Moving...

[Cobalt]

Lost a cleaner shrip this am in the new tank. Its four days young. Clowns are gaspy after appearing to be fine first 3 days in new tank. Over 100lbs of live rock is 100% cycled. The fresh RO/DI water is 4 days old, I don't see how water quality could take a turn in that short time. I have a heater in my 35g make up water tank preparing to do another 30% water change. Any ideas why my fish and inverts are struggling? Soft coral toxins??

I don't understand. Its possible the LR isn't cycled and the fish and corals weren't acclimated properly. here's why i think so:

I think I made a horrible mistake. I thought if the salinity and tempreture of two different bodies of water was the same the fish and corals wouldn't need to be acclimated. After letting the salinity and tempreture balance out in the new tank, I begun a quick and dirty acclimation but I thought I could get away with it being the slinities were equal. Put about 50% new tank water into old tank water over 4 hours. Let them sit overnight in their temp tub. Next am I go to yank them all out to put them in the new tank and the waters much colder than my normal 80 degrees! I had over 500W of heaters in 10g of water. Heater lights are on, minijet pumps circulating water, I was totally shocked! Water must havebeen around 70-75 instead of 80. So instead of waiting to try and fix the problem I recheck salinity to make sure its same as new tank and start dumping the animals into the new tank instead of being patient and waiting for water temp to restablize. Thoughts? Did I blow it big time? I lost all my stonies too, [ossibly due to not enough light during move comboed with the above.

Thus far it's been a sad expereince with the move:

The initial body count:

Tuxedo Urchin: DOA before acclimation ever occured. Gave it too much of a shock from colder old tank water to warmer new tank water in a pre-move move. Moving in winter is horrible.

Six line wrasse: Cause of death due to bad acclimation? Dead after 24 hours in new tank.

Cleaner Shrimp: Found this am four days after addition to new home.

Any ideas / tips for next time?

[rcassidy]

Wow.... Sorry to hear about all the issues you've been having. If the temp difference was 10 degrees that could have been an issue. When I first set my tank up (in reality I was getting rock from someone elses tank and starting mine) (rock was in severl big tubs) the temp was about 71 degrees and the New Tank water was about 78. I fortunately didn't loose any fish/softies. Of course I only had a couple mushrooms, starfish, snails, crabs at the time. Salinity was at 1.025 in the new tank and 1.024 in the old. I just dumped everything in there.

What was the total % of old tank water to new tank water in the tank. Might have just been the new water was to "clean".

I really don't know. I'm trying to think of what would have caused that big of a reaction.

Ironically enough these would be the coldest days of the year. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Ryan

[Rick O]

Hi Cobalt and welcome to The Reef Tank. Sorry your first post had to be about a disaster.

The gasping for air leads me to believe some sort of pollution. Have you tested any water parameters today such as ammonia?

I'm going to move this thread to the General Reef Discussion forum so more eyes can see it.

[David Grigor]

How far were you moving ? accross the Nation , state, in town, or just a tank upgrade in the house...............

I attempted to move my entire livestock from VA to MN. Was a total disaster. Will never attempt such a task again. And that was back when I had a 90g now with a 320g it would be 10X......

[Spanky]

Cobalt, Good Morning and Welcome

You did check for ammonia and nitrite, didn't you?

Spanks