DirkCourage
Active Member
With my first reef cycle in the can, I got excited and ordered a sweet pair of clowns through LiveAquaria. My LFS is pretty rad, but they were restocking and I decided not to wait. They were being delivered to my work and I planned on cutting out a few minutes early to get my pair home.
An unexpected family matter combined with the worst traffic imaginable put me a few hours behind schedule. I dosed Dr. Tim’s First Defense to the tank and got to work. I did not realize the fish came in separate bags. I felt like two open bags were a bit awkward to manage, and didn’t see the harm at doing one at a time. I bag-acclimated vs drip as recommended by LA. Things were going ok, when suddenly the ATO turned on. Didn’t think it would with the extra volume of the bags in there, but I hurriedly unplugged it. Of course, the room is pretty dark to keep from shocking the fish. I start freaking out when I see the water level spilling over the emergency overflow into the Waterbox back chambers. (Props to the tank, WOW it totally saved me.) I hadn’t noticed the second bag drift in front of the main overflow!
With that straight we were back on track. The male was in the tank and seemed cool, but the female was very agitated. I’m not sure who felt more stressed, me or her. Eventually, got her in the tank. Except now the return chamber was basically running empty. With two bags to fill with tank water, it ended up being a significant amount with my 20G nano. I dropped in enough RODI to make it operational, and am now trying to blitz mix a couple gallons of salt water to get volume and salinity back in line (without dropping temp.) Yikes!!!
Anyway, about to eat dinner finally. Clowns are swimming, exploring in the dark... hope they’re as hardy as they say. If I didn’t feel connected to them before I do now. They’re my ride or die fish. heck of a hobby this...
An unexpected family matter combined with the worst traffic imaginable put me a few hours behind schedule. I dosed Dr. Tim’s First Defense to the tank and got to work. I did not realize the fish came in separate bags. I felt like two open bags were a bit awkward to manage, and didn’t see the harm at doing one at a time. I bag-acclimated vs drip as recommended by LA. Things were going ok, when suddenly the ATO turned on. Didn’t think it would with the extra volume of the bags in there, but I hurriedly unplugged it. Of course, the room is pretty dark to keep from shocking the fish. I start freaking out when I see the water level spilling over the emergency overflow into the Waterbox back chambers. (Props to the tank, WOW it totally saved me.) I hadn’t noticed the second bag drift in front of the main overflow!
With that straight we were back on track. The male was in the tank and seemed cool, but the female was very agitated. I’m not sure who felt more stressed, me or her. Eventually, got her in the tank. Except now the return chamber was basically running empty. With two bags to fill with tank water, it ended up being a significant amount with my 20G nano. I dropped in enough RODI to make it operational, and am now trying to blitz mix a couple gallons of salt water to get volume and salinity back in line (without dropping temp.) Yikes!!!
Anyway, about to eat dinner finally. Clowns are swimming, exploring in the dark... hope they’re as hardy as they say. If I didn’t feel connected to them before I do now. They’re my ride or die fish. heck of a hobby this...
keeps your heart pumpin',best wishes with your new buddies
