disaster move

Mark3 · Mar 8, 2018

I am running 50/50 .... I have moved my tank 4 times now. Two of them we excellent in no loss of life, and nothing more than just a water change, but two were disasters.

This move was one of the disasters, most everything is dead or dying, came in the house tonight to a stench of death the whole neighborhood could smell. It's my fault, I took the tank down, and didn't get it back together until the next day. The rock sat in tubs of water and got cold and no water flow. Put it back in the tank and started the pumps and skimmer, but I still have the fish in a bucket with air and heat....have lost two fish, but the rocks are covered with dead stuff, so I am not putting them in the tank yet.

What should I do? Should I do a restart? Should I just dump some bleach in the tank and start over? I have about 200 pounds of rock that has been in my tank for years and years (same rock, all 4 moves) it's been about 12 years since the first disaster move, so the rock has considerable growth on it. .....or? should I let the tank run and find out what lasts.....I can tell you right now, the only thing that looks healthy is the aptasia on the rocks....of course it lives! The aptasia is the reason that I would think of bleaching and starting all over, but I'm sure it will come back again. Tank is 125 gal with 40 gal sump....it would be a big restart. ....but I can't live with this smell so I have to do something fast.

anybody got any good ideas????

cmcoker · Mar 8, 2018

Carbon and water changes? I'd want to we what makes it, have had corals come back that I thought were goners.

My last tank move didn't tok do well either, so I sympathize. Hope it turns around in short order for you

User1 · Mar 8, 2018

Why does everyone run to bleach and starting over. The rock sounds like it has been with you for a while. Just clean up what you can, remove what you can that is visible, fire everything back up, run some media to help clear water, skimmer on, and make some water. If you don't have test kits buy one, if they are expired, buy a new one, then test for a baseline, make notes, and go from there. At best you may have a mini cycle. I say this only because I lost a 100 gallon reef back in 2001 after several back to back power failures while on vacation. I came home to a very dead and miserable looking tank. Has tired has I was after a 6 hour flight I went ahead and removed all dead fish, corals, and drained the tank. Made emergency salt water using tap water, de-chlorinated it, filled it up, and did what I just said. Tested, changed water, skimmer, and in about a week the tank was back to normal more or less although void of fish and corals but rock was alive and well has was the sand.

Sorry about the loss but I'd suggest cleaning everything then refilling the tank and test water.

P-Dub · Mar 8, 2018

^^what saf1 said^^Roll with it.

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Well it's been 9 days now since the tear down of the tank. I still have the fish in a 20 gallon bucket doing daily water changes to keep them alive. The tank looks cleaner than ever with no fish in it....pure sparkling RO water....but not much life on the rocks....there is a big bloom of aptasia all over.... wouldn't you know, they are the only survivors!

Big question.... I have heard that warming the tank to 88 will get the aptasia....but if I heat the tank to that, would I be doing more harm than good??

No fish in the tank ....just the rocks,some star fish, maybe a few Kenya trees might come back, but a bunch of aptasia.

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Pretty sad,dead looking tank....

Dsnakes · Mar 12, 2018

Send me one of those rocks! I've got some hungry berghia

I'm with the no bleach group. I would roll with it.

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Do you think I could heat the tank enough to get rid of aiptasia without doing more damage than doing good?

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Dsnakes said:
Send me one of those rocks! I've got some hungry berghia

I'm with the no bleach group. I would roll with it.

Send me those hungry little critters

Dsnakes · Mar 12, 2018

Mark3 said:
Do you think I could heat the tank enough to get rid of aiptasia without doing more damage than doing good?

I wouldn't think so. Aiptasia are pretty tough. Order an army of berghia nudis. They cleaned my tank in a week. Now I'm struggling to get aiptasia from people to feed them!

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Dsnakes said:
Send me one of those rocks! I've got some hungry berghia

I'm with the no bleach group. I would roll with it.

Yeah I have decided I don't want to bleach it out.... I think The Rock still has a lot of good bacteria on them that I don't want to bleach

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Dsnakes said:
Send me one of those rocks! I've got some hungry berghia

I'm with the no bleach group. I would roll with it.

Yeah I have decided I don't want to bleach it out.... I think The Rock still has a lot of good bacteria on them that I don't want to bleach

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Mark3 said:
Yeah I have decided I don't want to bleach it out.... I think The Rock still has a lot of good bacteria on them that I don't want to bleach

I have been planning on ordering some of those Berghia nudibranchs for a while ...now are they Hardy, or do they need a well established tank?

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Mark3 said:
Yeah I have decided I don't want to bleach it out.... I think The Rock still has a lot of good bacteria on them that I don't want to bleach

I have been planning on ordering some of those Berghia nudibranchs for a while ...now are they Hardy, or do they need a well established tank?

Dsnakes · Mar 12, 2018

Mark3 said:
I have been planning on ordering some of those Berghia nudibranchs for a while ...now are they Hardy, or do they need a well established tank?

I think they are hardy. I ordered from salty underground. 20 1/4" for $100 shipped. They were laying eggs in a couple days and wiped out my tank of aiptasia.

Dom274 · Mar 12, 2018

You're no where close to disaster move yet, there's still a lot of purple on those rocks. Get the fish back in the tank and let the tank re-stabilize. 10% weekly water changes for the next month or two and I promise all of the coralline algae will come back.

Ligershark · Mar 12, 2018

id say youre still in good shape. maybe throw some chromis and peppermint shrimp in there to gauge the health of the tank. the peppermints will feast on those aiptasia.

Mark3 · Mar 12, 2018

Starting to add some of the Sand back...sand makes it look a little better. I have another 5 gallons of sand to wash and put in tomorrow... tossed about half the sand.
Ammonia was at about 2.0 ppm ... I'll check tomorrow to see what the status is after adding the sand.
NO2 and NO3 both are at 0 ppm

Mark3 · Mar 13, 2018

This shot has a little more real color balance showing the sand.

Ligershark · Mar 13, 2018

i personally think the sand could cause you more problems. thats where most of the dead stuff is going to be.

Mark3 · Mar 13, 2018

Ligershark said:
i personally think the sand could cause you more problems. thats where most of the dead stuff is going to be.

Ya, I agree with you on that, but all the coral is already dead now, not much left to worry about now... makes you feel bad when corals that you have had for several years die because of poor planning on your part. Next time I will do it better!

Mark3 · Mar 14, 2018

Well it's day 11 after the tear down and move things are looking better.... I put the 7 surviving fish back into the tank last night I call them The Lucky 7.... Even one little piece of coral is still hanging in there