Liveaquaria Order

[EzReefs]

Hello everyone,

I just placed an order from liveaquaria consisting of three Carberryi Anthias and a Green Chromis. I was wandering what is the best way to acclimate them. I am thinking of doing a drip acclimation with seachem prime to detoxify the ammonia. Would this be ok or should I temp acclimate and drop directly in the tank? The fish are being shipped from California and I live in South Carolina, so it is a long shipping distance.

I am not running a QT.

 

[Tripod1404]

Liveaquaria Order

Any anthias and chromis are riskiest of fish not to quarantine becouse they can carry pathogens (such as uronema) that are impossible to get rid of without nuking the tank. But in the end it is your choice.

About acclimating the fish. If the salinity of the water that fish came in matches to your tank, you can just temperature acclimate and move to the tank. But if they don't, you should drip acclimate. During drip acclimation I never used ammonia detoxifiers, but I follow a relatively fast drip method that rarely takes more than 30mins. So ammonia poisoning was never an issue for me. For slower methods, you might need to consider that.


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[lagatbezan]

+1 on qt.
I believe they ship their livestock at 1.021. Best to call and ask to be sure.
make a bucket of fresh salt water. Temp acclimate the fish by floating the unopened bag in the bucket for 30-60min. Open bag, check salinity and adjust the bucket if needed quickly and then transfer the fish to the bucket.
Then you can drip aclimate to your tank if needed.
The less time they spend in the bag once it's opened the better.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Liveaquaria has a great step by step acclimation guide:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157

Given they offer a 14 day guarantee on livestock, IMHO it makes sense to follow their own instructions, to remove any question of doubt if you do have to go to them for a warranty claim.

 

[schnebbles]

They also include those instructions in the box! I love LA.

 

[EzReefs]

Thanks for the acclimation tips, and thanks for the 14 warranty information. This is my first online order.

Tripod and lagatbezan, my girlfriend has a small betta tank right now. It is a fluval chi that holds about 4 gallons. It's dimensions are 10" W, 10" L, and 12.5" H. I could evict the betta for about a week and use that tank as a quarantine. I have a spare heater and power head, but no filters. Would this work to quarantine 3 anthias and a chromis?

If that is not good due to its size, I have a 18 gallon plastic tote. If I put a heater and the power head in the tote, would that work? I do not have any spare tanks, unfortunately.

Also are there any concerns to starting a new quarantine right before adding fish?

I would like to quarantine these fish after hearing they are risky in terms diseases. I do not want to lose all of my original livestock.

 

[ca1ore]

LA shipments (from CA) almost always come in at around 1.018 plus or minus. I do QT, so am able to set it to 1.018 thus no acclimation required. If you must acclimate long-shipped fish, then ammonia is your enemy. I have drip acclimated in that situation, but I always make sure to have an ammonia detoxifier like prime on hand and use a few drops.

 

[lagatbezan]

I think the 4g is going to be too small. you can use the tote but the disadvantage to it is that its hard observing the fish while they are in it. Petco usually runs sales on their tanks where you can get a 10g for $10 and usually the manager matches that price when not on sale. (when not on sale they are like $14 which is still not bad). I think its important to have one or two qt tanks on hand in this hobby.
you would want to qt for a min of 4-6 weeks depending on your choice of qt.

 

[EzReefs]

So I bought a 10 gallon at petco for $15. When the shipment arrives I'm going to test the salinity in the bags of fish. Then I'm going to use water from my main tank mixed with ro water in the 10 gallon. I'll make sure the salinity matches the water from the fish bags and drop the fish in. Then I'll quarantine the fish for a couple of weeks.

Like I said earlier, I only have a heater and a power head. Is that ok, or do I need anything else?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

You need a means of nutrient export. If there is no filter or skimmer, then be prepared for large water changes every two or three days (like, 50%). Otherwise, you are basically dooming the fish to a waste-induced death. Check ammonia at least daily and dose prime if a value shows up.

This is what makes me nervous about QTing for newbies. If you're going to do it right, it takes proper equipment and/or a lot of manual effort. Unfortunately it seems like many people do their QT setup as an afterthought and end up losing fish thanks to the very practice that's supposed to prevent loss.

 

[MuShu]

LA shipments (from CA) almost always come in at around 1.018 plus or minus. I do QT, so am able to set it to 1.018 thus no acclimation required. If you must acclimate long-shipped fish, then ammonia is your enemy. I have drip acclimated in that situation, but I always make sure to have an ammonia detoxifier like prime on hand and use a few drops.

This! My last order came in at 1.018, even though when I called, they said 1.021. I had a QT ready at 1.021 that I had to bring down.

Any food-grade bucket would work. A lot of people will use the Home Depot buckets as a QT.

 

[JustinM]

IME, every shipment has a different salinity. You can always put a pin hole in the bag to measure the salinity as it's temp acclimating and adjust the qt accordingly. Works every time��

 

[EzReefs]

der_wille_zur_macht, what if I put a large piece of live rock from my sump in the qt? That should be able to hold the same purpose as a bio filter.

 

[Tripod1404]

der_wille_zur_macht, what if I put a large piece of live rock from my sump in the qt? That should be able to hold the same purpose as a bio filter.

It might work but you wont be able to put that rock back to the tank afterwards. If you use any drugs in qt, it will suck those up. Plus it can carry pathogens to your tank. If you do that, I would let the rock dry for at least a week before adding it back to the main tank, just to make sure everything on it dies. At that point, i will no longer be live rock anymore.

For qt purposes, I always keep about a cup of seachem matrix (in a media bag) in my sump to cultivate bacteria on. It can also be kept anywhere "wet' in the tank; main dt, overflow, etc. When I need to qt, I take that, put the matrix in a HOB filter and use that for my qt bio filter. At the mean time, I fill the empty bag once again with fresh matrix and put that back to the sump to cultivate bacteria on it for the next time I need to qt. When I am done with qt, I just throw away the matrix in the hob filter (you can was and dry it but imo its not worth the effort).