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.

[Aquattro]

I do similar, but quicker. I set up the large styrofoam box as a holding tank with a heater and powerhead, lower pH and add fish right from bag (temp matched). I then let the water circulate for about 6 hours and add fish to tank. No losses doing this so far. Also how my LFS does (did) it.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I do similar, but quicker. I set up the large styrofoam box as a holding tank with a heater and powerhead, lower pH and add fish right from bag (temp matched). I then let the water circulate for about 6 hours and add fish to tank. No losses doing this so far. Also how my LFS does (did) it.

What's the lowest pH you've done this with? Your way would increase the pH quite quickly. I find it's easiest to do it in the QT because then I can just walk away from it (and go to bed lol), plus it's one less transfer for the fish.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Myka

What's the lowest pH you've done this with? Your way would increase the pH quite quickly. I find it's easiest to do it in the QT because then I can just walk away from it (and go to bed lol), plus it's one less transfer for the fish.

I lower to about 6/6.5, which renders the NH4 less toxic, and close enough to most bags. I don't use QT, and prefer not to leave a box of fish on the floor with a kid and house full of dogs Mostly just match temp and slowly add O2 via small pump to raise pH. Longer would likely be better, but this works. I adopted it from the LFS which needed to get this done between arrival and closing, and it worked for them, so..

[Dearth]

I have only gotten a handful of my fish straight from the shipping box the first two times I did similar methods as Mindy and Brad however both times my fish died whether it was from stress or illness I know not however the other times was straight into the tank from the bag after a heat acclimation without any loss of life.

It is important to note that while I haven't lost any fish through what I do I also am rolling the dice per se every time I do so as I don't run a QT nor do I medicate any of my fish so I also run the risk of introducing unwanted illness into my tank.

[xenon]

Very solid advice given so far.

When we bring in a fish shipment, we prep our incoming system in advance.

Depending on what supplier we use, we know what salinity to expect. We also have a rough idea what temp they come in at (depending on the time of year) so we set our chiller on that system to match the fish shipment.

We then use a CO2 tank to drop the system PH. We have a controller set to increase PH 0.1 for every hour that passes until 8.0 is reached.

Once all the fish are properly acclimated and looking good, they get transferred over to the fish system for sale.

[theokie]

Originally Posted by xenon

Very solid advice given so far.

When we bring in a fish shipment, we prep our incoming system in advance.

Depending on what supplier we use, we know what salinity to expect. We also have a rough idea what temp they come in at (depending on the time of year) so we set our chiller on that system to match the fish shipment.

We then use a CO2 tank to drop the system PH. We have a controller set to increase PH 0.1 for every hour that passes until 8.0 is reached.

Once all the fish are properly acclimated and looking good, they get transferred over to the fish system for sale.

I really like this method of lowering ph, since I have lots of CO2 equipment from my planted high tech days, I will be incorporating this into my acclimation and quarantine procedure

[Trigger Man]

For the more rare higher end fish I prefer to pick up the fish fresh from the shipper. For all others I prefer to put them on hold and pick them up a week after when they are eating.

[FitoPharmer]

Originally Posted by Myka

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.

How much per bag of ammonia detoxifier?

and something like this to lower the PH?
http://www.jlaquatics.com/dry-goods/...-600-gram.html