Acclimation Guide:

The following steps are vital to the survival of your newly purchased animals. Please take the time to read this guide entirely before your animals arrive. Properly acclimating any new fish, coral or invertebrate to your saltwater aquarium is probably the most important thing you can do to ensure the success of the animals. These animals have traveled from very far away to make it to your aquarium, so remember be patient and thorough with your acclimation. Remember several species of fish will lie on the bottom of the bag and container during shipment and acclimation. Do not panic or assume a fish is dying if it is laying on the bottom of the bag or container, breathing rapidly, or swimming in circles during any stages of the acclimation. This is how they deal with stress and at no time should you poke at them or try and make them swim around, this could cause further stress and death. Following the acclimation guide will bring these animals around to their normal behaviors.

NOTE: It is important that you acclimate fish, corals, and invertebrates separately as they all have different requirements. These animals are coming from different systems that may have different medications and or chemicals that are toxic to the other species. Mixing any two together during acclimation will most likely result in death of the invertebrates and or corals.

 

Acclimating Fish

1)   Set an empty bucket or Styrofoam at base of the aquarium. This may have to be slightly tilted at first so the fish are completely under the water.

2)   Cut the fish bags open and place the fish with all its water into the container you have on the floor.  Try and place something over the container to keep it dark for the animals. This will reduce stress. 

3)   Add an ammonia reducer such as prime or amquel to the container to help stabilize the shipping water. During shipment these fish have had no filtration to help remove waste from the bag, adding the ammonia reducer will again reduce stress on your new animals.

4)   Using airline tubing place one end of the tubing in the aquarium securely under the water and the other end in the container on the floor. You then need to start a siphon of the water from the aquarium by lightly sucking on the bottom of the tubing.

5)   Place a drip valve or tie a knot in the end of the airline tubing so that the rate of the drips are about one drip every one to two seconds. The rate should be roughly drip---drip----drip. You want to picture the amount of water your starting with in the container to triple in about an hour.

6)   Check every 15 minutes or so to make sure the drip is functioning properly. You may need to speed the drip every 20 to 30 minutes just slightly to help offset the breathing of the fish on the PH.

7)   After an hour check the salinity and ph of the container. If it matches your aquarium at this point you can speed the drip to a slow stream. Allow this to run for about 15 minutes to help match the temperatures of the two. After 15 minutes check the temperature of both. If they match your fish are ready to be added to the aquarium. NOTE: Do not put the water from the container into your aquarium as it may contain medications to lower the stress of the animals during shipment. These medications may not be safe for your other aquarium habitants. If fish are laying around, breathing heavily, or being harassed by other aquarium inhabitants at any time it is important that you shut of the lights in your aquarium and even the room the aquarium is in. This will help your new animals acclimate in the least stressful way possible. You should leave the lights off for the rest of the day or light cycle.

8)   This guide may sound intense but it is very simple and the best and easiest way to acclimate your new animals properly.

 

Acclimating Invertebrates

Invertebrates are the most sensitive aquarium animals to changes. You will need to take the most time and caution when acclimating invertebrates to your aquarium. We recommend a minimum two hour acclimation but longer may be necessary. 

To acclimate invertebrates follow steps 1 through 8 above with the exception that you drip these animals at a slower rate. You want to picture the amount of water that you are starting with to triple over the course of TWO hours. You do not need to speed up the rate of the drip with the invertebrates until you are trying to adjust the temperature at the end.

 

Acclimating Corals and Anemones

Place sealed bagged corals and anemones in your aquarium water and allow them to float for at least a half an hour.  After this amount of time temperature should be the same both in your aquarium and in the bagged coral. You can then cut in your new specimens. Do not add the water from the bags into your aquarium. The reason for this is this water will have degraded over the course of the shipment and you may be adding ammonia and other negative items to your aquarium. Corals and anemones should be placed far enough away from each other that they do not touch one another. Remember that most corals and anemones will not open fully for several hours or even several days from shipment. This is completely normal. Your coral or anemone is only dead in the event that you see it is disintegrating in the aquarium. Make sure to place your corals according to their needs. For example: Coral A needs a medium flow and high light so you would want to place it higher in the aquarium and in an area of somewhat strong water flow.

Note: Sponges can not be exposed to air as it will damage and kill them. To release a sponge submerge the bag fully after you have floated it for 30 minutes minimum and cut the bag open under the water. You can then remove the sponge under the water and discard the bag.