So I had an established (> 9months) 55 FOWLR tank, with the livestock listed below:
2 O clowns
Kole yellow eye tang
Coral beauty
Lawnmower blenny
Blue tuxedo urchin
Sand sifting star
Electric flame scallop
2 blu/grn chromis
Cleaner wrasse
Handful of turbo and star snails
I set up a new 125 gallon display tank, with 40 gallon sump using protein skimmer, DSB and Cheeto on a reverse light schedule, filter sock on overflow, foam on pump. We got sand from the beach, washed and sifted, and added water premixed at LFS. ran tank for a day with 1/2 of the live rock from old tank (~25lbs) equalized temps, salinity, tested clean across board. We bagged the fish and floated them to new tank while finishing the transfer of remaining live rock, mixed water and transfered them in. Dripped over inverts. Let tank run its course. That following morning, awoke to a dead tang, missing wrasse, 2 dead chromis, and a few snails were dead. Blenny and coral beauty were swimming all funny near surface and casping for air. Clowns looked great, and blue tuxedo seemed dead (but how can you ever tell).
Immediately tested water and got ph 8.8, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrates, did a 50 gallon water change and added ph buffer 8.2, once I got the ph under control, I transferred the living livestock out of quarantine bucket and into tank, oh yeah, I also removed a large river found rock we placed in the aquarium beleiving it to be the cause of ph spike, and let it ride,( mostly because an hour after this my wife went I to labor) over the 3 days we were in the hospital, my friend who was watching the tank continued to monitor ph and other parameters, while everything else slowly died. Leaving me with only my scallop ( who is thriving right now) and my sand sifting star. Tank has run great now for 5 days with no death of the remaining inverts, and no change in chemistry. I also put about 2 lbs of carbon in a bag in the sump. Changed daily
So my question is, what caused this? Did the urchin poison the tank? Was it all a result of the initial ph spike? Was there pollutants in the sand? Why did everything but my most sensitive inverts die? What can I do to make it safe to a start restocking my fish?
2 O clowns
Kole yellow eye tang
Coral beauty
Lawnmower blenny
Blue tuxedo urchin
Sand sifting star
Electric flame scallop
2 blu/grn chromis
Cleaner wrasse
Handful of turbo and star snails
I set up a new 125 gallon display tank, with 40 gallon sump using protein skimmer, DSB and Cheeto on a reverse light schedule, filter sock on overflow, foam on pump. We got sand from the beach, washed and sifted, and added water premixed at LFS. ran tank for a day with 1/2 of the live rock from old tank (~25lbs) equalized temps, salinity, tested clean across board. We bagged the fish and floated them to new tank while finishing the transfer of remaining live rock, mixed water and transfered them in. Dripped over inverts. Let tank run its course. That following morning, awoke to a dead tang, missing wrasse, 2 dead chromis, and a few snails were dead. Blenny and coral beauty were swimming all funny near surface and casping for air. Clowns looked great, and blue tuxedo seemed dead (but how can you ever tell).
Immediately tested water and got ph 8.8, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrates, did a 50 gallon water change and added ph buffer 8.2, once I got the ph under control, I transferred the living livestock out of quarantine bucket and into tank, oh yeah, I also removed a large river found rock we placed in the aquarium beleiving it to be the cause of ph spike, and let it ride,( mostly because an hour after this my wife went I to labor) over the 3 days we were in the hospital, my friend who was watching the tank continued to monitor ph and other parameters, while everything else slowly died. Leaving me with only my scallop ( who is thriving right now) and my sand sifting star. Tank has run great now for 5 days with no death of the remaining inverts, and no change in chemistry. I also put about 2 lbs of carbon in a bag in the sump. Changed daily
So my question is, what caused this? Did the urchin poison the tank? Was it all a result of the initial ph spike? Was there pollutants in the sand? Why did everything but my most sensitive inverts die? What can I do to make it safe to a start restocking my fish?
