DKoKoMan's 150g Reef Tank

[duncangweller]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Nah... your probably right on a lot of the points. I definitely got the rock in but wasn't able to stack and setup due to the cloudiness. I'm sure all the livestock was stressed out with all the disruptions. I wanted to avoid the buckets / totes to minimize stress, however I think I may have done the opposite. I definitely would do things a little different when the time comes for the next move.

Came home today and unfortunately had another loss being the Royal Gramma. That brings the death toll up to 2 now. I couldn't find my carpenter wrasse so I now fear the worst for him as well. I have been doing my best to minimize disruptions in or near the tank to allow everything to stabilize. As I am still paranoid I tested ammonia (0 ppm) and all other parameters were in check. Unfortunately I don't know how much damage is done and hope to minimize any further losses. I watched the tank for 30 mins. And everyone seemed happy, most corals had the polyps out and some still seemed angry.

See what tomorrow brings...

Hey, it happens. I'm actually looking forward to getting my tank again as this time I can set it up from scratch and not have to rush to get fish from buckets to the tank and such.

I enjoy a pistol/goby pair. It's a lot of fun to watch. My tank was by my bedroom so when the shrimp started snapping it was a little frustrating. Next tank I'll have away from my bedroom and perhaps get another one.

Build looks really good so far.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by maron6977

Cool, I loved watching my goby & pistol - when I had sand.
Coming along, looks good

Thanks! Ya they are pretty funny to watch.

Originally Posted by duncangweller

Hey, it happens. I'm actually looking forward to getting my tank again as this time I can set it up from scratch and not have to rush to get fish from buckets to the tank and such.

I enjoy a pistol/goby pair. It's a lot of fun to watch. My tank was by my bedroom so when the shrimp started snapping it was a little frustrating. Next tank I'll have away from my bedroom and perhaps get another one.

Build looks really good so far.

Definitely some learning lessons with this build. Thanks for the kind words. You should definitely get another tank! I went too long without a tank and as much as it's stressful, I enjoy the challenge.

[DKoKoMan]

Lost my yellow tang today. He seemed fine and not stressed which is a huge concern to me. All my water parameters checked out, I went ahead and did a 20g water change after removing the fish. Is it possible that the stress from the initial transfer could have contributed to the recent death toll?

[iamfrontosa]

i don't think the stress would cause this many fish to die. Must be something wrong with the water. But you test seems to be okay.

[Myka]

Have you tested nitrite at all? If there was ever a reading other than "0" it would have pointed to an ammonia spike that you maybe missed.

You should have asked on here for pointers before you transferred. At the very least, you should have left the new sand out until everything was moved over and settled in for a couple weeks. I wouldn't have setup the new tank with all new water (sound like that's what you did). I think you made a few small "mistakes" that added up and are causing some sort of water quality issue - I suspect some kind of bacteria problem. Add to that the stress of the move, and then being in the cloudy water in an unfamiliar setting and I think it was too much. When a tank transfer is done well you will not see an ammonia blip at all.

[DKoKoMan]

I did test Nitrite and it was "0" but that was after I got home and woke up after work. I may have missed a potential "spike". Tested last night, Nitrate read 20ppm and 0 ammonia. I definitely think the fish got stressed from the move and the water quality. I definitely made the mistake of putting the sand in early, LR and clouding up the water.

As far as water goes, I was able to put 75g+ of the water from the original tank in to the new setup. That being said there would be 50% new water and this may have contributed to an imbalance in the bacteria. I definitely saw detectable ammonia (short period) but that definitely reflects on the recent losses.

I will just stay positive and expect to see further losses unfortunately... thanks Myka for the information. Anything helps to try and put my finger on the root cause.

[DKoKoMan]

Lost my black clown fish today I feel bad as my orange clown is all alone now. I'm just dreading the days moving forward if I continue to lose fish.