Tank move did not go well

[JeF4y]

+1 on both Frankie's posts...

I would lean towards the sandbed being a major portion of the disaster, and then coral toxins as well as fish contaminants from stress.

It's a shame though because you went through a lot to prevent disaster and ended up there anyhow. IMHO, a sandbed just can't be moved without it being rinsed, and at that point you might as well start over with fresh sand. Additionally, if you're going to move water from the old tank, water on rock is fine, but water with fish/corals/inverts is not. They stress & poison the water quickly.

It would have been beneficial for you to have tested the tank straight away after things started dying. That would have helped the diagnosis. At this point, it's moot because you're cycling again with all the dead stuff in there.

As for the liverock? I'd get things stable in the tank first. This might take a few months even. Then start small and see what happens.

As other have said, I'm sorry for your losses & frustrations in this.

 

[tektite]

It very well could have been the corals being in large containers also. They release toxins also when stressed. That is why I mentioned bagging each one individually. Also not using the water you transported them in and acclimate them to the new environment is also crucial.

The couple corals I had were all small, were transported separately, were acclimated, and no water from their transport made it into the tank. I was as careful as I could be with the move So much for my prep. I can see now why so many people sell their tanks before moving.

 

[BigAl07]

Tek if you want a frag of FrogSpawn or Hammer I'll donate that to you. Just let me know when and where and I'll send you one out once the tank is ready.

 

[tektite]

Hopefully by your taking the time to start this thread others can learn and not repeat the pain and loss you have. Thanks for sharing your story (in great detail I may add) so others learn. I know I've learned and made some detailed mental notes for the future.

That's about all I can hope for at this point...though I'm pretty down with all this maybe it'll help someone else avoid this happening to them.

 

[tektite]

Tek if you want a frag of FrogSpawn or Hammer I'll donate that to you. Just let me know when and where and I'll send you one out once the tank is ready.

Thanks, I appreciate that - it'll be awhile...but I'm determined to get the tank going again. I just need to concentrate now on rebuilding what I had (hopefully better too....)

 

[DaveK]

...

Now let's get to rebuilding this puppy... It can be Bigger.. Faster... Stronger...It can be the 6-Million Dollar Reef Tank ....


Does that show my age or WHAT?

Yes, it does show your age. I'm sure it's quite possible to build a reef tank costing a lot more that $6,000,000 today. lsmile:

 

[miaskies]

Do you think that there could have been some bleach residue in the buckets or drums? I know bleach pretty much kills anything it comes into contact with.I would have just rinsed the buckets versus putting bleach in them.I probably would have disturbed the sandbed and discarded as much deitrus as possible after removing corals for transport and prior to placing the sand in the new tank. Also, how long did your tank sit without filters, lighting, circulation prior to breaking down?I know if things go stagnant in a few hours you could have some die off.

I am also thinking that perhaps you did not use enough of the water from the original set up in your new tank.I know that most of the good bacteria lives in the actual water itself. I had a similiar incident when I set up a quarantine. I used half of the water from my display, and even used a matured filter from my display on my quarantine. A couple of days later when I added a couple fish to the quarantine I had an ammonia spike and lost one of the fish. I wished that I would have used more water from the display. I just think that quite frankly, a new tank has to be very matured in order to receive that amount of livestock all at once.

Perhaps if you had moved the 125 to the house and slowly built up the 150 it may have been doable.I am thinking disturbing the sandbed and everything so much, that it played a big part in what happened. Coral reefs are such delicate ecosystems.That big of a move just threw everything off balance.How long did you have the 150 set up? Perhaps it was too many toxin releases from the corals being disturbed. Probably a combination of the things you are guessing.I am Very sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[proenca]

Hi mate,

First of all, my sincere simpathy for your tank loss. anyone that loves a reef and owns one, its a stomach punch to have a total tank crash - specially when we did all that we could to avoid it, like in your case.

I moved up ( and now down, go figure ) tank sizes :30 gal -> 55g -> 120g -> 250g

Now I experience some losses when I moved up from the 30g and everyone told me it was due to the disturbing of the sandbed.

Ever since I never touched the sand bed : just removed few cups from the very top layer and used new sand.

True , its a pain and due to silicates being released to the aquarium ( always happen with new sand ) and the inevitable diatom bloom but it saves the stress of disturbing a mature sand bed : the very bottom part is quite toxic ( toxic buildup ) and can cause a tank crash - as you experienced.

All my other tank moves went out pretty well - things to plan is the rocks - bottom rocks in old tank must be bottom rocks in the new tank due to the same reason ( anearobic bacteria ) and sand must be new execept for a few cups of top layers.

There are well documented cases when the Jaubert system ( deep sand bed / plenum with mesh ) was in vogue of compelte tank crashes because the bottom mesh part which had toxic pockets was disturbed and released back to the tank with a bottom dwelling fish ( eg Vallencianna fish or burrowing goby ).

I dont know exactly what happen in your case but I would bet 99% of my salary that would be sand bed related.

All the best of luck and courage to rebuild the whole thing.

 

[tektite]

Do you think that there could have been some bleach residue in the buckets or drums?

Also, how long did your tank sit without filters, lighting, circulation prior to breaking down?

I am also thinking that perhaps you did not use enough of the water from the original set up in your new tank.I know that most of the good bacteria lives in the actual water itself.

Perhaps if you had moved the 125 to the house and slowly built up the 150 it may have been doable.

I am thinking disturbing the sandbed and everything so much, that it played a big part in what happened.

There was no bleach residue, I cleaned them at least a month ago and let them sit before using them. Bleach breaks down pretty fast anyway.

I had heaters/chiller/lots of Koralias running before transfer, it wasn't stagnant.

As far as the water, most of the bacteria is actually on/in the rocks/sand. I probably used too much water after disturbing the sand with taking rock out. The water was probably already contaminated with toxins from the sand.

I would have preferred to transfer things more slowly, but financially we really needed to get out of the apartment. House mortgage with rent also was killing us.

Next time I move I'll be VERY careful with the sandbed At least it's been a good learning experience.

First of all, my sincere simpathy for your tank loss. anyone that loves a reef and owns one, its a stomach punch to have a total tank crash - specially when we did all that we could to avoid it, like in your case.

I dont know exactly what happen in your case but I would bet 99% of my salary that would be sand bed related.

All the best of luck and courage to rebuild the whole thing.

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[tektite]

Well, it appears that my tank is progressing well. Its been two and a half weeks since the move and it looks like my cycle is almost through despite my large amount of die-off - ammonia 0, nitrite 0.05, nitrate climbing. I'll be doing more water changes now just to make sure anything left over from disturbing the sandbed is gone.

Next step is to build my sumps and aquascape, then I'll be ready to start it all up again. Hopefully it goes well!

 

[jnohs]

I would say a x the old sand no matter how much you clean it. Sand beds are kilers if you ask me.