I think I goofed

SteveySingle · Jul 28, 2013

Okay, so I may have messed up. Something is messed up somehow..maybe bc of me or maybe not. Anyways...

Transferred the rock, some sand(maybe 2 cups) and about 1/2 the water from my bc8 to my 17 gallon w/20l sump. Added 20 lbs of sand between fuge and DT. I then let it run over night and added my clowns, some frags that I picked up last weekend. Well nothing's opened up and the LPS melted very quickly. (Torch and frogspawn, Duncan's still holding on for life). Clowns were fine.

I still had the bc up so I transferred everything back except the rock.

SG-1.024
pH-7.8
Alk-about 6.5
Trate-0
Trite-0
Ammonia-0
Phosphate-0
(Obviously haven't had any type of cycle yet.)

I realize that the alk is low but it doesn't seem low enough to wipe everything out so fast. What I'm thinking is maybe I didn't wait long enough to let the PVC glue cure. Seems like an obviously dumb thing to do looking back.
Anyways I did add a bunch of carbon and a skimmer. Skimmers not pulling much of anything. I can't really test for anything that I haven't already so idk how to tell when my water is good.

Should I scrap everything and start over or do u guys think there's some hope? Anyone have any ideas??

egghead43 · Jul 28, 2013

When adding the new sand and rock your tank started to cycle. But that would not have killed anything over night that I know of. There could be many of reasons of why this happened

Scoly · Jul 28, 2013

The temp was in range?

SteveySingle · Jul 28, 2013

Well honestly I didn't check the temp **** it did t feel dramatically cold or warm

c_healy · Jul 28, 2013

I don't think it was the pvc glue. I have used ot and under a minute later started up my overflow with no problems. Did you acclimate everything to the new tank or just dump it all in?

Snookin · Jul 28, 2013

If you unsettle an old tank and transfer material to a new tank you should not add corals and fish in only 24hrs. The17g tank can go through a small cycle once you add the new water and sand. Causing this type of disturbance will stress corals and potentially kill them. Keep all corals in the original tank and wait a week at least before transferring corals. Make sure to test water before transferring.

SteveySingle · Jul 28, 2013

I drop acclimated everything for 1 hour. Everything in a 5 gallon bucket and removed equal amount of added water twice. Ill just wait and see what Happens over the next week or so. I forgot to mention I added 2 nassy snails and 3 trochus. They didn't fair well either. I did leave one nasst in there bc I didn't want to stir up the sand too much. He's since been on the glass and active.