Yeah originally I wanted to do exactly what you had described and go really slow but it just wasn't going to work well. For one, I don't have enough equipment for both tanks (even just to keep good circulation) and two I didn't have nearly enough water or space. The new tank is quite wide and so even when I had just filled it with established tank water, it was under half full. Plus most of my corals are already encrusted to rocks. You can't even see the putty or superglue anymore to remove them. So most corals had to go with the rocks.

Perhaps it was the salt though or big water change...

Its either that or the sand I think. Will never know I guess.

I had thought so. Don't think I am going to figure this one out.

Still what baffles me the most is that some of the hardy stuff like monti caps, birdsnest and gorgonians died??? So weird.

may not be anything you did.
It's odd that some more delicate specimens made it some that were hardier did not.
Odd that your prams seem good and odd that you didnt do anything different than the 5 or 6 times I've had to move a reef and got few if any losses.


we're missing a piece of this puzzle and may never get it...
I guess thats aquaria for you sometimes, no matter how much you play by the book you just can't win em all.

Wow that just flat out sucks.

In all my previous tank moves/upgrades I did EXACTLY what you did, right down to the rinsing of the sand, etc. Everything was always fine. Although the one time I didn't transfer the sand at all, I had a crash, but I also moved from Edmonton to Calgary...so who knows with that.

I hope everything improves, or maybe you can create some frags and send them to heal in a friends tank. At least then you might have a chance of keeping something that might otherwise not make it.

Sorry to hear about this GSP. Truly unfortunate. I have switched tanks more than most, {but thats another story,:lol:}. Seldom any acro or other sps losses. Now that I have said that, my stuff is moving from my 20g to my 30g this weekend, so hope I never jinxed myself.

Cant see salt mix being a problem. Lots of times, I have mixed a major cganhe for only a couple hrs. no problem. Most of my tank changes have been like yours. Part old water and part new water. Have not done sand changes in awile but when we moved Mike,s from his 120 to his 150, we moved most of his sandbed, which he did rinse well prior to putting it in the new tank. And we left the sand over night before moving more, so not sure if that helped or not.

A few years back, the one time I did have a problem and lost many sps and clams on a tank move, was an alkalinity issue with then new water. How many of us measure the alk. of the new water? For sure back then I never. Do now though.

Other than that I,m at a loss.

Yup, something is missing but I can't figure out what. Some good ideas have been brought up but most of them I think are things I was aware of before the move and did my best to compensate for. Just going to be one of those mysteries.

I am amazed that this hasn't really affected my acros more. A horn coral dies overnight??? Those things have always been indestructible in my tanks, same with birdsnest. I didn't even realize birdsnest could die ;)

One of the acros that died had only been in my tank a few weeks and come from another members tank, so perhaps all the moves were too much.

I may frag some of the colonies that are receding still but probably just keep them in the tank to see what happens. Its not like they are rare or anything. I can get them again.

It just sucks because most of them were getting quite big and I can't afford to replace all this stuff anytime soon. I actually think I am going to just keep whatever sps lives and then add more LPS instead of new sps. Even a few more softies.

Thanks Doug.

I thought alk right away too but I did actually test my new water and the old water. The new water was 8 and the old water 7ish, maybe closer to 7.5 (I am using Elos and it started to change colors inbetween drops kind of). So it was a little different but once I mixed the new water in, I tested and got 7.5. A day and a half later and I am still getting 7.5, so alk has stayed steady.

I guess I should mention, I have a lot of sps and even though I lost some of the bigger colonies, its maybe only about 15% loss. The tank doesn't look bare or anything. Infact it looks decent and now has plenty of room to grow. The problem is I lost some of my favorites :(

I have done a few tank transfers in my day (moved a lot), but the only time I ever had anything like this happen (and it was exactly like this) was the only time I reused the sand, so naturally I blame the sand. It was a total and complete tank meltdown within a few days of moving, beginning immediately after setting up the new tank. Sorry to hear about your losses, I feel for you.

Thanks. Well I hope this doesn't continue and become a total meltdown. Next time I think I would just skip using the old sand all together.

EDIT: Actually the latest acro that I thought was receding from a few tips was one that had fallen into another acro yesterday, so I think its fine and just damaged from that.

The lights are on now and all the remaining corals look really great actually. No signs of any new stress. The birdsnest has not receded anymore but I think I will frag it tonight to make sure it doesn't spread.

No ideas but hope things come back