Michika's 28g long nano-esque tank!

[MitchM]

If you don't mind an out-of-the-blue opinion...

I didn't see in this thread how your move progressed, but I think that the only thing that could have prevented the terrible losses would have been the presence of MUCH more cured, mature live rock to help support all the corals and clams in your system.
I don't think that the amount of live rock and some old water alone had the capacity to support all that life.
If your old water was transported from Edmonton, how did the bacteria in it survive? It may have been dead already when you put it in the tank in Calgary.
I think Tony's right - it's cycling now.

Mitch

[michika]

Mitch,

Can you explain further what you mean about more mature rock? The bulk of the existing rock is about 4 years old. There was approximately 45 pounds in the previous tank, and this tank is only 4g larger then my previous system.

The rock was all in water, and it was in a heated car for the whole trip. I don't think the bacteria would have died between Edmonton and Calgary by just the move.

I'm confused about your opinion, can you clarify it more please?

[michika]

The remaining clams are in a new temporary home and I have opted to ride out the remainder of whatever this is.

Tonight there was another water change, to the tune of 10g instead of the usual 7g. The crazy neon green algae is still making frequent appearances. I had to clean my glass 5, yes 5 times, between when my MH came on this morning and when they shut of. Needless to say I have reduced my photoperiod.

[MitchM]

Hi Catherine,

Looking at the size of your system, it looks like it is relatively small for the amount of life that you have in there.
When you think about it, by moving, you basically turn off the lights, heaters and restrict gas exchange for 7 hours, set it up again and hope that it recovers alright.
If your system was running at pretty much full capacity before the move, the support system (live rock, mature water, plus removal of a sand bed) wasn't able to both recover itself and help the corals and clams recover as well.


It would have been interesting to know what the water temperatures and ammonia readings were after the drive.

Something didn't make it - as evidenced by the cycle happening now. I think that more mature live rock - even with new salt water, may have helped the system recover better.

Moving a reef tank has got to be the most difficult task for a reefer to do.

Mitch

[michika]

Its always possible. This is like my 8th tank move and this is the first time I've ever had anything negative happen in the least.

To answer your questions about the temperature and ammonia, it was 76, and 0. The temperature reading was taken about 10 minutes after I got to my new place, and the ammonia, probably 3 hours later (give or take).

Thank you though for clarifying your original post.

[michika]

An update from yesterday:

Lights came on today and all my fish are still alive. My shrimp molted, and my urchin is still pretty fiesty.

Something very cool, yet sad at the same time, is that some of my frags and colonys still have polyps, but no flesh. I now wonder how many frags/colonies I removed that weren't 100% dead. I am also seeing zoas opening up (I didn't even know I had these), which is a good sign. My remaining clams have gone to stay elsewhere until everything is resolved. Thank you Tony for watching over them.

The neon green algae on the glass isn't so neony anymore, and so far I haven't yet had to clean my glass. This is a huge improvement of the multiple cleanings the tank required yesterday.

Parameters:
SG: 1.025
Ammonia: 0.75
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0.10?
pH: 8.1

[michika]

The tank today



I need to deal with the micro bubbles asap!

Does anyone have, or have you tried, those little feeding rings that keep all the floating foods in one area? I can't turn my pump off to feed (design flaw), and want to try and minimize wasted food.

I also need to add to my skeleton crew, aka my clean up crew. I'm thinking a bunch of snails maybe?

The GHA is returning too...not cool at all.

A few more photos of survivors:

Candycane - it was just a skeleton with a slight overlay of flesh yesterday, and today its all puffed up and much happier looking.


Some zoas I didn't even know that survived. I have 3 types of zoas and I was sure two of them had already gone to the big tank in the sky.


Cactus coral, probably my oldest coral from before the disaster! It was bleached and I was sure it was dead last week. I didn't remove it and today the color is returning, no polyp extension yet.


I think today I will clean out the remaining skeletons and just clean up the tank a bit more.