I done many ways to acclimate new arrivals in both hobby & commercial level and there are others ways to drip other than mentioned in this thread.
Whatever methods works better for you, one should continue as I believe in dont fix something that's not broken principle to some degree. But always room for improvements to make it better imo..
Especially In case where one has continued problems w/o explainable/acceptable reasons, one should consider the possiblity of other reasons regardless of what most may believe/claim.
Rachel,
Although quantity you handle is lot more than what most will ever go thru, if there was a way to reduce losses lower than 5%, would you want to try? Like I said, there are ways to improve one's technique if one keep their mind open.
I am not saying this due to fact that I used to bring in similar amt on weekly basis on f/w & s/w fish, not including inverts, I always tried to modify/improve my techniques as per situation.
As far as the posting by Kmuda, I would like to point out hius/her closing statement.
Where does one draws line to determine sensitive fish? List of fishes provided are merely dozens of common species. I even kept Zebra pleco & others with tang cichlids/Tang minnows (hard and high pH than natural biotope) upon long acclimantion processes, sometimes weeks/months. But I would never claim it is OK to expose zebra pleco to such extreme condition unless I know one's ability (mostly local hobbyists)
To some degree, sensitivity of fish may be determined by the knowledge/facts & experiences obtained by each individual keepers. For someone who may not know much, any fish can be sensitive fish, imo.
Although I find some articles to be true but If I was to post such finding/belief, I would have a confidence in saying no pH shock effect on any fishes.
My conclusion: Try providing an ideal conditions for fishes being kept, especially newly arrived fishes. Upon stablizing, one may try different ways to keep at ones discretion. But one should not say that there are no pH schock effects as many newbies may find such remark to be true for all fishes, even to newly arrived fishes.
Adaptability all depends on each fishes general health/condition/environment, etc, etc at that specific situation, IMO.
My best way to acclimate is to test the water in the bag before determining what needs to be done.
