Homer_Simpson

Most people are aware of what drip acclimitization of new fish involves. Others may not and may find this useful.

Here is my home made fish acclimitazation setup. In the 10 years that I have had fish, I have tried both the regular float bag method of new fish acclimitazation and the drip method. And hands down, I have found that I have had much fewer losses with the drip method, although I am sure that some would argue that other factors were likely involved to account for the fish deaths. For a c02 injected plant tank, I think that using such a setup becomes even more important considering that new fish from a non-c02 injected aquarium store tank may not quickly adapt to a c02 injected tank and so may not survive the transtion.

Equipment:

(1)Empty Ice Cream Bucket like this or any other container to hold the water from the bag and fish.


(2)Airline tubing. I use 4.5 feet and find that more than enough.


(3)A clip like this. Cheap at the dollar shop.


(4)A mini-clamp like this one. Probably the most important piece for the setup. I got mine from a local fish store for 69 cents.


Now to put it all together.

(1) Insert one end of the airline tubing about half way into the aquarium that you plan to place your new fish into and clip the tube to the side of the aquarium as pictured. Your hood cover may sufficiently hold the tubing in place that you may not need to clip it on. That's your call.


(2) Now suck on the air line tubing to get a water flow. As you will get a big gush of water coming out, you should use another bucket to catch the water until you get the clamp on to the other end of the tubing and adjust it to control the flow. I prefer a drippy faucet type flow. 1-2 drops of water/per second but you can adjust the flow to your liking. Once you are done, you can leave the end of the tube with the clamp inside the bucket of water/positioned on top(the weight of the clamp will keep it in place) or you can even clamp the tube to the side of the bucket as pictured. It doesn't matter, all methods will work. With a slower flow, you can leave the fish in the bucket longer to acclimitize to your aquarium water. A faster flow rate, means less acclimitazation period. I guess that could mean good or bad, depending on the fish. I have found that I get the best results with longer vs shorter acclimitization periods. If you don't plan to do this with your c02 injection off, then I highly recommend a really slow 1-2 drop of water/second rate and leaving the fish in the bucket longer.