ajclarke00
New Member
I have had a 12 gal nano for about a week now. I had very little knowledge going into this and SWF.com has been a life saver, actually close to a life saver as I already lost one clown and appear to be losing an anemone.
Anyway, I bought my wife a 12 gal tank, 2 true clowns, and a long tentacled anemone, 4lbs live rock, about 6 hermits, 2 snails, and 10-12 lbs live sand. I bring the thing home and the LFS employee tells me that the tank needs to run until it is clear and then it is fish safe... So I let it run after set up for about 22 hours before I run off to pick up the fish. I bought live sand and put in the tank, but forgot to put in the activator bacteria stuff (this will come in later). Anyway, I float the fish and anemone for about an hour, then I cut the corners of the bag off the clowns to get the water to mix. I take the anemone right out and throw it in after an hour.
The fish seem to do OK at first, and immediately take to the anemone. Things are good for about an hour and then the two clowns start fighting for dominance. I thought they were trying to kill each other, but after reading up on SWF.com I learned that this was normal. 2 days later one clown is dead. Not beat up or anything, just kinda swam to a corner and died a peaceful death. I call the LFS and explain that they sold me a bad fish and needed to replace it. They asked if I let the tank cycle, and I promptly told them that I did and the water was nice and clear before I put the fish in. They asked me to bring in a water sample to test. Obviously by this point I had no idea what cycle meant.
So I brought in the sample, they tested it and asked if anything was still alive. The anemone and the other clown were doing great according to my wife. The water was way off the charts for everything bad, Amonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and Ph. I told them what the other employee had told me to do (which also included telling me that all I had to do was float the fish for 15 minutes before throwing them in). We put a plan together to basically save my remaining clown and anemone by doing a 100% water change over the course of 4 days with their cycled water from the tanks they have set up there. The owner is now involved and I haven't seen the retard that gave me the terrible advice in the first place.
So I have completed the 100% water change, but they also said that I needed to get the tanks biofilter going by putting in the bacteria. They sold me some stabilizer bacteria to put in. They suggested that I pour one cap full into the bioball area everyday until the bottle was gone. The first time I poured the stuff in my anemone, who was very open and happy, immediately uproots and starts trying to float around my tank. Spinning around for hours not taking root anywhere. I tried to set him up and he would just float away. Anyway, day 2 the anemone seemed to find a resting spot, albeit sideways laying on a rock, but he seemed healthy enough with full tentacles and good color. So I put cap full number two in and he puffs up and starts spinning around my tank again. Wide open and mouth open just spinning and floating. So all day he was doing this, it almost seemed like it was trying to attack the water jet tube at one point.
So anyway, after a day of spinning around, and me waiting for the email to activate my SWF.com account, I reach in and go to move it to a relatively sheltered part of the tank (clownfish tries to attack me with a tail slap and a nibble). It's tentacles are still sticky, but it has shriveled up to 1/4 of it normal size, and his since turned upside down. So here is the not so quick question, even though the LFS owner and the bottle say that the bacteria does not hurt the fish, should I keep using it? If not, how should I get the bacteria going without hurting the livestock?
Any help is appreciated, I realize now that the title to this question may have been deceiving, sorry about that. Please help as I am not sure what to do, poor little Tangelina is just swimming there back and forth looking at her home that has since closed up shop. Thanks again.
Anyway, I bought my wife a 12 gal tank, 2 true clowns, and a long tentacled anemone, 4lbs live rock, about 6 hermits, 2 snails, and 10-12 lbs live sand. I bring the thing home and the LFS employee tells me that the tank needs to run until it is clear and then it is fish safe... So I let it run after set up for about 22 hours before I run off to pick up the fish. I bought live sand and put in the tank, but forgot to put in the activator bacteria stuff (this will come in later). Anyway, I float the fish and anemone for about an hour, then I cut the corners of the bag off the clowns to get the water to mix. I take the anemone right out and throw it in after an hour.
The fish seem to do OK at first, and immediately take to the anemone. Things are good for about an hour and then the two clowns start fighting for dominance. I thought they were trying to kill each other, but after reading up on SWF.com I learned that this was normal. 2 days later one clown is dead. Not beat up or anything, just kinda swam to a corner and died a peaceful death. I call the LFS and explain that they sold me a bad fish and needed to replace it. They asked if I let the tank cycle, and I promptly told them that I did and the water was nice and clear before I put the fish in. They asked me to bring in a water sample to test. Obviously by this point I had no idea what cycle meant.
So I brought in the sample, they tested it and asked if anything was still alive. The anemone and the other clown were doing great according to my wife. The water was way off the charts for everything bad, Amonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and Ph. I told them what the other employee had told me to do (which also included telling me that all I had to do was float the fish for 15 minutes before throwing them in). We put a plan together to basically save my remaining clown and anemone by doing a 100% water change over the course of 4 days with their cycled water from the tanks they have set up there. The owner is now involved and I haven't seen the retard that gave me the terrible advice in the first place.
So I have completed the 100% water change, but they also said that I needed to get the tanks biofilter going by putting in the bacteria. They sold me some stabilizer bacteria to put in. They suggested that I pour one cap full into the bioball area everyday until the bottle was gone. The first time I poured the stuff in my anemone, who was very open and happy, immediately uproots and starts trying to float around my tank. Spinning around for hours not taking root anywhere. I tried to set him up and he would just float away. Anyway, day 2 the anemone seemed to find a resting spot, albeit sideways laying on a rock, but he seemed healthy enough with full tentacles and good color. So I put cap full number two in and he puffs up and starts spinning around my tank again. Wide open and mouth open just spinning and floating. So all day he was doing this, it almost seemed like it was trying to attack the water jet tube at one point.
So anyway, after a day of spinning around, and me waiting for the email to activate my SWF.com account, I reach in and go to move it to a relatively sheltered part of the tank (clownfish tries to attack me with a tail slap and a nibble). It's tentacles are still sticky, but it has shriveled up to 1/4 of it normal size, and his since turned upside down. So here is the not so quick question, even though the LFS owner and the bottle say that the bacteria does not hurt the fish, should I keep using it? If not, how should I get the bacteria going without hurting the livestock?
Any help is appreciated, I realize now that the title to this question may have been deceiving, sorry about that. Please help as I am not sure what to do, poor little Tangelina is just swimming there back and forth looking at her home that has since closed up shop. Thanks again.
