How long can I float a bag?

[PirateLove]

How long, from a local fish store, can I keep my fish in the bag??

 

[rt67ghy]

I think 30 minutes is the recommended time to adjust temp.

 

[Member No. 1]

How long, from a local fish store, can I keep my fish in the bag??

If you mean how long can you leave the fish in the bag without any heat, that depends on how you store it, ambient air temp, amount of water in the bag.

Need a few more details or explain why you need to know.

How long "Can" you float it? 24 hours floating in the sump would not be a problem as the sump water is keeping the bag water at temp. Fish ship all the time in a container and most times it's longer than 24 hours.
How long "Should" you float the bag? Depending on how much water is in the bag, usually 20-30 minutes is enough time to equalize temps.

 

[Dmorty217]

If the bag is filled with Oxygen and it in a styro with heat packs then 48 hrs easily. No O2 then i wouldn't want a fish in the bag any longer than 3-4 hrs. If your referring to floating a bag for temp acclimating I'm not sure since I never float bags

 

[ca1ore]

Depends on how the LFS packed it. Supplemental O2? Fish to water to air ratio in bag? Agree with Dmorty - in most cases 3-4 hours max.

 

[shermanator]

If your referring to floating a bag for temp acclimating I'm not sure since I never float bags

Do you not temp acclimate? I match salinity of QT to water in the bag, but I still temp acclimate. Is that not necessary (would be great to skip it)?

 

[thelawnwrangler]

Do you not temp acclimate? I match salinity of QT to water in the bag, but I still temp acclimate. Is that not necessary (would be great to skip it)?

my LFS kid told me why bother if you are drip acclimating theoretically if you end up with enough turnover on your tank water in the drip shouldn't temperature get the same?

I still floated

 

[shermanator]

my LFS kid told me why bother if you are drip acclimating theoretically if you end up with enough turnover on your tank water in the drip shouldn't temperature get the same?

Yes, but most people don't drip acclimate. I match salinity to QT, so once I have them temp acclimated I can plop them into the QT. If I can remove the temp acclimation that is one less step.

 

[drillsar]

I personally would still float it.

 

[CStrickland]

my LFS kid told me why bother if you are drip acclimating theoretically if you end up with enough turnover on your tank water in the drip shouldn't temperature get the same?

Unless your drip kit is well insulated, or your dripping into a floating bag, he's wrong. The small amount of water the fish comes in cools off really fast. That's one of the issues with drip acclimation, more so as the drip is longer.
I use a styrofoam cooler to drip into, that works well.

I add an ammonia neutralizer to the water of any critter that's been packed more than an hour. They are ok for a while in a sealed bag, but once it's exposed to air the ammonia becomes unbuffered and can injure them faster than it is removed by the drip (or faster than I can adjust my qt salinity).