acclimating 100 fish

I've used the fresh (you need to have it shipped overnight) bacteria that Tim Hovanec developed, and it does work to shorten the cycle considerably. It's also a bit pricey to get the fresh stuff, but it's the best way to go. Depending on your timeline, you also might be able to ramp up a good biofilter with the LR and dosing some ammonia to feed those biofilter bacteria and expand their population to accommodate the expected fish load.

As for acclimation proper...do this one box of fish at a time in dim lighting. Open box, float bags for about 15 minute to adjust temp. Remove fish from bag...if wild caught stuff do a FW dip for 1 to 5 minutes...place fish in tank...do not allow that nasty bag water into tank.
 
I've read many times Dr. Tim's works. I use Seachem Stability, but for much smaller freshwater tanks (125g was the largest), and with much smaller fish loads. Stability works for me, I have never lost a fish using it.
 
Thanks so much guys!! Once i get them will let you know what happened and pics. I really don't want to loose any fish so i will do my best .
 
Just watched the first episode of tanked again. Someone else up top had mentioned them previously. They built a sick set of quarantine tanks for alot of different fish. Guess it can be done with enough $$ and tanks. Also if you happen to watch the first episode the client introduced almost a 100 fish to a tank at one time and they all died...Smart millionaire right?
 
I saw the 2nd half of that episode too. I'm willing to bet the fish in that "quarantine" setup probably died. Not to mention it isn't a very good quarantine setup when all of the tanks are fully stocked & they all share the same water.

Nature is one of the few things you can't corrupt with money.
 
Some lfs put a couple to a handful of fish in 5 gallon buckets and drip acclimate them over an hour, then transfer the fish to their tanks. If you had 6-8 buckets, you could just do the fish in waves. It would help if your room temperature was close to your tank temperature. Turn on your room heat to 77 degrees.

I would get three fluidized bed filters and hang them on your dt for a couple of days before the fish arrive and then put them on your 200 gallon systems as you introduce fish. They are very efficient biofilters and may be able to ramp up fast to handle your suddenly large fish load. You could dump in some of the bacterial products to help or get some live rock from a friend to help seed the fluidized bed filters. You might be able to borrow one or more fluidized bed filters from a freshwater fish store or pond supply house.

Let us know when this happens and how it goes.
 
A fluidized sandbed filter grows bacteria extremely efficiently and can definitely handle a large amount of fish, and minimize ammonia spikes.

I used fluidized bed filters when I stocked my tanks at my old LFS. I never had any spikes in ammonia.
 
A fluidized sandbed filter is a great suggestion. I would even buy it from your local fish store and then beg to hook it up on their system to build up the bacteria...then when your fish get there take it off and move it to your system....

I had to acclimate about 25 fish to a new system a while ago.... I went to the bait shop and bought about 50 bait fish....ran them through the heavy cycle and replaced them as I went along....HEAVY UV, cycled the tank.... Once the fish arrived I caught the bait fish and replaced them with the new fish.... No problems.
 
I would get in touch with an LFS to hold those for you in their quarantine setup. might add to the expense a bit but that's the best bet.
another otpion would be to buy bioballs from the filtration system of an LFS and include them in your sump as it would be the best bacteria boost you can have. Add bacteria on daily basis and make a good water change if you see things going the wrong way. Afterall it's not 100 fish on one tank its around 35 fish in each 200g plus sump... I'm just hoping you have lots of smaller fish.
 
Dr Colliebreath said:
Some lfs put a couple to a handful of fish in 5 gallon buckets and drip acclimate them over an hour, then transfer the fish to their tanks. If you had 6-8 buckets, you could just do the fish in waves. It would help if your room temperature was close to your tank temperature. Turn on your room heat to 77 degrees.

I would get three fluidized bed filters and hang them on your dt for a couple of days before the fish arrive and then put them on your 200 gallon systems as you introduce fish. They are very efficient biofilters and may be able to ramp up fast to handle your suddenly large fish load. You could dump in some of the bacterial products to help or get some live rock from a friend to help seed the fluidized bed filters. You might be able to borrow one or more fluidized bed filters from a freshwater fish store or pond supply house.

Let us know when this happens and how it goes.
Click to expand...


Spot on- fluidized sand filters are really the only hope in this kind of situation. I keep several going at all times on various systems- if I ever have the need they are ready.
 
Too bad I didn't see this post a month ago. I could have walked you through a short cycle in 5 days. So how did your shipment and acclimation go anyway?
 
Dashiki said:
Not sure you could create a system for that bio load quickly or efficiently.

Look into mechanical filtration like a pool style filter. Try lifegard.
Click to expand...

Not to hijack this thread....

But I have heard the same thing regarding very large 1000 gallon+ tanks before, to use a mechanical pool filter....

Does this really do a better job?
 
Pool sand filters are very commonly used in aquaculture. Sometimes just packed with sand, sometimes special types of biofilter media and/or other special medias that will work well in sand type pool filters.
 
We can help at these fish in our qt tanks. Just send them to us..... They might mysteriously "die" depending on the fish though. Lol
 
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