LFS fish order pickups

[Myka]

Originally Posted by hillegom

Mindy, I have never picked up a fish from the shippers box.
What is the best method to acclimate these fish to prevent ammonia shock
Sorry for the hyjack.

Ammonia burn is easy to deal with - just use an ammonia detoxifier like AmQuel, ClorAm-X, or Prime in the bag as soon as you open it.

It's the pH shock that's a bit trickier, and a good reason to have a QT if you want to buy fish straight from the shipper's box. You can lower the pH (I use API pH Down because it's easy and cheap) in the QT to match that of the fish bag, and the pH will rise back to normal all by itself over the course of the night and next morning which slowly acclimates the fish. You can't drip acclimate if you're doing the pH acclimation because if you drip the pH will rise fast in the drip container. You have to float the fish bag for temperature (keep tank lights off) open the bag, measure pH (with a pH meter not a test kit) and salinity, adjust the pH and salinity of the QT, add the fish (toss the bag water). Leave the lights off until the next day.