Depends what fish and how long they have been in the bag(s) as to how I will acclimate.
- Under the worst bag water conditions, I will pour the fish out into a net and get them into the tank as fast as possible.
- Under poor conditions I do a 10-15 minute minute temperature float in the tenk. be sure to rinse the outside of the bag before putting it into the tank
- Under average conditions I will temp match and then add tank water to bag at 15-20 minute intervals letting it float in the tank between. After 3 additions the fish go into the tank.
I never drip acclimate as there is not a lot of point to doing this. If the TDS in a tank is radically different than what is in the bag (or in the tank from which the fish came), no drip will help. It takes days not hours to adapt a fish to a major TDS change. Unless the pH is majorly different, the same applies.
One thing to realize is that ammonia is more toxic to the fish the higher the pH gets. So if you receive fish in a lower pH than the water you would be adding to the bag, acclimating can actually kill fish if they have been in the bag for some time and ammonia is present.
Corys have a defence mechanism where they will emit a toxic substance. In the wild this isnt an issue for the cory, it is meant to put off an attacker so the cory can escape and it dilutes fast. However, when scared in a bag the toxin won't clear and can and often does result in dead fish if they are in the bag any length of time. There is a trick some cory shippers use when shipping. It is called the "kick the bucket" method. The corys to be bagged are put into a bucket of clean water. Then you give the bucket a kick to spook the fish. Wait about 10-15 mins and give it another good kick. youi can even go for a 3rd kick. After the final kick and waiting a few minutes, net out the fish and bag them in clean water. This is not foolproof, but it sure will help a lot. Some corys, sterbais for example, just are poor shippers and having no losses even using the k-t-b method may not help. Therefore, it can often make more sense to get shipped corys out of the bag ASAP rather than leave it in bad water to acclimate.
All that said, if you are set on doing drip acclimation, it works like an IV. You use an airline size hose, and adjustible clamp and something to hold the water to go in above the container into while gravity will take it. You start the siphon from the new to existing water and set the clamp so that the flow is correct for the given situation.
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