Well, that just turned out really bad.

[digital-audiophile]

So the install day came for our basement floor install. We are renovating and had the carpet torn out and laminate installed.

I had offers of babysit help (and I appreciate it :))but since I had an empty 40G sitting around I figured I would set that up as a temp tank.

On Thursday I transferred my fish and corals into the temp tank using existing tank water and kept it moving with a couple koralias and a stealth heater to maintain temp. I also put on a coralife PC strip light I had just for the short term. The live rock went into rubbermaid garbage cans with powerheads and heaters.

The installers came Friday and did the job in one day ending around 6:00. I checked in on the temp tank and everything seemed fine so I decided that I would wait until Saturday to get everything set bck up.

That is where my mistake was :(

Saturday morning after breakfast and coffee went down to look at the temp tank and smelled the death before I saw it.

The death count is at:
6 SPS Colonies
1 Cleaner Shrimp
5 Chromis
1 Hippo Tang
1 Sixline :( :( :( I had this guy for almost 4 years
2 Aussie Black clowns

The Survivors:
All zoos rics and mushrooms
Buble Tip Anemone
All my frogspan & trorches
Purple Tang (thank God!! I had him the same length of time as my sixline)
Sand Gobie
1 Chromis
Neon Goby
2 Clams


So I'm still not sure what went wrong.. to me it is surprising that sensitive creatures like the clams and 'nem survived yet there were fish losses.

Anyhow.. just a rant I guess.. I've moved tanks so many times now I thought I had it down to a science.. but I guess you learn something ne everytime.

[OCDP]

Oh man, I am so sorry to hear Greg.. that's terrible! I wonder what went wrong in such a short amount of time ?

[christyf5]

Wow that totally sucks, i'm sorry to hear that. That is odd that the more "sensitive" critters survived. Maybe an ammonia spike?? Oxygen issues??

Sometimes this hobby can be so frustrating. :neutral:

[Delphinus]

Oh geez Greg I'm really sorry to hear that. :( I wonder what happened. It's like something kicked off some kind of chain reaction. Good luck with everything!!

[mark]

oh no.

Though using tank water, since no LR for filtration, could all the livestock caused a ammonia spike?

[digital-audiophile]

I did use some live rock in the temp tank as well as the rock that the softies are attached to.

I tested the tank water and the params were normal. Just one of those things that happen I guess and never make sense.

I'm just glad it is done and there should not be another reason to move the tank again in the near future.

[fishoholic]

Sorry to hear that, it sucks losing corals and fish :sad:

[Slick Fork]

Yikes,

Sorry to hear about that. Now I"m scared, I'm moving everything into temporary accomodations while I wait for my new tank from Golds.

[Lance]

That's terrible! So sorry for your loss. Hopefully all goes well for you here on in.

[spreerider]

fish can be lost from stress alone, maybe the tank change stressed them then infighting insued

[Skimmerking]

well think about the carpet you ripped up if you did and installed flooring if they did cutting in the house for the laminate. I had some floors done too and my 65 gal. I lost some fish to along with had some drywalling done too that day.

[Whatigot]

holy...
I'm in the process of moving my 72...
scary stuff.
I would love to know wht you think if anything you could have done differently as a preventative?

Really sorry to hear about your losses....

[digital-audiophile]

The cutting of the flooring in the house would be my guess for the deaths. Allthough the tank remained in the basement and was sealed off from the rooms getting work done I am sure now that particulate from the laminate got in the tank. The surface looked a little scummy. I am still baffled as to why the nem and the clams made it when a fish like my sixline (that has survived a couple tank moves and a carpet surfing stint) did not.

If I had to do it again I would take the livestock out of the house all together. Get them into a babysitting set up at another home.

Getting the big tank set back up was a pain.. it takes a bunch of work to get the plumbing back in sand and rock and water filled. The big tank was still murky but I decided that I would get all the remaining livestock back into that tank rather than risk them staying in the tank 'o death for any longer.

[Whatigot]

good on you.
Man, moving tanks is risky even for the very experienced.
Wish I'd planned my initial tank placement better.

thanks for the insight.

[digital-audiophile]

So the rest of my SPS is dead. :(

I give up on stony corals.. just not woth pumping the money into them only to have them die. I am going to stick with clams/LPS and softies from now on.


So I need to think about restocking the tank with livestock:

All I have left now :

Purple Tang
Firefish
1 Chromis
Neon Goby
Sleeper Goby


.. I'm thinking about just doing one living mass of chromis.. like maybe two dozen of them. That way when I kill of my livestock again I am not crying over the death of expensive fish :p

[AJ_77]

Sorry to hear that, Greg. I hope you can get it into a comfortable operating range and enjoy it again.

[kwirky]

if it was mostly fish loss it could have been lack of oxygen.

That's crappy to hear about greg...

[digital-audiophile]

If anything this has gave me a renewed interest in my tank. Over the summer I have not paid too much attention to it. Other that water changes and feeding I have not done much. Now that the basement is just about finished it gives me more of an excuse to spend time in the basement. And my little daughter is really excited about fish so it should be fun to play around again. Now to start heading back to the stores to restock :)

[Snaz]

If anything this has gave me a renewed interest in my tank.

I think most would agree that looking at a perfect tank is fine but the real fun is in the building and tinkering and just plain getting our hands wet.

Sure I enjoy looking at the results of my work but I get more glee from mucking about and even breaking things. :wink: