Acclimation Guide

Our Recommended Acclimation Procedure

While there are many different methods to acclimate your new live fish/inverts, we recommend the simplest and most foolproof method. Generally, fish should not be opened in a brightly-lit room or aquarium; this is to prevent shock to the fish after being in the dark of the box for some time. For this method of acclimation, all you need is a net and a small bucket.

  1. Turn off the aquarium light and float the bags of fish/inverts in your aquarium for about 30 minutes until the water in the bag has the same temperature as the water in your aquarium.
  2. Once you’ve acclimated for temperature, take one bag out of your tank and empty the water and fish into a clean bucket.
  3. Scoop your fish/invert out of the bucket with your net and release it into your aquarium.
  4. Discard the dirty shipping water left in the bucket.
  5. Using the same procedure, continue to open the remaining bags of fish/inverts, one bag at a time. Your fish or inverts might hide soon after being introduced to your tank; this is normal, and they will eventually be out and about in their new home.

If you test the shipping water, do not be alarmed if the ammonia is high.  This is perfectly normal after overnight shipping.  

Note on Salinity: Please keep in mind that we keep salinity of our fish system at 1.018-1.019, so if possible, please prepare for your fish by bumping salinity of your quarantine tank down to that level, and slowly bring it up as quarantine progresses. A sudden and big change in salinity can be stressful for the fish.

Low salinity (aka hyposalinity), along with a small amount of copper throughout the system help kill unwanted passengers while the fish are quarantining in our facility after arrival and before shipping out to you. This is an industry standard, you should expect most reputable online fish stores to do the same.

Note on Drip Acclimation: Our shipping times are generally less than 15 hours, so we recommend the quick acclimation method above. We recommend the above method because drip acclimation has quite a bit of room for error without the proper equipment.

However, if you have the necessary equipment and are experienced with drip acclimation, we do recommend drip acclimation, especially in the case of delays and with more senstive/larger fish.