You’ve invested valuable time and money researching the habitat requirements of the fish and corals you wish to house. Naturally, you want to protect this investment by executing a proper acclimation process once the specimens arrive at your door.
The purpose of acclimation is simple: the water that the fish or corals are packaged in
?has different temperature, pH, and salinity parameters than your aquarium. Fish, and especially invertebrates (including corals), are very sensitive to even minor changes in these parameters, so proper acclimation is the key to ensuring their successful relocation.
Acclimation is an incredibly stressful event for the animals, and we urge customers to never make an acclimation exceed 40 minutes in duration. Also remember to keep your aquarium lights off for at least four hours after the specimens are introduced into the aquarium to help them further adjust.
Though not a requirement of our acclimation procedures, we highly recommend that all?new additions be quarantined?in a separate aquarium for a period of two weeks to reduce the possibility of introducing diseases and parasites into your aquarium and to ensure they are accepting food, eating properly, and are in optimum health before their final transition to your main display.
Floating Method
- Turn off aquarium lights.
- Dim the lights in the room where the shipping box will be opened. Never open the box in bright light – severe stress or trauma may result from sudden exposure to bright light.
- Float the sealed bag in the aquarium for 15 minutes. Never open the shipping bag at this time. This step allows the water in the shipping bag to adjust slowly to the temperature in the aquarium, while maintaining a high level of dissolved oxygen.
- After floating the sealed shipping bag for 15 minutes, cut open the bag just under the metal clip and roll the top edge of the bag down one inch to create an air pocket within the lip of the bag. This will enable the bag to float on the surface of the water. For heavy pieces of live coral that will submerge the shipping bag, place the bag containing the coral in a plastic bowl or specimen container.
- Add 1/2 cup of aquarium water to the shipping bag.
- Repeat step 5 every four minutes until the shipping bag is full.
- Lift the shipping bag from the aquarium and discard half the water from the bag.
- Float the shipping bag in the aquarium again and proceed to add 1/2 cup of aquarium water to the shipping bag every four minutes until the bag is full.
- Either net or pick the fish/coral up with your hands?from the shipping bag and release into the aquarium.
- Remove the filled shipping bag from the aquarium and discard the water. Never release shipping water directly into the aquarium.
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Acclimation is an incredibly stressful event for the animals, and we?recommend to never make an acclimation exceed 40?minutes in duration
