Moved my tank and everyting is dead

[Schplitter]

I just upgraded and moved all my stuff from the 76 gal corner to a 6ft 100 gal RR tank. Right after the move everything looked fine. The next day all the coral looked like somone wacked them. (80% LPS 10% softies and 10% SPS). The SPS were the 1st to go. The Lps are slowly melting away. The softies look ok. The fish the shrimp are fine and eating like pigs.

I did make one mistake and let the temperature drop from 83 to 70 over night because I forgot to plug in the heater. Might have been a couple of nights...

All the levels tested good yesterday. I did use instant ocean salt instead my regular coralife for the 50 gallons of new water.

The lighting system consists of 2 14K 250W SE HQI's ((ebay cheapos)(they do look good)) on a Bluevave 7 ballast and 2 Lumenaric minis. I'm waiting for the VHOs to arrive. I have 2 mag 12s on the tank and one 1000gph powerhead/pump blasting the tanks inhabitants... One mag 12 is on a closed loop while the other one is used as a return from the 55gal sump. The temperature is between 79 and 82. I moved my ER skimmer from the 76gal over to the new tank. It's doing a much better job in this tank then the old one. Better placement and a little claner...

Might the temperature drop have done all the harm or did I do something? Might the lighting be too strong or too different? (Had 20K MH DE 150 + 250W.)

Any ideas you might have will help. I was thinking about buying or borowing a few test coral to see if the new coral like the tank. If they do that would mean the temperature did the killing and my lights are ok....

Thank you,

BK

 

[capncapo]

The temperature drop probably did the most damage.

In the future you may want to make any changes like lighting after your animals have adjusted to their new surroundings.

 

[Schplitter]

For some reason I always chose to learn the hard way.

Do you think it would be a good idea to add a new coral to see what would hapen?

BK

 

[sirreal63]

I would wait for the fallout of the death in the tank....ammonia, nitrite and the final nitrate before I added anything. I agree that temp swing did them in. Tough lesson but we all make mistakes and learn from them. :-(

 

[DrBDC]

Another vote for temp but have very very short lighting periods for a bit and slowly increase them to full schedule over a few week period. If it's too much light, this will help. If the light ends up being the same, it's like a stormy couple of weeks and doesn't matter.

 

[geoxman]

Temp did it in! When it gets back up and running I have plenty that you can have-no LPS-but plenty of polyps. good luck

 

[Nanook]

Sorry to hear about your losses!

 

[StupidsReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10133912#post10133912 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Schplitter
For some reason I always chose to learn the hard way.
BK

Your not alone in this area. Welcome to the group of HARD learner's. It's not a fun group.

 

[JxMetal]

You can have that frag for no charge if you need to test water conditions.

 

[Schplitter]

Thank you everyone. I'll just keep my eyes on the water and keep testing. I'll do a water change on Saturday to help get all the mess out. My sebae opened up today so that's a good sign. I'm surprised that the clams did not mind any of it. I guess they are happy with all the dead stuff in the water...

geoxman, JxMetal, Dr BDC, I'll definetly take you up on your offeres. I'll need a lot of stuff to refill the tank and get it to where it needs to be again.

I guess another round of patience is in order. We'll see how things look in the next couple of days and maybe on Sunday I can add a couple of test coral. I will keep everyone up to date.

Thank you,

BK

 

[craig813]

I must have lucked up, my temp went down into the mid-low 60's during the Dec storms power outage and I didn't loose anything.

The GHA probably insulated everything!

Sorry to hear about your loss, I'll hook you up with a hammer frag when its gets big enough in a few months.

craig

 

[Schplitter]

I think the move and the cold did the tank most of the damage. If it were one or the other I don't think I would have lost as many animals as I did.

Craig, your offer reminds me of the Hammer frag Rena gave me. It had about 7 or 8 heads. Just awesome looking. I guess this is a lesson well learned. Let me know when you have a frag to share and I will have something for you by then also.

Thank you,

BK

 

[Schplitter]

I noticed a little phosphate and a little amonia in the sytem so I did a 20gal water change yesterday. The 3 or 4 surviving coral opened up a little. I think the water I have been using was not at 0 TDS. That might have been a contributing factor... needless to say a new RoDi unit is on the way.

Things are looking better but still very ugly without coral.

BK

 

[Schplitter]

Just an update for those of you who are reading this:

The tank is up and running. All levels are fine. The fish seem happy and the coral are waking up. I think it's time for new coral...

BK