I lost everything !!

[Jim Barry]

I started up my new tank in the new house 3 days ago and moved everything into the new tank as I had to tear down the old tank.

After moving the corals, fish and live rock, it took no more than 2 hours for the tank to become a toxic mess. within 24 hours I lost all fish and have lost more than 25 acros that were really nice pieces. Despite every effort to save everything it was to no avail. I moved over 60 gallons of old tank water to the new tank, did water changes, used carbon, protein skimming and alot of praying.

I am now looking at a tank of white skeletons of sps. I threw out all the softies. The only thing that is still alive is a few mushrooms :rolleyes:

oh... and I'm sure my aiptasia is still alive... :rolleyes:

The water parameters are all good, I have zero ammonia as I have over 200lbs of live rock from my old tank. I am guessing that there were too many corals that were secreting toxins.

After spending a ton of money on these animals and devoting 2 years to keeping them growing and happy, I am saddened by this loss of life.

Maybe I could have planned the transition over a slower period of time. Maybe I should have farmed everything out and moved it back in over time. Maybe I should have sold all these corals and fish to a happy home before moving the tank.

Who knows........ rookie mistakes maybe and excited about starting up the new tank.

When we start this hobby, we make a decision to care for these animals to the best of our ability......I know this probably could have been prevented......shame on me !!

Thought I would share this unfortunate event

Jim :cry: :cry:

[Beermaster]

Jim that is so sad to hear, I hope this does't drop you from the hobby



:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Jim Barry]

Thanks Mark..

After spending all the money on the new tank and cabinetry.... I will be in the hobby forever.


UPDATE.......... I found my Lawnmower Blenny, a cleaner shrimp and a Peppermint Shrimp still alive. THERE MUST BE A GOD !!!!!!




Jim

[vanreefer]

Rough :frown: :frown:

[christyf5]

Oh Jim, thats awful :frown: So sorry to hear that things just kept going downhill after we chatted.

I'm glad you found some of your critters. They must be tough old birds eh?

Christy :)

[Rikko]

Ouch. :(

You didn't transfer your sand bed, did you? Maybe anaerobic pockets got released?

[Jim Barry]

no it was a new sandbed

[Beverly]

How devastating :cry: Sorry for your losses :cry: :cry:

[kari]

As soon as things are back in order I'll do some acro cutting to get something in there for you if they are of types fitting your tank plans.

[Jim Barry]

As soon as things are back in order I'll do some acro cutting to get something in there for you if they are of types fitting your tank plans.

Thanks Kari !!!

I am feeling better already :biggrin:

Jim

[AndyL]

Sorry about the loss jim, always tough when you loose some of your pride and joy's.

Having a few of your frags in my tank - I'd be happy to donate some back.

Andy

[Jim Barry]

Thanks Andy,

I appreciate your kindness

[Troy F]

Sorry to hear that Jim, it sucks to lose one thing nevermind a disaster like that.

[Fish]

Jim,
Sorry for your loss. I don't know what happened but I wouldn't blame yourself for a rookie mistake. Moving 200lbs of your established rock and 60% of your water sounds pretty solid to me - it's not much consolation, but I wouldn't have done anything differently from you. :question:

- Chad

[ungp]

Jim,

sorry to hear of your lost. its never easy moving all that around.
i certainly hope that you'll be around in the hobby. please keep us up to date on the re-building if that is your plan.


Polo.

[medic_eva]

man, i can't even say how sorry i am to hear that. what a huge heartbreaker. i really hope that what survived now thrives for a long time. so sorry to hear it man...

good luck with everything!

eva

[meltdownaverted]

how big of a move was it? I was planning on doing the same thing in two weeks. did you transfer everything at once? any tips would be appreciated. I have stocked extra rock and sand for the new tank but it will only be set up for a week before I have to get out of this place. I was planning on keeping everything in buckets because it is only a two block move.

[meltdownaverted]

BTW I have mostly lps that can't be farmed out because I'd feel bad if my algae took over someone elses tank. Maybe I'll borrow a tank for the fish.

[BCWolfen]

Jim,

What can I say that hasn't been said.
Sorry for your loss. Its always sad when we lose one our 'pets'.

Its great to see the offers of support from the community.
Wish I was more local and could help out. Have a few softies that are fraggable.

[rusty]

I know how you feel Jim, I just moved the contents of my 30 gallon into my 114 and slowly started to add water every day untill the tank was full. I also put in a new sand bed and added metal halides instead of my PCs. None of my corals look good except my BTA but he is not bubbled right now. I did loose my digitatas and I don't think my acro is going to make it, Live and learn right :confused:

[sumpfinfishe]

Sorry to hear that Jim :sad:

[muck]

Whoa thats a tough one to take...
I have a couple of your corals as well...
If you can't find replacements nearby let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Sorry the move isn't going as smoothly as hoped... :frown:

[Jim Barry]

Thanks for your support everyone...

Today I started cleaning out all the white skeletons..

Strangely enough, it appears the only thing to live have been my 2 shrimps. I can't figure that out because they are usually so sensitive to change in water parameters. I even killed 2 chocolate starfish.

I am thinking the mistake I made was not to run the tank for a few days with fresh water and then drain and refill with RO water.

I think there might have been pvc cement residue in the water from when I plumbed the lines. I only let it dry for a short time before before I started the pump. :redface:

I hope to be up and running again soon. Any contributions to the Jim Barry "frag relief fund" are greatly appreciated :biggrin:

Thanks again,


Jim

[danny zubot]

After spending all the money on the new tank and cabinetry.... I will be in the hobby forever.

Thats good to hear Jim.

I'm really nervous about moving my tank now. I'm debating taking a little more time than I had originally planned.

[Delphinus]

Oh wow Jim that's so horrible for you. I'm very sorry. I feel your pain. The last two tank moves cost me nearly every fish and it was a terrible hit to take. I'm very relieved to hear that your lawnmower blenny and shrimp are OK. Best of luck with their continued recovery. Corals can be regrown from the smallest of frags but a fish you can't regrow from a fin. :cry:

Anyhow you are of course most welcome to pieces of anything that I have. When the tank has stabilized please look me up.

[Willito]

What a heartbreaker Jim, I feel for you man. When something like this happens it can be so frustrating trying to figure out what the cause was. Too many elements to blame so don't be hard on hard yourself. I am glad you shared this with us as it may help others in the future who plan on transplanting tanks. I also have coral that I can frag to start you off again.

[bulletsworld]

Any contributions to the Jim Barry "frag relief fund" are greatly appreciated :biggrin: Jim


Awwww....so sorry to hear about your loss... *HUGS!*

I'm not sure what I have to frag but your more then welcome to anything I got. I also come to Calgary quite often. Let me & other Edmonton guys know.

So sorry again Jim, to hear. *HUGS AGAIN!*

[gbeef]

Thats harsh to see that happn. im in calgary, and your welcome to any frags i have or i can frag somthing for you.
Sorry to hear about the crash.

[Bob I]

It is indeed sad to hear of your losses, but you need not blame yourself. I have lost corals when they were moved to a new location within a tank. I have even lost corals when a snail knocked them over during the night and I did not notice it for a couple of days. :mad: It sounds as though some pieces died and released toxins. :eek: , and from there it snowballed until the whole tank was polluted. :cry:

[Doug]

Sorry for your losses Jim. Not much comfort, but many of us have had an incident like that, so your not alone.

Did you have any clam losses?

When I moved a few years ago, I had a similar incedent. Never was able to pin down the cause. Best guess was to much 2-part epoxy for the sps corals or just the moving stress on the clams. They went first and all that meat soon took out all the sps and even a couple fish. :cry:

[Majestic_Aquariums]

We were devistated to hear of your troubles Jim. What a shame...
Not sure what else to say on the subject.
You guys did so much careful planning on the system, time and money too. This was supposed to be a happy ending, not disaster.

Hope it gets better though. :rolleyes:

[EmilyB]

Jim, condolences buddy. :sad:

Come on by when things have stabilized. I can round up a few sticks for you. :biggrin:

[Dez]

Sorry Jim,

My move 2 weeks ago cost me $300 worth of corals that I bought off Jonathan when he shut down. And I only moved five minutes away from my old house. Sucks doesn't it....I felt like quitting..

Des

[bulletsworld]

Yeah after hearing yours Dez, Jim's & everyone else's tank move stories, with coral/tank losses & crashes, I'm now scared about the move outta my place next month with my big tank. Eeekkkk! :eek:

thanks for sharing all your story though. Good to know. :neutral:

[Beverly]

Geez, guys, I've moved several tanks times, either from one tank to another, or from house to house and never lost anything that I can think of right now. Of course, I didn't/don't have a lot of stony corals, mostly lps and softies with some sps.

The key from moving from house to house is to move the tank on a separate day from furniture/household goods moving. That way lots of time can be taken for moving the tank contents. Have lots of pails for LR and sandbed if you have one, and rubbermaid tubs for moving corals and fish. Also, clean as much algae off the tank walls the day before so when it dries out during the move it's not going to cause a spike of any kind. At your new place, have lots of NSW made up prior to the move to top up for whatever water was lost during the move.

Tank moving day is a good do to clean your LR. Have a bucket a third full of tankwater. Each rock coming out of the tank gets a good swish in the bucket. TONS of crud will come out of your rock and your bucket will get filthy :eek: Dump the dirty water from time to time, refill with tankwater and keep swishing.

It's been so long since I moved a sandbed, that I forgot exactly how I did it. Once all the corals, fish, inverts, LR are out, there will be some water left in the tank covering the sandbed. I think this is when I stirred up the entire sandbed (at least 3" deep) to off-gas the stinky bad stuff from the lower layers of the sandbed. Here, too, the water would get absolutely filthy :eek: I'd scrape the sandbed to one side of the tank, siphon out the dirty water, add it the sand to pails, then move everything to the new place. Have lots of muscle carrying the tank, stand, lighting, other equipment, pails and tubs :exclaim:

[Dez]

Bev, I think most of us lost only sps corals. In my tank move I only lost 3-4 big colonies of sps, all of my lps and other stonies made it, and my 3 clams are still alive and kicking. I had no softies. I think that sps corals are just a bit touchier. I didn't lose a single fish.

I don't think that a lot of people have the option to have a separate day for just moving the tanks either. I did not have that option when I moved, but felt that I was responsible for the tank move. I had people dedicated to only the fish tank on the day of the move. Newguy, Richer, Blk Wolfe all helped with Newguy in charge. Some may just be too sensitive to changes that quickly.

Des

[bailey7424]

I've had a challenging experience somewhat like you - sorry to hear about the loss. I'm sure it's not just about the time and money, but also about the dark feeling you get in your stomach when you've been responsible for a large group of animals and then they die under your care.

I had a 33 gallon set-up until 30 days ago when I went to a 90 gallon set-up. I had a faulty heater in a large tub of live rock - there was die off from the live rock which I put into the new set-up and that started a whole chain of events in which I've lost two fish, a shrimp and six or seven corals. So, not as unfortunate a loss as yours. Tank is almost done cycling.

I am still thinking about what options I could have looked at to avoid some of the problems. I will post my whole story so other can learn from it.