Acclimating Fish in Freshwater Aquarium

To continue setting up your freshwater aquarium you have already cycled your aquarium completely and have already bought the fish from the pet store. You are informed that as you get home, you must have the bag floated first on your tank for the fish to be acclimated to the water in your tank. But this is not what acclimation truly is. You need to consider that there might be a huge difference between the chemistry of the water from the pet store and the water in your tank. Temperature is only partial to the whole acclimation process.

Commonly, the usual practice of acclimating the new fish to your tank was to transfer the entire contents of the fish bag to your tank. Primarily, the bag is floated on the tank for about 30 minutes and after this, the bag is opened and the contents are slowly poured into the freshwater aquarium, not only the fish but also the water. This could be very risky. Why? Not only can the fish get shocked with the large portion of new water that it isn't familiar with but the water from the pet store might contain chemicals, diseases, and bacteria that will contaminate your entire tank. This might not be good for your tank.

First, what you can do is to test the water from the pet store. Most probably, the store would allow you to do this and they may even assist you with this. You have to test the water's chemistry from their tank: pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Also test the water in your tank where the fish will be transferred. Compare the results. This will give you an idea on how long you should perform acclimation.

Acclimating your new fish with your freshwater aquarium is very important and should be remembered. This is one of the most important things to do so that you would have a successful management of your new aquarium hobby.

There are two methods of freshwater aquarium acclimation. Learn about them.