Broke a tank while moving - advice needed

[Catgirl29]

Moved last Thursday. Drained most of the water from the mature JBJ 30, loaded it into the car, must have hit a bump on the way to the new house. Got "home" to find a crack and water slowly leaking. Ran to Aquarium shop and buy 29 gallon (felt I had to since all of my livestock was in buckets at this point).

Anyhow, I used as much tank water, filter media and sand from the old tank as I could. It's been three days and of course, I've lost all but two clowns, which I put in another teeny (pico) tank that I didn't even drain to move.

In the new tank, holy hell - bristle worms that I didn't even know I had coming out of the rock work. I've got a lot of flow going, temp is at 80. If I lose everything, I'm resigned to that. Do I just wait it out and do frequent water changes? Any advice is appreciated. Of course, all this had to happen during a move and the holidays.

 

[gone fishin]

I am a bit confused. The clowns are doing fine in a pico tank but the new 29 is having problems. What is in the new 29g?

And I am sorry to hear about the tank cracking.

 

[Catgirl29]

Well, I'm not sure what's going on in the new tank - and I mistyped - it's a 32 gallon biocube. In the 32, I lost a scooter blenny, sea cuke and a shrimp. Could have been temperature changes, the time in buckets, not sure. What's weird is the copious appearance of the bristle worms. The water is a combo of existing tank water from the 30 and saltwater bought at a reputable fish store. I used the recommended dose of Prime and Microbacter 7 (in the hope of avoiding a huge cycle).

I have at least 6 different test kits. I'll check the water paeans and do some daily water changes.

 

[Catgirl29]

In the new 32 is live rock covered in clove polyp, different mushrooms and devils hand. They're looking ok - although not opening fully. One I have parameters, I'll post. I've just never had to go through such a fast setup

 

[gone fishin]

I see, I would speculate that all the bristle worms showed due to everything getting stirred up. It was kind of a bristle worm equivalent to an all you can buffet.

 

[gone fishin]

It does not surprise me about the devils hand and the others. They should open back up once things settle down. I would do some frequent testing just to make sure things do not get away from you. I was going to suggest getting some prime but your already on top of that.

 

[thegrun]

As far as the cause goes assuming that you kept the rock wet during the move which would most likely rule out an ammonia spike, I would suspect the sea cucumber may have been injured during transport. They release toxins when they die and in a small tank like yours it is certainly enough poison to kill all your livestock.

 

[heathlindner25]

Both ammonia or the cucumber are a possibility

 

[Catgirl29]

I didn't even think about the cucumber. That would make sense.

 

[Sk8r]

Thank your lucky stars for the worms. They're trying to clean up. Watch your ammonia, run PolyFilter and carbon in the water stream to clean up toxin, and have a bottle of Prime on standby. Corals tolerate ammonia better than fish do: ANY ammonia for fish is a bad thing. If it gets bad, get the fish into absolutely clean water in a bucket with aeration and heater until the tank sorts itself out.

 

[Catgirl29]

Post-mortem (well, not everything is dead). I ended up with the two clowns, a couple of hermits, one hearty astrea snail, a few ricordia, and some ugly brown polyps. Every last stitch of blue clove polyp (of which I had a lot and liked) is gone. Sk8r - you were right. The worms did an awesome job of scrubbing the rock clean.

The tank is dealing with ammonia well - Prime has helped and I've got a minor layer of diatoms starting. I guess it's a restart.

 

[WatDatThing]

Man oh man, I feel your pain. Sorry for your mishaps.