Quote:
Originally Posted by hoppycalif  Is the objective to slowly drip tank water into the container of LFS water the fish came in? So, you pour the bag of fish into the container, then drip in tank water until that container is nearly full? If you forget about it, I assume it just runs over. |
You are correct Hoppy. You empty the LFS water and fish from the bag into the container. Although not necessary, I sometimes empty a cup of water out of the bag(depending on how much water the fish came with) before emptying into the bucket.
Usually, I find the ice cream pail is usually measures 25% full of LFS water when I empty the water into the pail. I usually set the drip to no more than 2 drops/second and wait until the pail is about 1/2 full before dumping the water and fish into the tank. I have a UV sterilizer running, but if you don't, some recommend netting the fish and transferring into your tank to prevent nasties from the LFS water entering your tank. The only problem is that if your fish has something nasty, it is likely using your fish as a host and will spread to other fish whether you net it into your tank or dump it with the water into your tank, unless you set up a quarantine tank and put him/her in there first or run a UV sterilizer.
As far as forgetting about it. The estimated time that the bucket would fill up at 1-2/drops per second is several....several...hours. One day, just for the heck of it I may time it, just to see exactly how many hours. The smaller bucket can be placed inside of a much larger bucket to prevent a spill over should one forget about the bucket. My guess is that if you place the ice cream pail in another pail or bucket 3-4X the size of that bucket or just use a 3-4X bucket larger than the ice cream pail, it would probably take a day for that bucket to fill and I am sure someone would notice before a whole day went by. I just chose the ice cream pail because it seems like a practical size to use for handling purposes. I usually just set it and do something else for a couple of hours(laundry, watch a movie, exercise, etc.,) then come back and empty the bucket of water and fish into my tank. I just transferred a Siamese Algae Eater into my 40 gallon Algae Farm using this method. And the SAE is already busy tearing off and consuming strips of dieing/soft Green Dust Algae. He has been at it 24/7 - 7 days a week since I got him/her a week ago. He suffered no ill effects adapting to the c02 injected tank.
Regards