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Tank transfer went bad


Tropi

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I set up my new tank (40g) monday last week and kept all the livestock from my old (23g) in buckets for a few days in the old tank water while the cloud from the new sand I used cleared up. On the thursday I tested the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH, everything was good, then I tested the ammonia in the buckets the livestock was in and it was reading 1ppm ammonia so I decided not to use any of the old water.

 

I acclimated the livestock, put them in the tank, all was going well and the water was really clear until I got up saturday morning and found both my clownfish and pep shrimp dead :( and the water cloudy. I took them out but couldn't do anything else until I got back from work. Water was alittle cloudier when I got back and ammonia was 1ppm. So assuming the tank was going through a cycle from the transfer I did around a 30% water change and added some seachem amguard.

Woke up the next morning and the water was worse so I took my live stock out and put them in one bucket and anemones in another. After that the tank still has ammonia but the water has cleared up except both buckets are testing 0 for ammonia but are very white and cloudy. From what I've been reading do you think the tank is cycling but the buckets are having a bacteria bloom or something?

 

Do I just let the tank run it's cycle and wait for the white cloud in the buckets to pass, with maybe some water changes to them or is it another problem causing it?

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Oh man...kinda going through a similar problem. Tried to reboot an existing system and having a huge algae bloom and and cycle. Corals are PISSED!

 

Did one large change and now a 15% daily change. Things are coming back SLOWLY. Advise you to do daily small changes and ride it out.

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Gutted sorry to hear that.

 

Had you set the 40 up with new live rock? Had that fully cured and cycled?

As said regular small water changes on the buckets as they will get dirty quickly. Best leave the new tank cycle, no water changes until ammonia and nitrite is gone as you'll just slow the cycle down.

 

Could be the fish and shrimp had suffered ammonia posioning in the bucket they were being held in and died later.

Also did you drip acclimate them? Or just add them to the new system? The salinity may have been different between the holding bucket and the new tank. PH is another thing that if there's a big swing or change when you move fish it will shock them and kill them quite quickly.

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Thanks for the help guys

 

It's the same rock I had when I started, so it's been in the old tank for around 10 months, though I did add a few pieces of new dry rock. I acclimated everything the same way I do when I add one for the first time by slowly adding a bit of water over around 20-30 mins, it's worked fine every other time I do it.

 

I checked the ammonia in the buckets today and the coral/snail bucket was around 0.25ppm and the anemone one was 2ppm. Did a water change on the buckets but I had to throw the nems :( took them out in the net and they were pretty much a ball of sludge and was leaving bit's on the net also starting to smell a little bit. Upsetting because the clowns and nems were a birthday present May last year and had grown and been doing great, they were the reason I was doing an upgrade so they would have more room to grow and why I got into the hobby.

 

I'll let the tank cycle then as if I was just starting and hopefully I can keep the corals and snails going with water changes so they can atleast enjoy the new tank when it's done.

 

I was going to do a sump on the tank sometime in the future but now after this I think I'm going to use the room in the stand to do a permanent quarantine tank instead.

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Did you have heaters, powerheads and live rock in the buckets or was it just the livestock?

 

If you didn't have any live rock, then there was no bacteria to take care of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate.

 

In the future, don't worry about the sandstorm. Get the water in and up to temperature, add the rock and add the sand. Then add the livestock. Everything on a real reef isn't all rainbows and unicorns - there are storms, surges, etc. that cloud the water and rearrange things so you're not going to stress anything by putting it in a dirty tank.

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I had a piece of rock, powerhead and heater in each bucket both times I had livestock in them. When I did the transfer I put the tank up, set the equipment, filled it half way, arranged my rock then put the sand in around it and filled the rest with water, it had the heater on the whole time so was at the right temp. I didn't want to put the livestock in while cloudy because I couldn't see anything in there and didn't want a nem to get sucked into something before it found it's footing and not catch it happening in time. When I did get the livestock in the tank though I did only have the flow from the filter return and a small powerhead going for a couple days since my wavemaker packed up, the day before it all happened was when I put the new wavemaker in.

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Even an air stone to keep the water moving is ok for a few days.

 

To settle nems it's best to turn off all power heads/wave makers to prevent them getting blended.

 

I know what you mean about not being able to see your stock. Hopefully things will pan out in the end.

I lost all but one fish just after christmas to velvet and it's gutting. Had my clown pair ages and it was really sad to loose them.

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