other water was being added. For this process you can use water straight from your system. It is recommended that this process take no less than 30 minutes. As water is being added, repeat step 4.




6. Remove fish from acclimation buckets and place in low light aquariums (dark is preferred). Make sure to try and keep new fish separate from established fish to avoid any aggressive behavior.

I have used their method and so far it has worked for me. It is a bit time consuming but most lfs I am sure do it this way. I have read somewhere that acclimating new fsh to new PH is more important than concentrating on temperature and salinity. Not properly acclimating them on proper PH will damage some internal organs and cause shock to a fish.
There are a lot of procedures out there, I am just sharing what has worked for me. What worked for me may not work for someone else.

 

[Reflective]

just wanted to share one of acclimating procedures coming from one of the major wholesalers.

1. Upon receiving fish, take a random sampling of the pH from no less than 4 different types of fish bags. A recently calibrated portable pH meter is best.




2. Using saltwater that is isolated from your system, lower the pH of the saltwater that is to be used for acclimation to no higher than .5 points above the average from the tested bags. Note: White Vinegar works best to lower the pH.




3. Empty fish and water from bags into acclimation buckets and slowly begin to drip the low pH water into buckets. Rate should be no faster than a slow stream. Do this for no less than 30 minutes. Increase time if water is colder than normal, or if fish seem highly stressed. Note: Airline tubing works best as a drip line. The goal of this step is to wash away any ammonia and get the fish acclimated to the new temperature. You can also add a little “ammonia detox at this point.




4. During step 3, it helps to slowly remove a cup or two of water from the buckets every 5-10 minutes. Just letting the buckets overflow works best, but using a cup works just as well.




5. After no less than 30 minutes of low pH acclimation, begin to add normal pH water to the buckets at the same rate that the other water was being added. For this process you can use water straight from your system. It is recommended that this process take no less than 30 minutes. As water is being added, repeat step 4.




6. Remove fish from acclimation buckets and place in low light aquariums (dark is preferred). Make sure to try and keep new fish separate from established fish to avoid any aggressive behavior.

I have used their method and so far it has worked for me. It is a bit time consuming but most lfs I am sure do it this way. I have read somewhere that acclimating new fsh to new PH is more important than concentrating on temperature and salinity. Not properly acclimating them on proper PH will damage some internal organs and cause shock to a fish.
There are a lot of procedures out there, I am just sharing what has worked for me. What worked for me may not work for someone else.

Interesting. So on average, per fish you receive, how much water do you end up needing to isolate for the 1st part of the pH acclimation?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Ph shift does not damage internal organs in fish. Cautions regarding ph in saltwater are important in reef systems, not fish only systems.

If you have used a ph probe after opening the bag and kept it in the bag water you will find ph start to rise on it's own just being exposed to air.

The wholesalers I have dealt with used CO2 to drop the ph, but their purpose was to keep the water at a ph where ammonia is not toxic and while their process took awhile the timing is related to how long it takes to unbag 10-20 boxes of fish.

IME acclimation that is quicker rather than longer commercially or at home has always resulted in greater success regarding mortality.