Very Important
Properly acclimating any new fish, coral or invertebrate to your saltwater aquarium is probably the most important thing you can do to ensure a smooth transition from the bag to your tank. Proper acclimation takes little of your time and will eliminate the disappointment of having to watch any new fish or other marine livestock introduced to struggle or just sink to the bottom of your tank and lay there after you drop them in. Acclimation also helps to reduce the chances of stress induced diseases such as saltwater ich and many others. The time you take to acclimate your new fish, corals, or marine invertebrates will make a huge difference in the health and beauty of the specimens for years to come. Please do your best to follow our recommendations below because they are somewhat different from what you may do or have heard, but what we have taken the time to explain is for the benefit of your new marine life, so you may continue to enjoy them for a long time to come.

What factors are you acclimating for?
1) Temperature
The shipping bags have been shipped across country to you, and though we use ice packs in the summer and heat packs in the winter, the arrival temperature will most surely be very different from the temperature in your home aquarium. Proper acclimation will take care of slowly changing the animal’s body temperature back to a normal temperature without stress.

2) Salinity
For saltwater fish the specific gravity (Salinity) your animals are arriving in will be between 1.019 – 1.022. The lower salinity level means your fish is receiving higher levels of oxygen when it breathes. This is an excellent level to keep your home aquarium at. As a side benefit, at this salinity level your fish are less prone to common ailments such as Ich. We highly recommend this salinity level for fish only aquariums.

For coral, and clams, the specific gravity (salinity) your animals are arriving in will be between 1.023 – 1.026. Reef systems require the higher salinity for optimum growth and color. This is an excellent level to keep your home reef system at.

3) PH
Proper PH for saltwater specimens is between 8.2 and 8.4. Using a ph buffer or an occasional water change, it is easy to keep your aquarium within these boundaries. It’s not a large issue for corals, but fish and invertebrates which will be under a lot of stress when they arrive because their PH will have dropped considerably. What causes this drop? From the time they are put in the ship out bag, the animal releases ammonia, the pH of the water will drop from the ammonia. Proper acclimation to your tank slowly brings the specimen(s) back to healthy ph levels slowly, the same way the ph dropped slowly.