Shipping policy

We offer two types of shipping methods at Art of Aqua: The Courier Guy Overnight and The Courier Guy Road Freight (2-3 days). Livestock will only be shipped via overnight option and bulkier orders such as substrate, rocks, driftwood will be shipped via the road freight option.

Orders placed after 10:00 will only be sent out on the next available business day due to courier cut off times and time required to process and package orders.  

Shipping Schedule:

• Monday - All Road Freight and Overnight Orders
• Tuesday - All Road Freight and Overnight Orders
• Wednesday - All Road Freight and Overnight Orders
• Thursday - All Road Freight and Overnight Orders excluding any livestock
• Friday - All Road Freight and Overnight Orders excluding any livestock
• Saturday - No Shipping
• Sunday - No Shipping 

Shipping Costs: 

• Drygoods Free Shipping  - Due to the continued rise of courier costs dry goods orders that qualify for free shipping will only be sent by road freight. Please contact us should you require your order urgently and your order needs to be sent either via same day or overnight services. 
• Free Shipping - All orders above R2000 excluding orders with stone and aquariums. Shipping for aquariums will be available on request and if need be crating can be included at an additional cost. Dry goods orders over 5kg that include either plants or livestock will be split. The dry goods part of the order will be sent via road freight and the plants/livestock part will be sent via overnight at an additional charge of R200.
• R200 - Livestock and all dry goods including stone up to 15kg.
• R250 - Drygoods and stone from 16kg to 25kg, any orders exceeding 25kg will be charged at R7/kg for every kilogram over 25kg. Customers can select "Road Freight up to 25kg - Drygoods Only" during checkout, Art of Aqua will manually add any additional courier cost if necessary.
• The default rate for international customers is set at R200.00, please contact us for an exact quote, international customers are also welcome to arrange their own shipping.

Dead on Arrival (DOA):

Every shipment we send comes with our 100% Live Arrival Guarantee, free of any extra charge. This means that if your order arrives with any issues that are out of your control, we will offer store credit in the amount of the loss up to the amount ordered (The guarantee does not cover any extras that are sent).  We do not normally offer refunds but do offer them in special circumstances or if it does not appear that we can send more animals to you without significant risk to their lives, this will however be to the discretion of Art of Aqua. Our Live Arrival Guarantee is designed so that any shipping issue outside of your responsibility will be covered by us, free of additional product or shipping charges. (All forms of guarantees are up to our discretion)

There are three conditions to our Live Arrival Guarantee.

1. The shipment must be received on the first delivery attempt, or be picked up the day of the first delivery attempt. If you miss the delivery and the package is delayed a day or more because of it, we cannot accept responsibility for any losses. 

2. In the event of DOA plants or livestock, we REQUIRE a clear digital picture of the plant or animal in question before replacement/store credit/refund is issued. This picture can be sent to us by replying to the tracking email you received, or by sending it as an attachment in a new email. Livestock pictures must be taken whilst the DOA livestock is in water.

3. All claims must be made and or brought to our attention via email at info@artofaqua.co.za or on WhatsApp at +27 81 285 3489 within 1 hour of the package being delivered.