meganistkrieg Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 So I received a shipment of coral today (some mushrooms and a kenya tree). The tree is attached to live rock but the package wasn't shipped well and had leaked out to some degree onto the outer box (it was damp and wet when I got it). Opened it up and was greeted by a terrible stink of rotting sea life, and the water inside was brown and thick to the point of being unable to really see through it, with a good amount of the rock exposed to air. Lots of dead bristle worms. Question now is how to proceed. Clearly there's a great deal of die-off and I'm not in a hurry to toss something brimming with death into my otherwise glowing tank. I got the rock and few loose shrooms out of the ####ty water quick as I could and into a baggie of my tank's water, figuring it's gotta be better than sitting in liquid death. Any advice on where to go from here?? I've never had to deal with anything like this before... Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 I would mix up some new water, or take some from your tank, and put the stuff ugly stuff in there (In a bucket or something). Then you can clean them off basically, and see what is alive and what isn't. Might be a little stressful, but you bought relatively tough stuff. Link to comment
Gerber77 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Take pictures of the brown water, packaging and the livestock in case the livestock dies. How do the frags look in the clean water? Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 21, 2010 Author Share Posted June 21, 2010 Take pictures of the brown water, packaging and the livestock in case the livestock dies. How do the frags look in the clean water? See below... inner bag, probably equal this amount of water in the outer bag box is after I opened it, but you can see the water damage. Was wet enough I could open it with just my fingers, and I bite my nails... rock with kenya tree in a bag of clean water from my tank I figure the mushrooms ought to be alright. I haven't killed a mushroom yet, even when I accidentally sliced one at the base. (oops) My concern is really for the kenya tree dying and sending off all kinds of nasty Poseidon-knows-what, and for adding a piece of rock that's clearly been decaying into an already established tank (going on six months). Rock is about palm-sized. Shook the rock off in the brown water to hopefully shed some dead stuff. Have the rock and shrooms sitting in the bag, in the tank temp acclimating. Still some smell but not nearly as intense. Would doing an ammonia test on the bag water give me some indication of what I'm looking at adding to my tank? Obviously I can't waffle on this all for TOO long but I don't want to crash my tank either. Link to comment
FishOnTheBrainCoral Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 I would do like said.. I would venture to say the smell is from the live rock being exposed to air. you take a rock out of a glowing tank and smell it, and it will be funky smelling. The brown water could be from sediment shaking off the rock in the bag. either way to be safe I wouldn't put in tank just yet. How long did it take to ship? Link to comment
Gerber77 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 I would aslo send the vendor a heads up email just informing them possibly a death Of the Kenya may occur. Link to comment
Pickle010 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Have you tasted the water? imnotsuggestingyoushouldjustcuriousisall Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 21, 2010 Author Share Posted June 21, 2010 Have you tasted the water? imnotsuggestingyoushouldjustcuriousisall No... Clearly I must rethink my methodology of reefkeeping to taste-based aquascience. Everyone else: letting the seller know now. The package shipped on Thursday, priority mail, and arrived today (obvs). Kenya is shedding crazy brown dust which I'm going to take as a Bad Sign at this point. Still not sure whether to add it to my tank or not. Not sure what exactly is entailed in "cleaning" it beyond what I've already done. Link to comment
Giannis86 Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 No... Clearly I must rethink my methodology of reefkeeping to taste-based aquascience. Everyone else: letting the seller know now. The package shipped on Thursday, priority mail, and arrived today (obvs). Kenya is shedding crazy brown dust which I'm going to take as a Bad Sign at this point. Still not sure whether to add it to my tank or not. Not sure what exactly is entailed in "cleaning" it beyond what I've already done. Thats quite a long time in transit...Does the seller guarantee next day shipping? I would also take a look at their website. Most online shops should have something on their site about DOA policy. Link to comment
cheryl jordan Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 Take an old tooth brush scrub off the rock attached, rinse in the clean SW and place in tank. The kenya tree will acclimate and probably do fine. This is what I would do and have done. Link to comment
FishOnTheBrainCoral Posted June 21, 2010 Share Posted June 21, 2010 That kenya needs a good bit of flow to shed properly. Run some carbon and place that thing in some flow. Take an old tooth brush scrub off the rock attached, rinse in the clean SW and place in tank. The kenya tree will acclimate and probably do fine. This is what I would do and have done. you all don't use your daily toothbrush? wussy.. Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 21, 2010 Author Share Posted June 21, 2010 Only my own personal toothbrush to be found. Will turkey baster it extensively, give it a good dunk or two, and put it in. FYI water in the baggy is showing up at about 1.0 on the ammonia test. Sound okay? Edited to add that I am not putting the baggy water into the aquarium, obviously. Just the rock. Which has hopefully just shed all its dead stuff into the baggy water. Edited again to say I put the rock in after obsessively bastering out every nook and cranny I could. Will monitor parameters and have water ready to WC if necessary. Thanks all! Fingers crossed. Link to comment
FishOnTheBrainCoral Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 How is this doing? Link to comment
Jacobnano Posted June 24, 2010 Share Posted June 24, 2010 I left a kenya tree out of the water overnight, found it the next morning, threw it back in the tank. It is still alive. Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 25, 2010 Author Share Posted June 25, 2010 Thanks for asking but unfortunately, mine wasn't so lucky. Picture taken just before I finally got rid of it about thirty minutes ago: I put it in an area of reasonable flow per recommendations to help it slough off the layers that needed shedding, but in the time since I first made this topic, I've watched it literally just fall to pieces into the substrate, seeming to melt away into delightful shades of brown, brown-black, and black. I figure when the nassarius are sniffing it out and my LPS are showing signs of displeasure, it's about time to get rid of it. The real kicker is that the bits of rubble I rescued out, thinking they were the mushrooms, weren't the mushrooms which I assume to have melted in the soup that arrived. Insult to injury since those are what I wanted the most. In talks with the seller right now - asked for a refund since none of this was my fault and I made all reasonable efforts to save whatever was there. In the meantime, prepping yet another water change to help clear out all the allelopathic ickies. Link to comment
cheryl jordan Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 From the looks of the picture looks like no insolation was provided by the sender, like styrofoam. If the seller has a problem with the refund, make sure you mention that you can provide pictures of the packaging and the corals. You should get a full refund or replacements. Please post again to show the results of your request for compensation. Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 25, 2010 Author Share Posted June 25, 2010 From the looks of the picture looks like no insolation was provided by the sender, like styrofoam. If the seller has a problem with the refund, make sure you mention that you can provide pictures of the packaging and the corals. You should get a full refund or replacements. Please post again to show the results of your request for compensation. Will do, hopefully the situation will be resolved sooner rather than later and that'll be that. The insulation in the box was packing peanuts rather than a firm styrofoam, which maybe lead to the instability that caused it to leak. Will post here again either way to let y'all know how it ends up. Thanks again for all the advice and help, everyone. N-R is the best. Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 25, 2010 Author Share Posted June 25, 2010 Situation resolved and refund provided! Still bummed that it all went down like this as I've really been wanting to try my hand at keeping a kenya tree, but maybe I ought to just look for one locally instead. Still in the market for some nicely colored mushrooms though... Again, thanks for the advice everyone. Y'all are awesome. Link to comment
Degener8 Posted June 25, 2010 Share Posted June 25, 2010 megan I just sent you a couple PM's I can possibly help with your kenya situation. Link to comment
meganistkrieg Posted June 25, 2010 Author Share Posted June 25, 2010 megan I just sent you a couple PM's I can possibly help with your kenya situation. Woohoo! Link to comment
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