ClownsRCoo
New member
I need your help to figure out if i am doing something wrong when acclimating my fish or not. So far my success rate is not very good and its frustrating not knowing whether its because of something im doing or if it was just the fish and was going to happen regardless. Please read my methods so far and tell me what you think.
Bare with me i am still learing as a go but get a lot of conflicting information from posts on here and books i have.
My first fish choice was a purple firefish. I had read through all 3 of my books and even the liveaquaria website that said to drip acclimate your fish for a minimum of 3 hrs. With this fish i wasnt prepared at all and found that out the moment i got home. I had just finished my cycle a few days prior and needed to do a major water change before i added any fish. I figured that while i float the fish i could take care of that. So i drained off about 15 gallons of my 29 gallon biocube QT. It was a very cold day and my water change station is in my garage and i didnt even take that into effect so the water was freezing cold. When i realized that i knew i was screwed. I filled the tank up and it dropped the tank by 10 degrees. I had already removed the fish bag from the tank, opened it and poured him into a bucket. I knew i couldnt drip that water like it was into the bucked or he'd die from the temp difference so i very very slowly dripped water in there while i brought ever heater i had and put it in that tank to warm the water quicker. I placed both heaters by the airline tubing in the tank in hopes taht it would suck up the water water close to the heaters and not shock the fish too much. So after i finally dripped him for about 2 hrs i put him in the tank. The entire time he was in there he looked like he was just struggling to stay upright. He would lag against the glass right by the return nozzles where there wasnt much flow. After about 3 days he was dead. i knew it was because i wasnt prepared which was why that fish died.
I got back on here and really tried to research acclimation techniques and read that a lot of people keep their tanks at a low salinity and then test the water that hte fish comes in, and raise theirs to that salinity while the fish is floating for 15 minutes. After the temps are the same they scoop the fish out and put them in and have great success doign that.
My next attempt was a few weeks later when i bought a pair of clowns. I followed that method listed above. I used a pin to ***** the bag below the water level and collected some water to test teh salinity. Then tapped the bag back up. From what i read this helps not to allow any oxygen into the bag and wont allow the conversion of ammonia in the bag water yet. The store keeps their salinity at 1.020 so i raised my water to that within the 15 float time i had set for the fish. I opened the bag and netted them and put them in after that. Both seemed very active and it was a night and day difference from the first time. They are both currently in my DT and doing very well.
Last weekend I was feeling more confident about my new acclimation technique and decided to fill the QT with fish again. I tested the water and found my phosphates were getting high. I also needed to change out the carbon in the filter basket as well. Its the 3 chamber basket that comes with the tank and i have the sponge material in the first chamber, bio-glass in the second, carbon in the 3rd. I changed our the carbon with fresh carbon and did about a 50% water change. I have a heater in my water change station now so the water stays at a good temp all the time. I changed out half of the bio glass as well just because i honestly dont know how often, if at all it needs to be done for that. I only have about 15lbs of LR so i figured using that to help grow more nitrifying bacteria was a good idea. I did my same method and thought it went just as well. The fish looked afraid the first day but were eating by the next night. They were definately more active. I tested the water again on the 3rd morning and saw that my ammonia went from 0 to .25 so i thought i better do another water change to remove that as much as possible. I did about 10 gallons and filled with new water that matched the salinity. That night i was doing my first part to raise the salinity to match my DT. I was planning on raising it .01 every other day. So i put in enough salt to go from 1.020 to 1.021. My method for tht is to put my salt into a large cup with a lid and add tank water, shake it up to disolve the salt and pour that salty mixture back in the tank. It takes a few fill ups to completly dissolve it all but it works fine and is easy. So i do that and they seem ok. This morning 1 of them looks just like the firefish did when he was taking a turn for the worst. He is barely moving and staying by the nozzles. I saw that he looked like he even got sucked up against the overflow portion of the tank and was just stuck there so i lightly poked him and he kinda swam off from it. It looked like he just was going to stay stuck their until he died if i didnt poke hiim. I had to leave for work after that so im worried hes dead by the time i get home.
Please can someone tell me if i am doing something wrong. 2 dead fish out of 5 doesnt seem like a very good start to my hobby.
Bare with me i am still learing as a go but get a lot of conflicting information from posts on here and books i have.
My first fish choice was a purple firefish. I had read through all 3 of my books and even the liveaquaria website that said to drip acclimate your fish for a minimum of 3 hrs. With this fish i wasnt prepared at all and found that out the moment i got home. I had just finished my cycle a few days prior and needed to do a major water change before i added any fish. I figured that while i float the fish i could take care of that. So i drained off about 15 gallons of my 29 gallon biocube QT. It was a very cold day and my water change station is in my garage and i didnt even take that into effect so the water was freezing cold. When i realized that i knew i was screwed. I filled the tank up and it dropped the tank by 10 degrees. I had already removed the fish bag from the tank, opened it and poured him into a bucket. I knew i couldnt drip that water like it was into the bucked or he'd die from the temp difference so i very very slowly dripped water in there while i brought ever heater i had and put it in that tank to warm the water quicker. I placed both heaters by the airline tubing in the tank in hopes taht it would suck up the water water close to the heaters and not shock the fish too much. So after i finally dripped him for about 2 hrs i put him in the tank. The entire time he was in there he looked like he was just struggling to stay upright. He would lag against the glass right by the return nozzles where there wasnt much flow. After about 3 days he was dead. i knew it was because i wasnt prepared which was why that fish died.
I got back on here and really tried to research acclimation techniques and read that a lot of people keep their tanks at a low salinity and then test the water that hte fish comes in, and raise theirs to that salinity while the fish is floating for 15 minutes. After the temps are the same they scoop the fish out and put them in and have great success doign that.
My next attempt was a few weeks later when i bought a pair of clowns. I followed that method listed above. I used a pin to ***** the bag below the water level and collected some water to test teh salinity. Then tapped the bag back up. From what i read this helps not to allow any oxygen into the bag and wont allow the conversion of ammonia in the bag water yet. The store keeps their salinity at 1.020 so i raised my water to that within the 15 float time i had set for the fish. I opened the bag and netted them and put them in after that. Both seemed very active and it was a night and day difference from the first time. They are both currently in my DT and doing very well.
Last weekend I was feeling more confident about my new acclimation technique and decided to fill the QT with fish again. I tested the water and found my phosphates were getting high. I also needed to change out the carbon in the filter basket as well. Its the 3 chamber basket that comes with the tank and i have the sponge material in the first chamber, bio-glass in the second, carbon in the 3rd. I changed our the carbon with fresh carbon and did about a 50% water change. I have a heater in my water change station now so the water stays at a good temp all the time. I changed out half of the bio glass as well just because i honestly dont know how often, if at all it needs to be done for that. I only have about 15lbs of LR so i figured using that to help grow more nitrifying bacteria was a good idea. I did my same method and thought it went just as well. The fish looked afraid the first day but were eating by the next night. They were definately more active. I tested the water again on the 3rd morning and saw that my ammonia went from 0 to .25 so i thought i better do another water change to remove that as much as possible. I did about 10 gallons and filled with new water that matched the salinity. That night i was doing my first part to raise the salinity to match my DT. I was planning on raising it .01 every other day. So i put in enough salt to go from 1.020 to 1.021. My method for tht is to put my salt into a large cup with a lid and add tank water, shake it up to disolve the salt and pour that salty mixture back in the tank. It takes a few fill ups to completly dissolve it all but it works fine and is easy. So i do that and they seem ok. This morning 1 of them looks just like the firefish did when he was taking a turn for the worst. He is barely moving and staying by the nozzles. I saw that he looked like he even got sucked up against the overflow portion of the tank and was just stuck there so i lightly poked him and he kinda swam off from it. It looked like he just was going to stay stuck their until he died if i didnt poke hiim. I had to leave for work after that so im worried hes dead by the time i get home.
Please can someone tell me if i am doing something wrong. 2 dead fish out of 5 doesnt seem like a very good start to my hobby.
