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[jtgray_10]

I just moved my 75g tank, and am having some problems. Fish seem fine, lost all shrimp and snails during the first night, mushrooms, corals, and long tentacle anemone don't seem to be doing well at all. All tests are within reason except Alkalinity which is off the charts. I know this is a tough question, but what do I do? Will the high Alk cause this or should I look for some other problem? I am really sick about the anemone, it had been in there for 2 years, and was getting huge. Any help is much appreciated.

[Quillen]

Do you have a sick tank set up that would be appropriate for the anemone? It releases all kinds of bad stuff into the tank when it dies and will make your situation much worse [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] . If you haven't, might try doing small water changes for now. Wish I could be more help, but if nothing else - I'll get it up to the top again. Good luck!

[BReefCase]

Just a thought, but have you tested for copper in the tank water? If copper were somehow introduced accidentally during the move, that would certainly explain the wipe out of your inverts without affecting your fish. I believe the snails and shrimp would die first, as you indicated.

[jtgray_10]

The first test I did was for Copper, and it read zero. Mushrooms, Coral, and Anemone are gone. The only thing I can think is that when I moved the substrate it stirred up a bunch of "stuff" that contaminated the water, I did a partial water change and added some carbon. Hopefully the fish will pull through. Thanks for the replies.

[Quillen]

Good luck. I'm sorry you lost some of your stuff. I wish I had more of an idea why for you. [img]images/smiles/icon_sad.gif[/img]

[reefhope]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Just a thought - I know invertebrates are very sensitive to changes in sg, did you have to add new make up water to the tank after moving it?

[Emmitt]

Travis, sorry about your losses. Your thought about contaminating the water when moving your sandbed is probably correct. How long was the old tank setup? If it was longer that about 8 - 10 months, then there was all kinds of s**t in there.

I went through a similar thing once when moving from one tank to another. Just moving the rocks stirred up alot of debris. My mistake was trying to move too much of the sand. Unless we're willing to wash the sand in clean salt water (and sifting out as many critters as possible), I think it's best to just start from scratch with the sandbed.

For now, do lots of water changes and run some carbon. The worst is probably over. Good luck.

[jtgray_10]

I did have to add some make up water, but I made sure to keep the sg the same as the old water. The tank had been set up for almost 2 years, so I am fairly certain that the sand is the culprit. Thanks for all the help.

Travis

[swreefer]

I'd have to say the sand caused the problem. I re-arranged my tank one time and moved the sand bed. This caused all the gasses and other things in the DSB to be released into the water. This in turn caused the disolved oxygen content in the tank to drop to lethal levels basically suffocating things in the tank. I lost a lot of livestock overnight. I learned the hard way not to mess with a DSB that had been there for a long period of time. If I ever move a tank again, I will get all new sand.
Sorry to hear about your tank.

[Floridiane]

I almost have to disagree on what is said about not taking the old sand with you. I just moved from a 30 gal to a 55 gal, not that big I know, but was told from several sources to take EVERY BIT OF SAND AND WATER from the old tank to the new one. Otherwise you are going to have to recycle your new tank and that is impossible when you are taking corals and fish with you. If you use your old LR, plus some new to make up for the new size, plus new sand MIXED with your old sand (run this through a PVC pipe so as not to have sand flying everywhere) and your old water along with new to have enough, you should not have a problem. I did this and never lost a fish, coral, shrimp, snail crab, anything. There had to be something else causing your problem. You needed your old sand to cycle the new bed, plus your old LR. Hope I am not butting in here, just trying to help.

[jtgray_10]

I had previously moved from a 29 gal. to the 75 when I finished school, and didn't have any of these problems, BUT the 29 gal. had only been set up for about 6 months, and maybe it didn't have time to build up the detritus in the DSB. A few other questions, how long should I leave the carbon in the tank, and how long can I leave fresh salt water in a container with a heater and power head before I put it in the tank? Thanks again.

Travis

[puffy123]

[img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] Sorry about the problems. Did you mix the new salt water for 24 hours? The alk level of new mixed water can be very high if not allowed to aeriate and sit for a day or so.

[reefhope]

I've read that 4 or 5 days for the carbon is usual routine.

As far as the mixed water, I have mixed water up to 1 week ahead of time and have never had a problem. But be careful that no pollutants get into the container, I cover my 5gal bucket because it sits in our laundry room.

HTH