Bring home fish—fish to the quarantine tank, we have bought three blue green chromis that we pore into a container. We are going to drip acclimate them to make sure that temperature, pH and salinity are all the same in the container as they are in the tank. This way, the fish don’t go into shock when they are introduced into the tank. We want to fill the container about three quarters to the way full. Drain most of it out then fill it up again three quarters and then they will be ready to go into the tank. We fill up the container by taking an ordinary piece of airline tubing and tie a knot in it so we don’t get too much water through it.

Put one end down to our container and the other end in the fish tank. We’re just going to suck on the end of the tube to get the sipping started. We can adjust the knot to get the proper drip rate. Right now this is a little too much so we are going to tighten the knot a little bit to about that level. Now that our acclimation bucket is three quarters full, we will stop the drip and pour about two thirds of the water. Be careful they don’t jump out of the container, some containers have lids that you can use—chromis are one of my favorite starter fish as they are extremely hardy and usually do not bother other fish. They are also very easy to acclimate and usually can withstand many mistakes a beginner might make.

We are going to start our acclimation to begin and fill it up once more. Now that our fish are acclimated we are going to drain out our acclimation too, put that aside and we are ready to put the fish in. I like putting the container in the tank and letting the fish swim out on their own. Just floating the bag itself only equalizes the temperature or you also have to make sure that the parameters are the same and there they are safe and sound in quarantine tank.

I like to use one or two plastic containers so as not to net the fish which can cause stress to the fish. It has been two weeks and the blue green chromis had been treated with copper. They looked healthy and had been eating well, so now it's time to acclimate them into the main tank. Another way to acclimate fish nails or corrals is to use a plastic cup. Anything that you put in your tank, you need to acclimate. We can take water from the main tank or sump. It does not matter as it is the same water. Pour a cup of water every two or three minutes, fill up the container part way, drain off most of the water and then continue with the cup every two to three minutes. After an hour and a half, your temperature, pH and salinity should be the same in the bucket as it is in the main tank.

Here we catch them with a smaller plastic container. We transfer them to the main tank. Letting them choose when they want to swim out. And there they go into their new home.

Another trick I like is to introduce the fish after the lights go off. This will give them plenty of time to acclimate to your water when you have another fish chasing them all around. When introducing a new fish, a trick is to rearrange the rock to disorientate the existing fish in your aquarium, this way the existing fish don’t think about picking on the new fish as they think about their own home.