# Best fish acclimation and quarantining practises



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

With Boxing Day sales and a lot of us picking up new fish, I've been having the same discussion with a lot of people about how to acclimate new fish.

And then a second discussion about what to do with quarantining procedures.

So I thought I would start a thread and ask people to post their best practises for acclimation and quarantine. I struggle with quarantine, and I know a lot of other people do too.

Please feel free to disagree, add your thoughts and correct anything posted. I am not an expert, just ask a lot of questions and try to use common sense.

*Issues that can arise during acclimation and what might cause them:*

1. How long has the fish been at the store you bought them from? If they just came in and then out they go w you, it could be stress from too much travelling. Ideally you want the fish to be actively swimming around at the store, and not laying at the bottom of the tank or floating on its side.

2. Is it eating before you buy it? Ask the store to show you. Don't take their word on this.

3. Do you test the bag water when you get them home for salinity? If salinity is out by more than .02, your drip should be 1 hour for every point difference. So, for example, if a store keeps their fish at 1.016 and your tank is at 1.025 there is a 9 point difference, 9 hour drip. Sucks royally but you must be patient and slow on the drip.

A fish will adjust really well going down in salinity but it's really really hard on them to go up.

3. PH should not be an issue unless you are shipping in a fish or they've been in a bag for a long time. If the PH gets too high, it can burn their gills. I know someone who checks PH and if it is over 9 will immediately move the fish into the qt tank, no waiting to do any adjustments. Another option would be to use Aqua Vitro Alpha to knock out the ammonia and gain some time to do a proper drip. (Shameless plug for Aqua Vitro, Prime also works but there is something about the Alpha which is easier on the fish which I can't remember right now)

4. Obvious one here, and I'm sure most people do it. Match temperature of the bag and the tank. Put the entire bag before you open it into the tank and float it to match temperature for at least half an hour. Then start your drip.

5. Drip all new arrivals. Either by placing fish in a bucket and using a small air line to drip tank water into the bucket until you have changed their water to be mostly tank water. NEVER put store water in your tank. Or, if you want to make sure the temperature stays constant, keep the fish in the original bag, dump out half the bag of water, add same amount of tank water, do this 4 or 5 times over the course of a couple hours and float the bag in the tank, closed, in between. I use small plastic clamps to hold the bag onto the side of the tank.

However, the bag and float method cannot be used on hypo salinity, the bucket is better. If I am doing the bucket method and it is going to be 5 or 6 hours, I add a 1" pump on the lowest setting and a beta tank heater to the bucket so the temperature stays closer to the tank temp. Once I have matched salinity between the bucket and the tank, I will then adjust for temperature by either putting the fish back in a bag and floating it, or doing a few more water changes more often to bring temperatures back in line.

6. Bullies in the tank can cause issues with new additions. Any new environment is going to be hard on a fish. And the old fish are going to try and establish dominance. So if you are not quarantining or if the fish is coming out of quarantine, consider the use of an acclimation box. Like a breeder box, where you can monitor the fish after adding to the display tank, before they are free to roam around the tank. Put a piece of pipe in the box so they can hide or a piece of opaque plastic on the bottom of the acclimation box so they don't feel so exposed. It gives the old fish a chance to check out the new tank mate without them picking on him. (Or her)

6. Sick fish, need medication. Parasites, flukes, virus, could be a number of things. If you don't quarantine, it's hard to treat a sick fish without treating the whole tank. Plus the risk of introducing the disease to everyone in the tank. Some diseases can spread so quickly they will wipe out everything in your tank, plus live in the rock and become impossible to eradicate entirely without aggressive intervention.

It requires more equipment, more room, total PIA, but really really a good idea. I think of quarantining as almost like quiet time for a new fish to get used to a new environment. You do it for their health and to give them a good chance of survival. Bringing a new fish home is stressful on them, and when we chuck them into a tank with all these other fish who have established their territory and hierarchy and expect a new fish to deal with changes in water, environment, temperature, salinity, PH and deal with trying to figure out their position in the pack, it can be too much.

*Quarantine Procedures:*

Can someone add their thoughts here? I know there is lots of convo on tank transfer method, treating with copper, Prazi, other meds, etc. What do you do from start to finish?

I have some thoughts on some quarantine concepts but I have also suffered some stupid losses on fish that should have been fine on day 4 and 5 and although I think I know why, would like to hear from others first.


----------



## imy112 (Dec 8, 2011)

WOW! Thank you for taking the time to write this out for all of us. You're a gift to this hobby. AMAZING!


----------



## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

Very important and timely information Ms C
Many thanks 

Mods: propose this posting as a sticky


----------



## Jiinx (Apr 5, 2012)

she really is an awesome person! Thanks for posting this C


----------



## ReefABCs (Nov 10, 2012)

Great points on acclimation. 

I will add my 2cents because I hate losing fish and it’s one of the most frustrating parts of reef keeping until you have what you want in your display tank. I always quarantine/treat my fish now. I have passed this process on occasion only to suffer the consequences. 

Acclimation;

Depending on how long the trip home is it may change things a little. It’s usually over an hour home for me from the store. From what I understand and I’m sure depending on how long the fish has been in a bag is that as soon as you open the bag the ammonia builds rapidly and PH starts to drop because of the waste the fish excretes during transit. With that in mind I pass on the slow drip process. I first place the bag in the tank and let it sit there about 20 min or so to equalize temp. I then open the bag and add about half a cup of tank water every 10 min or so to equalize the salinity and ph to the tank water as much as possible. I then take the fish out of the bag, (I put the fish and water in a small container first or I have been just scooping them out of the bag with my hand recently as I think it’s gentler than a net. ) and put the fish in the freshly sanitized tank for treatment. The whole process is usually about 45 min. 

I have tested for salinity but admit I don’t always do it. I have also tested for cooper and found that some stores use a mild amount maybe .15ppm or so. This can hide /mask some symptoms of disease as it’s not enough to cure but enough to combat it. I sometimes ask the store if they use cooper treatment such as cupramine. 

For treatment I have used Cupramine for min 3 weeks at .5ppm but recently started using TTM (Tank transfer method) as cooper is not the best for fish organs long term from what I have read and so many advocates of TTM on other forums. I think using Cupramine is easier though. Cleaning the tank and all the equip. every three days for TTM is a PITA but it’s done in 12 days vs about a month for Cupramine. I also use at minimum 1 dose of prazzipro and have been doing this in parallel with the TTM method or after Cupramine treatment. After either treatment I move to the display tank. I have not done the recommended 4-6 weeks observation. 

Well, all this effort above and I saw a couple white spots on my tangs boxing day! Was I freaking out? YES!!!! They were gone just as quickly so I’m hoping it was nothing but grains of sand from my fish stirring up the substrate. My Clowns do this a fair bit around my Haddoni anemone, building a nest I guess, but it makes a cloud of sand when they do it. There was a cloud of sand at the time so, Time will tell but if I get Ich again. If I wasn’t so paranoid I would not have even noticed. Fish looking great as I type this no spots or anything else visible. 

Just to add I have lost fish in the above processes. The fish had other diseases and I was not prepared to treat in time. I have since stocked up on some Furan 2 tablets for bacterial issues, Paraguard, ( I used this one already,) , and Mardel quick cure as it has Formalin in it.


----------



## Mikeylikes (Nov 22, 2013)

Great Thread Cheryl !

After experiencing ich and the pains of catching remaining fish to run a fallow tank in my newbie days ... a QT tank is a MUST imo. A big lesson learned !!

Even a small 5 - 10 gallon will do if space is tight. 

After transferring fish and/or corals to my QT .. I usually have them in there for at least 2 months. Treat with Cupramine followed by Prazipro and lots of observation for other ailments before going into my DT. 

What I don't have right now and should get or DIY .. is an acclimation box !

Interested in hearing what other meds people while their fish is in QT.

Mikey


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*stickie meeeee*

great job Cheryl...

stickie meeeeee!!!!!!!


----------



## corpusse (Jan 3, 2011)

1) imo it's better to get the fish as soon as possible from the store. Ideally it won't even touch their water (this is the only time a long drip is necessary imo). If it's an expensive fish I want to pick it up asap, or if it's been there for a while whatever diseases floating around the store have not been strong enough to kill it. 

2) I don't ask unless it's been there 1 week plus. I assume it's not eating just as most fish won't eat in QT initially at least with gusto, most new arrivals at a store won't eat with gusto. Fish take a while to starve unless they are super thin there is time to get them eating.

3) Usually I have an idea, but of course I will take a quick peak. If a store was selling fish with 1.016 salinity I don't think I'm shopping their. Either they are cheaper than cheap in which case I expect the fish to be discounted due to the lack of salt used or they are trying very hard to hide something. I don't think most fish need long drips. The exception being if they have been in transit for 1 day plus. I get the salinity as close to my reef as possible. Sometimes if I am starting fresh I start the QT fresh I will start it at 1.024 and then just not top off for a few days. 

4) I don't check PH, I don't keep fish in bags for extremely long times so this should not be an issue in my case.

5) kinda the same point as 3. If the salinity is closer the drip is faster. In most cases I'd say I have them adjusted in less than 20 minutes. The fact that tank transfer does not bother newly arrived fish leads me to believe slight salinity fluctuations are not a big deal. Obviously I match these nearly exact if not exact but they are still transferring with just a couple of drops of water if that.

6) Bullies can be tough but putting healthy fish in is the key. I have an Achilles who will beat anything he sees as a threat for several days. If the fish is fat and healthy they will take the beating. Fins heal quick. He really hated my female masked swallowtail and now almost a week later shes still basically staying on one side, but now that he knows she's not a threat and took the beating it's no longer a constant chase. The male who's a bit bigger than him also took a beating but again he was fat and healthy prior to introduction and even took a bit out of the boss as well. If your bullies are never going to stop bullying the fish isn't going to make it. If it's just for a few days or worse case a few weeks the healthy fish will live past this.

7) ALL NEW FISH ARE SICK FISH at least until they prove otherwise. Even healthy new fish often won't eat. I assume every new fish has ich and flukes and I hope for nothing else that I am less experienced in treating. 

QT methods :

Copper is easy on humans, hard on fish. That being said I treat tangs with copper. Everything else I use tank transfer. It depends on the fish if I start this right away or wait a while. If the fish does not look like it has ich in the first few days it may not be as important to start the transfer. I have a mandarin and a red scooter in qt now. I am doing the tank transfer as fast as possible on them and I will probably forgo other treatments less one dose of prazi unless they show signs of flukes as they have very little to eat in QT. That being said they are not super thin and I don't think they will starve in 15 days. I bought a bottle of pods for them which seems to peak their interest but I don't see how they can be sustained on invisible food. The reef has plenty for them to eat they just have to make it that far...

So I use two 10g tanks for tank transfer. I use water from my display this helps confirm a)the main tank is still ich free, b) that the new fish are used to the same water parameters and c) that water change water is not going to waste.

If the fish is eating I will start treating with prazipro by the 2nd or 3rd tank transfer. Once the tank transfer is complete I transfer them to an 80g QT tank I mainly use for longer term observation and treatment a second time with prazi. The fish can stay in here as long as they need to eat, get comfortable, and any last chance for a disease that went undetected to show itself. Really they should stay in here for 30 additional days but that's not always the case. That being said I have left fish in qt for more then 100 days. It depends on the fish it's needs and to a lessor extent my own needs.

When they go into the display they should be disease free but also ready for the initial pounding the old fish will give them. 

I have tried to do this but my frag tank has not really been upkept and it makes it impossible to do additional purchases, but ideally all corals and inverts will be isolated in a fishless system for 72 days prior to introduction to the display. I have been experimenting with tank transfer for inverts and corals however I have no idea if it's helping or I'm just getting lucky. If the odds of getting ich from a new fish is 20% (not a real number just pulling one out) then the odds of getting it from a coral are probably 2% or less. That being said after dipping them I will at least rinse them in several different containers so that no original water comes with them. The water is much more likely to harbor something then the coral itself. Especially if its a frag or soft coral not on a piece of live rock.


----------



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Wow to everyone for the kind words and great posts. It really adds to the discussion.

I don't loose fish in acclimation. At least in the last year I haven't. And I think this success has been because I am an ardent believer that parameters have to match. I agree I hate hypo salinity at stores. If the water in the bag is within 2 or 3 points, my normal acclimation drip is the same as others have posted. However, I have had to deal with 9 point differences, and you can't make up that difference in salinity in an hour. It has to be done slower.

Here is my dilemma for quarantines. 1 have 3 qt tanks right now, long story about one fish. A 75, a 40 and a 10. If I use the 10 it's for small fish. Say under 2". I usually have it clean, filled and ready to go. It just has a small in tank filter, a sponge that I kept in the sump of the DT for seeding good bacteria and some PVC pipe. So the qt tank could be running waiting for a month or so. Bring fish home, say 3 small anthias. Acclimate, get them in tank, all good. They are eating, swimming around and happy.
Do a 25% water change , ammonia checker reads zero. On day 3 or 4 I start loosing fish. And I don't know why.
Nitrates are a little high as well as phosphates, but not outside of parameters.

Here are my thoughts on quarantines.

1. Go big or go home. 10 gallon qt tanks are a bad idea. There is too much fluctuation in a small tank, and my first priority is to get them settled and eating before I medicate which I think results in rising pollution in the tank. So I'm getting rid of the 10 gallon qt.

2. Don't do copper unless required. There are other options. But this is just me. I don't mean to start a shit storm, it's just my thought.

3. Freshwater dips scare the crap out of me, but I have heard some amazing stories and lots of good things. Who does them, what are your protocols and are there any fish you would not do a freshwater dip on?

4. Medicate all fish for internal parasites. I have lost fish because I did not medicate. They would be eating well, looked good and then just wither away. What are your 'go to' medications?

5. Keep all equipment used for qt separate from your display tank equipment. This includes anything that touches the water in the qt tank.

6. Does any one seed their qt tanks, or use nitrifying bacteria to get them established? Or do you a) buy fish and then when you get home b) mix new salt water and set up qt after fish purchase?

7. Do you keep a qt tank running at all times, ready to go, or how long before you bring a fish home do you get the qt tank running?

What I'm looking for are comments from people about what they do to keep their fish alive in qt for the first week. I figure if you can get though the first week, the fish has a much better chance of making it through qt and all the treatments.


----------



## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Great stuff Cheryl! For nitrifying bacteria just keep a filter sponge in your DT's sump at all times. Clean it up regularly so it doesn't become a detritus trap, and never reuse after you put it into a QT/observation tank.


----------



## million$view (Apr 6, 2013)

awesome thread!!! great information for newbies and experienced reefers....
where were you 25 years ago???? lol
Happy reefing in 2016


----------



## ReefABCs (Nov 10, 2012)

Crayon said:


> 4. Medicate all fish for internal parasites. I have lost fish because I did not medicate. They would be eating well, looked good and then just wither away. What are your 'go to' medications?
> 
> 6. Does any one seed their qt tanks, or use nitrifying bacteria to get them established? Or do you a) buy fish and then when you get home b) mix new salt water and set up qt after fish purchase?
> 
> ...


4/ I think this is key to your last point on keeping fish alive in the critical first 5 days. I have been using prazipro within the first two days of putting fish in the treatment tank and so far have not lost a fish. I feel it is better to rid of any internal worms etc.. that prazi can help with then its easier to get the fish eating. Why wait to get the fish to eat if they are infected with something why not go straight to cure then eat? This is opposite to many on line recommendations but I feel it is better to cure as much as possible then the fish will not be as stressed and start eating.

Go to meds of course is Prazipro and cupramine, with some others on stand by for dips. I would like to get some New Life Spectrum Ich Sheild "Powder" as it has chloroquine phosphate. It's good for Velvet and some people use it for ich treatment in stead of cupramine. I anyone knows where to purchase it please hit me up with a PM.

6/ I thought about buying some nitrifying bacteria but haven't yet. I have a 65 gallon that has been running non stop since Aug with a large sponge and aqua clear filter. I has used this tank for Cupramine and prazzi. Its a large volume of water though to dose. I do regular water changes twice a week when fish are in it and re add meds as needed. Seeding a sponge filter in the display tanks refuge is what have done before as well.

I have a 15gallon long and 20 gallon tall that I have been using for TTM. they always get fresh salt water, (salinity 1.022) a day or so before I go out looking for fish . I don't always fill up to the top as the fish I have purchased are generally small. I like the 15 gallon long best its the perfect size for handling for me. My treatment tanks are all in the basement so I carry them up 2 flights of stairs and put in the bathtub to clean with vinegar after each transfer and the let dry. My wife thinks I'm crazy carrying tanks all over the place LOL.

Edit: No one mentioned yet all these water changes can us up a ton of salt so be prepared.


----------



## deeznutz (Aug 21, 2013)

Good thread for sure.

Where are people purchasing their meds from?


----------



## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*meds*

meds would be a great one to add to this maybe a list of meds and what they treat ,maybe even have a list of who has what when someone needs it ,of course payment for meds or trades of sorts ... depends on what u guys think is fair , as meds are expensive and as Cheryl has experienced she just purchased a huge tub of stuff for disinfecting ...


----------



## twobytwo (Oct 25, 2014)

Does anyone have any acclimation / QT tips for clams?


----------

