When we get our fish in those bags, there is this little mini prevention going on inside that bag. When the fish inside produce ammonia, the pH drops because of that. And with the lower pH, ammonia is not so toxic anymore, since the low pH turns it into ammonium (Betty, correct me if I got that wrong). And with the low pH/less toxic ammonia combination, our fish make it much longer in a bag without having any negative effects.
I was just wondering how long it takes for the process to start. Pretty much right away, after a certain amount of time? Just out of curiosity - when bringing home fish after a longer trip, they suffer serious damage if one opens the bag and pours little bits of new tank water in their bag to aclimate the fish.

Here's a good page on it.
http://www.ekkwill.com/acproc.html

Ammonia is a base/buffer
http://www.wpbschoolhouse.btinternet.co.uk...sBasesSalts.htm

The CO2 lowers pH and makes ammonia less toxic cuz more of it is ammonium. the lower temperature also helps with that as well. So when the bag is opened the CO2 escapes and the pH increases making the ammonia more toxic because more of it is ammonia.

Dunno, I'd bet it would depend on how well buffered the water is, how much fish were in the bag, whether they'd been fasted, etc.

Thanks, Betty! Interesting articles, and I knew that CO2 would somehow fit into the equation, just didn't know completely on how exactly it works.
I guess we just have to estimate here, since we hardly can measure inside a shipping bag while its on the way, when the whole ammonia/pH combination kicks in. Unless one sticks a test dip strip into the bag, which still isn't reliable, since the strip might not change color with changing pH and ammonia.

I think I'd err on the cautious side and float, then net and dump in the QT tank. Tho I read a couple of pages yesterday that indicate that they don't equalize the temps by floating cuz increasing temp also makes ammonia more toxic.