Wow that was a depressing

[Seriak]

I moved my tank on Sunday to the other side of my room and when I woke up in the morning pretty much everything was dead. Some of the hardier corals look like they might survive, but all my fish and shrimp are gone. I am so depresssed right now.

Would milky water kill my tanks inhabitants. That is the only thing I can think of. The same water that came out went back in. The temperatures were the same. I just don't understand.

I know one thing for sure, I will never move my tank again without having another tank already setup somewhere else to store my reef until the new tank is ready.

Life is sad! And then its gets even sadder! :sad:

[LostMind]

wow man. That really sucks.

Sorry for your loss.

[dekay]

damn, sux to hear that.

you mentioned milky water? did you mean cloudy water from a dsb?

[Aquattro]

Hate hearing that kinda thing. Any idea what the "milky" was?

[Seriak]

Yeah, it was fron my sandbed. I tried to keep the silt down, but it still looked like pea soup after 4 hours. So far, one survivior. My clown fish!!

[EmilyB]

Was it the BTA's ? They spawn (and stress can bring this on). Horrible mess... :frown:

[Aquattro]

Unless it war really dirty and caused a huge ammonia spike (which I doubt), I can't see the sand doing that. I've moved sand before with no problem whatsoever.

[Seriak]

The two anenomes seem to be doing fine now that the lights are on!

[Delphinus]

Sorry to hear it, Chris :frown:

Good luck on the recovery of the survivors!! Let me know if you need anything.

[Beverly]

Sounds like something that happened to a guy on RC. He moved his sandbed and folks there think it was the sulfate stirred up from the anaerobic part of the bed that caused the wipeout.

Sorry to hear about the loss :frown:

Heck, I've moved 3" sandbeds a few times, too, without any loss. I wonder what we did differently to have such different results? Hmmm....

Whenever I moved a sandbed, I was usually moving the tank from one house to another. That meant all rock went into pails with tankwater, corals and fish in pails in other pails of tankwater, and finally, the sandbed in pails with just a bit of tankwater. When I got to the new location, I cleaned and rinsed the tank well. By that time, the sandbed stank bad, so I scooped the sand into the tank leaving the stinky water behind. Then I put in some of the rock, then added the old water, put in more rock and added old water and so on. I made sure I had NSW made at the new location to top up water that would be lost. PHs would be put into the tank as soon as there was enough water, usually when the tank was only half full.

I'm wondering if maybe having the sandbed in pails with some tankwater for a bit and discarding that water may have saved the day in my situations.

[UnderWorldAquatics]

Sounds like something that happened to a guy on RC. He moved his sandbed and folks there think it was the sulfate stirred up from the anaerobic part of the bed that caused the wipeout.

.

I would say that from my experience, it was probably sulfate. How deep was your sandbed? Did it smell anything like roten eggs? Was the bottom of the sand bed muddy dark milky brown? Were there any grey/black areas of sand under the surface of the sand? Did you stir the sandbed down to the bottom, if so it could also be methane posioning if you had a deeper, organic loaded sandbed...

[Beverly]

I would say that from my experience, it was probably sulfate. How deep was your sandbed? Did it smell anything like roten eggs? Was the bottom of the sand bed muddy dark milky brown? Were there any grey/black areas of sand under the surface of the sand? Did you stir the sandbed down to the bottom, if so it could also be methane posioning if you had a deeper, organic loaded sandbed...

Well, I don't know much about that guy's sandbed and his resulting die off. I did not experience any die off when I moved my tanks. My sandbed was about 3". When it was in the pails with a bit of water, yes, it smelled like rotten eggs. The water in the pails was ghastly murky brown which is why I did my best to leave the water in the pail and only remove the sand :eek: Yes, there was a grey ring around the sandbed about halfway down. Yes, when moving the sandbed, I scooped it all up at once, mixing top and bottom and everything inbetween. But, again, I say I had no die off in the tank at all. Surprised even me.

[Aquattro]

I think if we want to blame the sand, it might be from O2 depletion. If enough organics were released from the sand, and the pumps weren't running properly, it could cause a problem by using up the O2 in the tank. I seriously doubt that sulpher is to blame here.

[Skimmerking]

What type of containers did you use maybe there was some thing in the tubs that you had there ....


Just a thought... :eek:

[Seriak]

Here's the update. My last fish died last night and he looked to be doing so well. :sad: :sad: My Anenomes are looking a little worse for ware. My corals are starting to perk up a tiny bit.

As for my sand bed. I varied it throughout the tank from 1" to maybe 4-5". I did stir it up as I re-scapped it during the move.

Remember that Imax movie about the reefs. That is what my tank looks like now. A complete waste zone. Not looking good at all.

Oh! And I do not remember it smelling that bad!

[robbyville]

Firstly, I'm extremely sorry to hear about your loss. Not a pleasant way to spend a weekend.

Is there any chance that this could have been caused by an electrical surge?

[andestang]

Sad to hear man :sad: Hope you figure it out

[Reef_Ready]

Sorry to hear that Seriak. I had the same thing happen to me a while back. I'm convinced it was hydrogen sulfide as UnderWorld pointed out.

[Seriak]

I don't think it is possible on the electrical surge part. I am thinking that it had to have been the Hydrogen Sulfide coming out of the sandbed like some of you said. There is no other explanation for it.

I appreciate all of your sympathy and theories. I will be a lot more careful in my future moves.

On a happier note. I haven't lost one coral or anenome yet. :lol: :lol: