How to Acclimatise New Fish and Coral the Right Way

Most new fish and coral don't die from disease. They die from the shock of being dumped straight from a bag into water with different salinity, pH and temperature. The drip method fixes that by letting the animal adjust slowly, over 30 to 60 minutes, instead of all at once. Here's the fast version you can do on your kitchen bench tonight.

What you need

• A clean bucket (never one that's touched detergent)
• A length of airline tubing
• An airline control valve or a simple knot to slow the drip
• Dr Tim's AquaCleanse to bind ammonia during transport stress
• A net or cup for lifting fish without touching them
• An Aqua One 3L net breeder if you're isolating a nervous fish before release

The drip acclimation method, step by step

1. Dim the lights. Turn off display tank lighting and work under low light. Bright light on a stressed animal in a bag is a bad start.
2. Float the sealed bag in the display or a separate bucket for 10 to 15 minutes so temperature equalises gradually.
3. Pour bag contents into the bucket, including the water. Add a dose of Dr Tim's AquaCleanse to the bucket water if ammonia has built up during transport, common on longer freight runs into Brisbane.
4. Set up the drip line. Run airline tubing from your display tank into the bucket, tie a loose knot in the tubing to slow flow to roughly 2 to 4 drips per second, and let tank water siphon in.
5. Drip for 30 to 60 minutes for fish, and up to 60 to 90 minutes for corals or inverts, which are more sensitive to pH and alkalinity swings.
6. Never pour bag water into the display. It carries waste, parasites and unknown chemistry. Net the animal out of the bucket and discard the water down the sink.
7. Release fish gently or place coral directly onto a cured rock spot you've already picked out, so it isn't handled twice.

Quarantine still matters

Drip acclimation reduces chemical shock but it does nothing for disease. New fish should still spend 2 to 4 weeks in a separate quarantine tank before going into your main display. New coral benefits from a dip and a short observation period in a bare tank, away from your main system, so any hitchhikers or early signs of disease show up before they spread. A modest quarantine setup doesn't need to be flashy, just stable heat, some flow, and a way to monitor water quality closely.

After release

Keep an eye on ammonia for the next 24 hours, especially in smaller tanks. A bottle of Dr Tim's One and Only added at this point helps re-establish beneficial bacteria that gets knocked around whenever bioload changes suddenly. Watch feeding response too. A fish that ignores food for a day or two after acclimation is normal. Beyond three days, something's wrong and it's worth checking water parameters properly rather than guessing.

Browse our full range of marine aquarium setups if you're planning a dedicated quarantine system before your next order of fish or coral arrives.