Acclimating Between your own tanks.

[Coryloach]

I never acclimate fish between tanks. I've never had an issue at all doing it. I only drip acclimate new fish.

It all depends how you keep your tanks and whether you let the water chemistry change over time. I normally have it as a target to never let any parameters change over time via large water changes so all tanks read pretty much the same as my tap and the same as the first day they were ever setup. Age doesn't make a difference. All Gh, Kh, Ph and TDS are normally identical. Only my temps differ but if it's no more than a couple of degrees it makes no difference to the fish.

For the same reason I can do as large water changes as I want without causing any stress whatsoever. I have no nitrate build up so can't comment on that making a difference. I actually dose nitrates for the plants as they don't seem to get enough with large water changes.

 

[mudbuttjones]

On my tanks I float them for about 15min after that dump half the bag in the tank and replace with new tank water. I wait another 15 then open the bag and let the fish swim out.

I've integrated my small scale breeding and grow out into the sump of my African tank. Makes moving holding mothers and fry/juveniles a breeze

 

[MyGiants]

I just moved 6 big fish today from my inside tank to my outside tank. Just netted them one by one carried them in the net to the other tank and dumped them in. Had lots of water splash on everything!!! One of them died later that night not from the move. It was one that jumped out of the net as I tried to dump him in. He hit the top of the tank flop about around 4 times before he fell in. I think that did him in..

 

[krichardson]

I don't if the temps and PH are the same..

I ususally don't acclimate fish that are going from tank to tank and I have to admit that I rarely even check the PH differences between the tanks.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Freshwater to freshwater, I usually don't. Unless the fish are expensive or rare for me to find, like pygmy corydoras, or Danio tinwini, or an invertebrate that I want to keep (cherry shrimp), I'm pretty comfortable with what the parameters are without me trying to move fish from one place to another. White cloud mountain minnows, bettas, cichlids, and pond snails, I'm very confident aren't going to go belly up if I decide that I need to move them from one tank to another.

Saltwater to saltwater, I always acclimate. The fish are expensive, and I also feel obligated to do this, as most fish are still wild caught. The same applies to corals and invertebrates as well.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

I'm only acclimate fishes if they were in different tank setup.
EX: planted tank vs none planted tank. Fishes living in a planted tank get use to soft water and might get shock with harder water from none planted tank and other way around for none planted tank fishes.

 

[fattubwhale]

I ususally don't acclimate fish that are going from tank to tank and I have to admit that I rarely even check the PH differences between the tanks.

Most fish keepers that been at it awhile don't think twice about moving fish from tank to tank... and I'm sure most probably don't even check their parameters (like me) as often as they should unless they run into issues. like i said if I'm moving my discus from RO back to tap i will acclimate because my PH out of tap is 9.2+ and my RO is in the low 6.

 

[krichardson]

....and if what I have heard about Discus and their reputation of being very sensitive to water conditions is true then they are not really a good example to use here as moving them would have to be dealt with very carefully.

 

[grmanrocks]

Acclimate? whats that??

all joking aside the only things ive ever acclimated as a habit (even when it comes to marine corals and the like) is big cichla...and i go SLOWWWW with them. Less so these days now that everything is a little more streamlined at home and work, but i still get scared moving my cichla even if its just accross the hall/room....

I read somewhere in my tavels (probably with regard to aquaculture so take it with a grain of salt there) that the prolonged stress of acclimation is worse physiologically than the accute stress of "dump" style introduction. and RTN in acroporids is directly connected to acclimation time....