Feb. 16 at 9:48 a.m. I received a combined delivery of two orders and replacements for previously DOA items from Aquarium Depot. It was a little nuts dealing with all the pieces, but I’m pleased with the result for the price paid.

I fell prey to Aquarium Depot's half off coral sale, so I got most of these for about $5. I placed them all in a bucket and then drip acclimated to the water in my small quarantine tank.

My first order from Aquarium Depot did not go very well. Despite picking it up at the post office so as to receive it a day earlier, the three day shipping was probably too long. The items were packed too tightly, and two of the bags got holes in them and ended up with no water, which probably led to the early death of a sea urchin. They opted to reship the items, but I combined this with two other orders, which themselves were the result of my succumbing to a half off corals sale. Most of the pieces, while small, were only about $5. The hammer, duncan and frogspawn were about $20.

Thankfully Aquarium Depot agreed to upgrade my order to next day air for free, so the creatures spent less than 24 hours in the box. They were still packed too tightly in my opinion, and I was shocked the box containing 48 items was smaller than the box from Live Aquaria that contained only seven items! It is also annoying the boxes from Aquarium Depot are not labeled to indicate they are fragile or contain live animals, and thus the UPS man was carrying it upsite down and undoubtedly the box was roughed up more than it might have been.

I began the process by floating as many bags as possible in my tanks so the temperatures could equilibrate. Most of the corals have no air in the bags, so they all sank in my tank, and it was a bit of a hassle trying to get them back out. I then emptied all the items into a single bucket and began drip acclimating with water from the quarantine tank that I would be keeping the corals in till I could determine they are healthy.

I fell prey to Aquarium Depot's half off coral sale, so I got most of these for about $5. I placed them all in a bucket and then drip acclimated to the water in my small quarantine tank.

Once acclimated, I placed all the frags in a test tube rack and placed the whole rack in another bucket with a solution of Revive Coral Cleaner and a powerhead. I let them wash for about 10 minutes, and then I drizzled fresh water on them as an additional wash and to remove the cleaner. I then placed the rack in the quarantine tank with the animals I did not wash, the gorgonians, urchin and feather duster.

After a day or two in the quarantine tank, most of the corals from Aquarium Depot seemed to be doing fine, except the Kenya tree and two others.

After a day or two in the quarantine tank, most of the corals from Aquarium Depot seemed to be doing fine.

After a day or two in the quarantine tank, most of the corals from Aquarium Depot seemed to be doing fine.

A day or two later, the corals were looking mostly good, so I went ahead and placed them in my tank. I hoped it would take an hour or two, but it ended up taking all day. The process of taking them off the frags with a bone cutter and gluing to rocks was very tedious, and working in the tank was a mess. I used rubber gloves and rubber bands to prevent water getting into the gloves, but my arms still got water everywhere and got quite tired! By midnight Friday, Feb. 17, I was mostly done. I didn’t put everything in the ideal location, but it was good enough.

One of the three frogspawn corals broke at the base and, while it seemed to be doing OK immediately after, has started to recede. I'm not sure it will survive.

My duncan has a small branch

The Kenya tree was limp upon arrival, but I read accounts of them perking up, so I glued it to a rock in medium current. It stayed limp and eventually broke at the trunk.