Moved tank without changing sand-- everything is dying!!

[BestMomEver]

I’m so sorry this is happening. I guess it’s kinda late to tell you what I did when I moved tanks. Like others have said, I would take all the sand out and put new sand and new water. Is there is someone that can take your corals for a bit and rehabilitate them? Also, if you live near a Petco, you might check to see if they have any specials on tanks. If you’re Rabbitfish is stressed maybe a small tank of his own would make him happier. Good luck!

 

[VA5]

Did not read entire thread but can’t go wrong with carbon and make sure water flow is good

 

[Dom]

Just an observation, and perhaps its just me:

I'm looking at the pictures of the tank with the air stones. Those bubbles don't seem to be the fine, fizzy type bubbles you see in salt water. They sort of are, but not completely.

This leads me to wonder about the salinity in the tank.

 

[PhreeByrd]

I know it's the sand because I moved the tank two months ago with having completely removed the sand, adding new sand, and only lost a diamond back (I assumed it was because I took its sand and it had no food source) and an urchin. All other inverts/corals/fish were fine. Parameters barely shifted.

This time around, I drained the water to move the coral/fish in buckets (not new water), but left the sandbed. My hope was that it wouldn't be disturbed much if I drained all the water... that was my mind being an idiot. It sloshed itself and totally stirred itself up. If the fish were suffocating, would nitrite not be the primary culprit? After using Seachem Prime, the fish have been breathing pretty normally. My rabbitfish is anxious as hell in the 20gal and I don't think he's eating ... the other fish, a juvy clown is happy and healthy as far as I can tell.

Am I understanding correctly that the sand in this tank is only 2 months old?

If so, I don't see any way that there should have been enough toxic crud in the sand to cause a problem. I have moved tanks this way many times, with much older sand, and not experienced problems like this or any livestock losses. Very curious.

 

[kamakazian]

A shop vac is definitely the easiest, fastest way to remove even a deep sand bed! I’ve tried all of the other methods mentioned and they simply don’t work as quickly and easily. Another plus is there’s less likelihood of scratching your tank.
On the matter of moving a tank and cleaning the sand bed before putting it back in the tank; I’ve moved many, many clients tanks and have never cleaned the sand bed before returning it to the tank. I will run several micron filters to clear the water and make sure the water is heavily aerated and I may add some Prime but that’s it. I haven’t lost fish or corals moving tanks this way and I’ve been maintaining reef tanks for 12yrs.

WOW!! Any secrets or tips on that one? I've always lost something in a move.

 

[kamakazian]

Just so everyone is aware, the tank is back to "normal." I can't check the parameters because I used Prime... but corals are happy, fish are happy, and the tank is fully operational.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Not to hijack this but I just moved my nano 20g yesterday without replacing sand (tank is about 6 months old) I dosed prime and stability should I be okay? I kept 75% of water. And i have very light stocking (2 young perc clowns)

 

[Amboss72]

Not to hijack this but I just moved my nano 20g yesterday without replacing sand (tank is about 6 months old) I dosed prime and stability should I be okay? I kept 75% of water. And i have very light stocking (2 young perc clowns)

You should be just fine...

 

[Amboss72]

WOW!! Any secrets or tips on that one? I've always lost something in a move.

You know I put part of the tanks water in large Rubbermaid garbage cans. I put the coral and live rock in Rubbermaid bins and the fish in another bin. I really have never given the sand that much thought. Tank moves usually take a fair amount of time so if necessary I’ll add an air stone and heater to the fish bin. You can use a bucket top wet dry vac from home depot but if you’re needing to get a lot of sand out I’d use a more substantial wet dry vac with a wider diameter hose. I just keep the sand on buckets. Most recently I moved a Redsea 140 gallon reefer. When putting the tank back together I add the sand and then pump the water from the garbage cans into a sock within the tank to filter the water clean and avoid more disturbances to the sand. In this moves case I added 50 gallons of new salt water. New carbon was added along with Marinelands micron filters and I believe I added some prime. Nothing died and the tank looked better than ever the next day. Frankly the fish and coral got quite cold that day but they were resilient enough to survive. I should add that I make sure the fish are fed high quality food after the stress of a move.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

You should be just fine...

I'm just stressed because I havent seen my tank since the move because work and my fiance only knows how to feed not how to test parameters and run water changes or dose chemicals

 

[Amboss72]

I'm just stressed because I havent seen my tank since the move because work and my fiance only knows how to feed not how to test parameters and run water changes or dose chemicals

Yeah that’s completely understandable. I might suggest not to stress out as in my experience that’s a waste of energy that doesn’t serve you well. Rather assume the best even if it just feels better to do so and then address the issues when time permits. In my experience water changes work wonders at restoring balance to imbalance. I’m sure you’ll be ok..

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

Yeah that’s completely understandable. I might suggest not to stress out as in my experience that’s a waste of energy that doesn’t serve you well. Rather assume the best even if it just feels better to do so and then address the issues when time permits. In my experience water changes work wonders at restoring balance to imbalance. I’m sure you’ll be ok..

I'm sure too. I've never had an issue with any of my tanks and when you have never had an issue it makes you wonder when will an issue arise haha

 

[brandon429]

Yes it can be done without a rinse, moving tanks, but you risk losing your investment we show in the work thread below. A problem with not rinsing is you can't eliminate detritus/ammonia event as a causative. I noticed the aquarium seemed to have full coralline spotting/signs of aging... Typically associates with detritus stores, curious to know how cloudy the moved bed was if disturbed

If we rinse 100% perfect during transfer= never lose a tank. Not rinsing doesn’t keep good things in the bed, the mud and muck is invasion fuel (cyano) and it has ammonia portions many times depending on states of decay

To not rinse means we move over varying states of decay to the new tank, less risk if the bed is newer but still on a risk continuum vs no risk with rinsing. Both ways can work, one way works always/has work thread doc


As soon as we see a group of fifty people messing with sandbeds and reporting back, we get the real spread on what occurs on the risk continuum.

Rinsing is the only way to run such a thread where fifty + people successfully navigate sandbed maintenance and moves


The rinsed sandbed or the replaced sandbed tank simply has no downside, the downside only happens if you keep the waste and move it over too

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com