transferring fish from aquarium to pond: same ph in am but different temps, same temps in pm but different ph, which way to go?

[Criscar]

Good morning!

This may be one of those "no one really knows" kinds of questions I tend to ask, but over the past 3-4 weeks I've managed to get the ph between my aquarium and the new pond more closely aligned to help with transferring my three adult goldies (the ph's started out 1.2 apart). As is typical for a pond (from what I've read), the pond Ph shifts from 7.9 at dawn to about 8.2 in the late afternoon. The aquarium is now solidly holding at constant 7.8-7.9. The aquarium also holds a pretty constant temp of 71, but the pond shifts about 6-9 degrees over the course of the day (it's a small and above ground water garden/pond with floating shade plants still just growing in or already eaten (duckweed), I live in a mild climate, the fish already in there don't seem affected, I've already posted about this elsewhere).

So what I wonder is: is it better to attempt the transfer when the Ph is aligned but the temperatures are different by 7-8 degrees, or to wait until the temperatures are aligned but the Ph can differ by as much as 0.3, or to do it mid day when both are a little off but neither by as much? Or is this all much ado about nothing and it honestly doesn't matter? I happily admit to overthinking things at times.

And in case anyone was wondering, the water garden/pond is not going to be overstocked, and appears to be successfully silently cycled. It has been filled for 7 weeks, is heavily planted with rapidly growing aquatics, marginals and bog plants, I seeded it with some material from my aquarium and there have been consistent low levels of nitrates without any ammonia or nitrite spikes since I started adding fish 3-4 weeks ago (started with the danios). I will continue monitoring in any case.

 

[brokensword]

were they my fish, I'd just acclimate VERY VERY SLOWLY. Like over an hour or two. This way, the parameters can be balanced. I typically float the fish for 15 minutes, then add a cup of water, wait another 15, add a bit more, and so on for the hour they're in the bag. You could even add an airstone for the duration. Goldfish are very tough and doing the above isn't absolutely necessary, but I feel it helps.

 

[Criscar]

8-10

were they my fish, I'd just acclimate VERY VERY SLOWLY. Like over an hour or two. This way, the parameters can be balanced. I typically float the fish for 15 minutes, then add a cup of water, wait another 15, add a bit more, and so on for the hour they're in the bag. You could even add an airstone for the duration. Goldfish are very tough and doing the above isn't absolutely necessary, but I feel it helps.

Thanks, yes, that's pretty close to how I plan to do it. I actually transferred one of the goldfish already last week but it was a little bit of a debacle because I forgot to withhold feeding in advance and the fish produced so much waste due to stress upon being transferred to the bucket that I was then dealing with an ammonia spike and falling Ph from that halfway through acclimation so I had to speed up the process and completed in about 45 minutes due to water quality in the acclimation bucket going to pot. I don't have any bags large enough to hold adult goldfish safely but the temp in the bucket equalized to the temp in the pond within 15 minutes with a slow addition of pond water so it wasn't an issue.

 

[JRS]

I do similar with the fish in buckets. As long as you take it slow adding pond water a little at a time, they will adjust to the pH and temp. As close as your parameters are, I would say the temp. difference is more important than the pH.

Good reminder about withholding feeding, I usually cut them off a few days before anticipated transfer into the colder pond water.

 

[Jhn]

Agree doing the acclimation process slowly when possible......wil just add, Falling ph is good in this case as ammonia is less toxic to fish at a Lower ph. Your best bet in your case is doing what you did and stopping the acclimation process, just releasing the fish.

Which is why if you ever mail order any fish don’t acclimate them slowly, just temperature adjust and release them. They will osmoregulate themselves and are better off doing so in clean water as opposed to a bag of ammonia filled water that once opened becomes much more toxic as co2 is off gassed and the fresh air will raise the ph making the ammonia much more deadly to the fish during acclimation.