tektite
Active Member
If you can bear with me, I do have a question at the end...
So, since I bought a house and built my fishroom, I had to move my 125 from the apartment eventually. I had a 150 gallon tank in the house ready to receive everything. Had about 50 gallons fresh saltwater in the tank and another 75ish ready to help with water changes. I had another 50 gallons in the apartment.
I had 6 55 gallon drums to assist in the move. Rented a U-Haul truck to move the barrels. The move was about 20-30 minutes from my apartment.
My current tank had 250 lbs of liverock and 200 lbs of live sand. I was very careful when transferring everything, used 5 gallon buckets to move rock from the tank to the barrel in the truck, and back to the new tank. I kept the rock under water as much as possible, the longest any rock was out of water was 3-4 seconds. Ambient temperature outside was probably around 85F. With all my prep, I thought the move would go fairly smoothly, have maybe a small ammonia spike....
To say it went disastrously is an understatement. Moved everything, took about half a day. By late afternoon, 90% of everything in the tank was dead. By the next morning that was up to 100%. I only have a couple things that I moved to quarantine setups that are still alive, and 90% of that is only alive because it was sitting in my disconnected sump in the apartment overnight and not in the tank. EVERYTHING in the main tank is dead: My gorgonians, anemones, cucumbers, snails, hermits, stars, mantis, pistols, gorilla crabs, bristle worms, mysids, copepods.....
I've been going over and over the move, trying to figure out where I went wrong, what I could have done differently. As far as prep and physical execution of the move, I can't think of much that would have made a difference.
So far some ideas I've had as to how my tank was nuked:
1 – water differences: Saltwater in both the apartment and house with the same RO/DI unit, the same salt mix (Tropic Marin Pro), kept at the same temp and salinity (measured with refractometer). As far as the transfer, other than the 50 gallons in the new tank, the rest of the water was from the old tank.
Critical factor? Low probability
2 – temperature fluctuations: at the very most it was 2 degrees F up or down. I did acclimate everything living that I could isolate.
Critical factor? Sensitive creatures, moderate
Critical factor? Hardy creatures, low
3 – live sand disturbance: my tank was running for 5 months before move, so there may have been buildups in the sand. After the rock was out, I put all the sand in its own barrel just in case. Put maybe 20 lbs into the new tank.
Critical factor? Unsure
4 – contamination: Critical factor? High
A. Me or buckets – both I know I kept very clean though.
B. U-Haul truck – the barrels were closed as much as possible so unlikely.
C. Outside house – when moving the last load, the neighbor across the street was using a blower to blow off some white stuff in the gutter in front of his house. He was upwind of me, and the white stuff did travel toward me. It appeared to dissipate before reaching me, but maybe some still did.
5 – chain reaction: Possibly any of the factors above killed some delicate organisms, which killed more, etc till everything was dead. If that was the case, it happened fast enough to kill even the pistol and mantis shrimp, gorilla crabs, and bristle worms within 4-5 hours. I did have 3 cucumbers, the least likely of them to be able to nuke a tank, but maybe one died and was enough to start the reaction. I know also that I had at least one large hitchhiker flatworm (was 3” long).
Critical factor? Moderate to high
I'm not trying to pass the buck, I know that whatever the cause I am ultimately responsible for all my little critters. I feel awful about this whole thing, so many things used to live in the tank. The only comfort I can take is that except for my 60 hermits my tank was 100% aquacultured.
I have a bit of a dilemma now. Most likely it was a contaminant or a chain reaction. But which? If it was a contaminant, did my $1500 worth of liverock just become stepping stones? I've been doing 50 gallon water changes per day (the move was a week and a half ago). The water was yellowish and the smell was awful for a week. Gone through 2 DI resins and 15 gallons of salt....the smell has gone down now and the water is clear finally. Should I let the rock cycle and use it again, or do I have to start over 100%? Any opinions or comments welcome.
So, since I bought a house and built my fishroom, I had to move my 125 from the apartment eventually. I had a 150 gallon tank in the house ready to receive everything. Had about 50 gallons fresh saltwater in the tank and another 75ish ready to help with water changes. I had another 50 gallons in the apartment.
I had 6 55 gallon drums to assist in the move. Rented a U-Haul truck to move the barrels. The move was about 20-30 minutes from my apartment.
My current tank had 250 lbs of liverock and 200 lbs of live sand. I was very careful when transferring everything, used 5 gallon buckets to move rock from the tank to the barrel in the truck, and back to the new tank. I kept the rock under water as much as possible, the longest any rock was out of water was 3-4 seconds. Ambient temperature outside was probably around 85F. With all my prep, I thought the move would go fairly smoothly, have maybe a small ammonia spike....
To say it went disastrously is an understatement. Moved everything, took about half a day. By late afternoon, 90% of everything in the tank was dead. By the next morning that was up to 100%. I only have a couple things that I moved to quarantine setups that are still alive, and 90% of that is only alive because it was sitting in my disconnected sump in the apartment overnight and not in the tank. EVERYTHING in the main tank is dead: My gorgonians, anemones, cucumbers, snails, hermits, stars, mantis, pistols, gorilla crabs, bristle worms, mysids, copepods.....
I've been going over and over the move, trying to figure out where I went wrong, what I could have done differently. As far as prep and physical execution of the move, I can't think of much that would have made a difference.
So far some ideas I've had as to how my tank was nuked:
1 – water differences: Saltwater in both the apartment and house with the same RO/DI unit, the same salt mix (Tropic Marin Pro), kept at the same temp and salinity (measured with refractometer). As far as the transfer, other than the 50 gallons in the new tank, the rest of the water was from the old tank.
Critical factor? Low probability
2 – temperature fluctuations: at the very most it was 2 degrees F up or down. I did acclimate everything living that I could isolate.
Critical factor? Sensitive creatures, moderate
Critical factor? Hardy creatures, low
3 – live sand disturbance: my tank was running for 5 months before move, so there may have been buildups in the sand. After the rock was out, I put all the sand in its own barrel just in case. Put maybe 20 lbs into the new tank.
Critical factor? Unsure
4 – contamination: Critical factor? High
A. Me or buckets – both I know I kept very clean though.
B. U-Haul truck – the barrels were closed as much as possible so unlikely.
C. Outside house – when moving the last load, the neighbor across the street was using a blower to blow off some white stuff in the gutter in front of his house. He was upwind of me, and the white stuff did travel toward me. It appeared to dissipate before reaching me, but maybe some still did.
5 – chain reaction: Possibly any of the factors above killed some delicate organisms, which killed more, etc till everything was dead. If that was the case, it happened fast enough to kill even the pistol and mantis shrimp, gorilla crabs, and bristle worms within 4-5 hours. I did have 3 cucumbers, the least likely of them to be able to nuke a tank, but maybe one died and was enough to start the reaction. I know also that I had at least one large hitchhiker flatworm (was 3” long).
Critical factor? Moderate to high
I'm not trying to pass the buck, I know that whatever the cause I am ultimately responsible for all my little critters. I feel awful about this whole thing, so many things used to live in the tank. The only comfort I can take is that except for my 60 hermits my tank was 100% aquacultured.
I have a bit of a dilemma now. Most likely it was a contaminant or a chain reaction. But which? If it was a contaminant, did my $1500 worth of liverock just become stepping stones? I've been doing 50 gallon water changes per day (the move was a week and a half ago). The water was yellowish and the smell was awful for a week. Gone through 2 DI resins and 15 gallons of salt....the smell has gone down now and the water is clear finally. Should I let the rock cycle and use it again, or do I have to start over 100%? Any opinions or comments welcome.
