# The Drip Acclimation Method



## BenBOMB (Apr 25, 2009)

Here is a basic guide to Drip acclimation for fish. It is strongly suggest when adding any new fish to an aquarium. Let's get started.

Equipment Needed:
-5 Gallon Bucket. (Should be brand new, if not make sure it was never used for any chemical solutions.)
-Airline Tubing.
-Airline Tubing Control Valve.
-Airline Tubing Suction Cups.
-Fish Net

The Process:

Place the bucket next to or under the aquarium, so the water can siphon out. Buckets are fairly cheap, 5 gallon bucket should be $5-$6USD. You can also use a small tank, but remember the water getting put into the bucket will be dumbed. It's kind of like doing a water change.

Do not float your fish, just dumb the water and the fish into the bucket. I suggest keeping the bag, just incase they do die for some reason and you have a guarantee, you have to return the fish with some of your water, in the bag you got, and the fish.

Now get one of the suction cups and secure one end of the line inside the aquarium, if you don't get it low enough it could stop the process. Now cut the tubing to the length you wish so the end of the tubing is at the end of the bucket.

After this has been done you can now secure the end of the tubing in the bucket to the side with your other suction cup.

Now you can cut towards the center of the tubing, doesn't really matter where I just like the center because it is easily accessable. Place your control valve in the center of these two tubing lines.

Start the siphoning now, I normally just suck on the end quick to get it started. It's the easist way to me. Once the siphoning gets going, you can control how much goes through with your control valve. You want to aim for 1-3 drops per secound. The size of the tank with determine the amount of water that is dripped into the bucket for the fish.

For a 10 gallon tank, you'll want to drip around 2-3 gallons or 20% of the water from your tank into the bucket. For a 20 Gallon tank you'll want to drip the full 5 gallons. Pretty much just make sure you get about 20%, since this will also count as a water change aswell.

This may take a few hours for larger tanks, or under an hour for smaller ones. After you get the water all dripped and finished, take the tubing out. Then before you net the fish, fill your tank back up with the new water to top off the tank, then you may net your fish and move them into the tank.

Doing this method is strongly suggested. It will get your fish acclimated to your water parameters and temp. better and safer. This will increase chance of survival of fish during the transfer, and decrease the chance of fish getting stressed and causing death.

Enjoy and happy acclimating.


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## Quetzalcoatl (Feb 13, 2009)

Well written, but some additional pointers. 
-If the bucker/tank you are using is too large, or the fish/shrimp did not come with enough water in the bag, use a bowl or small container inside, and drip water into that container. This way fish/shrimp will always have some water depth.
-For best result, try to set your room temperature to be around the same as water temperature. If the room is too cold/hot, temperature of water in the bucket will be different than the temperature of water in your tank.
-Using colloid product like AquaSafe at this time can be beneficial. I normally do not put any chemical into the main tank, but for acclimation, using these in the bucket helps protect the fish/shrimp by developing slime coating around them.
-Make sure you do not pour any water in the bucket back into your tank!

I've been using this method for years and had nearly 100% success rate!


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

I use it too, only with a smaller container, not a bucket.


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

that's what i do, with a 1 gallon container in a basin just in case it overflows, you don't want a flooded carpet.


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## vancat (Nov 5, 2004)

and don't forget to quarantine!!!!!!


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