Coral loss after tank upgrade

[Goodersgold]

Last weekend I swapped to a larger tank (20g) with new dry aquascape, live sand, fresh water and a bottle of ATM Colony, when up to temp the four fish were transferred (2 clowns, 1 PJ Cardinal and a blenny), they were quiet for a couple of days but are now loving their new home and feeding well. PH is 8.1, Sal 1.026, Temp 26, dKH 9.4 Ca 386 Ammonia 0 and Phos 0.1.
After a couple of days I had to shut down the old tank as I needed the light for the corals in the new tank, my Gold tipped torch was doing great in the old tank with two new branches and lovely fat polyps, now overnight two heads have completely stripped of polyps. My Candy cane is showing signs of fading too, and my GSP is completely closed. I appreciate that the corals do not like to be unsettled, but I had no other choice, do you think they will recover / survive?

 

[blaxsun]

Your GSP will probably be fine - it's normal to close up for a few days. As for the torch, how is the flow in your new tank compared to the old? Also, is the lighting further away from the corals compared to the old tank, ie: are they getting the same amount of light?

 

[Goodersgold]

This morning the torch has gone Candy cane is looking very sad and the GSP is still sulking. I suppose I'm lucky these are relatively small specimens and not hugely expensive, still a shame to loose any living creature.

 

[mtraylor]

Example. If you moved from say a 12 gallon to a 20 gallon and your 12 gallon was an estabolished tank. You would have had to transfer the existing water, rock, and top inch of sand from existing tank over to new tank and added the additional dry rock, water to the 20 to have a chance of keeping everything in order.

If you started a new fresh 20 gallon tank from scratch with no established bacteria except for what you poured from bottle, etc. What you are seeing is expected.