Care
Acclimating a new coral
An hour of patience is worth more than anything you can add to the water.
Float the sealed bag for fifteen minutes to match temperature. Do not open it yet — the moment you do, the CO₂ that has been keeping the pH down escapes and the ammonia in the bag turns toxic.
Then drip. Two to three drips a second, into a container, until the volume has roughly tripled. An hour is normal.
Dip if you want to, but dip briefly and in tank water, not in the shipping water. Then place it low and shaded for a week; light is the one variable you can increase later for free.
The first hour
What to do, in order
What we do before it ships
Seven days in a hold tank, re-photographed, packed against the route forecast.
Terms used here
- Drip acclimationLetting your water replace the shipping water slowly, over an hour or more.
- DOADead on arrival — and the policy that says what happens next.