The acclimatisation process is a crucial step and essential because the water that your live stock is packaged in has a different temperature, pH, and other parameters than your aquarium. Livestock, especially invertebrates are very sensitive to even minor changes in these parameters, so the correct acclimatisation is the key to ensuring their successful and healthy lives in your tank.

We recommend the Drip Method explained below, and must stressthat the acclimatisation process should never be rushed. It is also important to keep your aquarium lights turned off for at least four hours after the live stock is introduced into the aquarium to help them further adjust.

We aslo recommend and suggest that all live stockshould be quarantined in a separate tank 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 the best of health before being moved to your main display tank.

Drip Method

1. Turn off aquarium lights.
2. Dim the lights in the room where the shipped box will be opened. Never open the box in bright light - severe stress or trauma may result from sudden exposure to bright light.
3. 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
4. Open the bag and carefully empty the contents of the bags (including the water) into a small suffecient sized container, making sure not to expose sensitive invertebrates to the air. Depending on the amount of water in the bag, this may require tilting the container at a 45 degree angle to make sure the live stock are kept fully submerged.
5. Using airline tubing, set up and run a siphon drip line from the main aquarium to each container. You’ll need separate airline tubing for each container used. Tie several loose knots in the airline tubing, or use a plastic or other non-metal airline control valve to regulate flow from the aquarium. It is also a good idea to secure the airline tubing in place with an airline holder.
6. Begin a siphon by sucking on the end of the airline tubing you'll be placing into each of the containers. When water begins to flow through the tubing, adjust the drip (by tightening one of the knots or adjusting the control valve) to a rate of about 2-4 drips per second.
7. When the water volume in the bucket doubles, discard half and begin the drip again until the volume doubles once more.
8. At this point, the specimens can be transferred to the aquarium.
9. Using a small soft aquarium net transfer the livestock from the container and release into the aquarium.
10. Never release water that your live stock has been shipped with directly into the aquarium. Small amounts are acceptable.