Drip method

illumnae · December 4, 2014

The ammonia toxicity thing is more relevant to freshwater imo, where most of the fish we keep in fresh water are usually in water with low kH/buffer and hence CO2 in the shipping bags may cause the pH to drop below 7 quite rapidly, rendering ammonia non-toxic. When you open the shipping bag and CO2 escapes, pH rises and the ammonia converts into toxic form (in pH > 7).

For marine, most of the time kH is high and so is pH (both 8+), so it is unlikely anyway that the pH would have dropped to below 7 due to carbon dioxide. This is especially less likely in the very short trip (few hours max?) between the LFS and your house. Hence, pH would always remain above 8 and any ammonia would be instantly toxic to the fish anyway. I believe this is one reason why marine fish ship less well than freshwater fish.

In any event, again in the short trip between the LFS and your house, any ammonia from fish waste (assuming the LFS tanks are cycled and thus ammonia free) would be minimal and would not affect your fish to any noticeable extent.