A dying question?

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by kien

This line struck me.. so your tank in theory could have been less than 2 months old? That's a pretty new tank. Did you start it up from scratch? If so, that is a VERY new tank. New tanks like that can be unstable and even after the cycle has completed need a little while longer to get its groove/stabilize/balance out etc..

In the first two months anything from adding too much fish to doing too much water change can throw the tanks balance off. You really do have to be careful in the first few months.

Did you set up your bathtub with brand new fresh saltwater ? They could have been stressed over a chemical imbalance due to the water change AND rock movement (potentially releasing chemicals), and then throwing them into a tub of newly mixed saltwater did them in. Anyway, that would be my theory.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

yes the tank was newish (half old half new) and the tank cycled in 3 days (did not believe it my self but ???).
yes the bathtub was all new for if something was in the water I wanted to try to give them a fighting chance for they did not look good in the tank at all.

I never thought about stress or anything by moving the rock around.
would doing a water change changing or rock movment that has affected the chemical balance not show on tests though?

[shimmy]

well i do keep my condo cleen and it was a clean bucket in the bath tub (I should have described that all better)
the clowns showed better sines after the move but did not make the night.

[shimmy]

I will move on and try harder to prevent things in the future from happining and you are correct one little thing can start another little thing intill problems start, it would just be nice to know what little thing it was.

thanks everyone for your input on what it could have been.

[Binare]

The little thing is obvious, new tank barely cycled with way too much stuff in it. Then a quick dump in a much much colder chemical, dirt and soap infested bathtub. I'd be more surprised if anything lived.

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by Binare

The little thing is obvious, new tank barely cycled with way too much stuff in it. Then a quick dump in a much much colder chemical, dirt and soap infested bathtub. I'd be more surprised if anything lived.

well the tank is cycled and I know that when too much to fast is added it can be found with testing usually (nitrate...) and nothing new has been added in days and the last thing added was the clowns (babies) last weekend.

If there is more to cycling then watching the chemical levels rise and fall back and forth till there is no more change even after adding new stuff then I need to know more.

also the temp that I moved them too was the same as what they come from I admit it was not cycled water or fully chemical treated but what you do in a situation like so?

what I put them into was CLEAN and they did just fine for the couple of hours I was up with them.

[new but handy]

did I miss the part when you said how many fish? If there was 10 fish added in less than 2 months.SLOW DOWN. I don't think I added any fish for 3 months then I added 1 a month

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by shimmy

ok my tank is a 72 gallon and been setup for about 2-3 months (I think maybe less)
ok for the water change I remove 2 pails (3 gallons a pail i think) of water and then add 3 buckets over the course of several hours. I always remove the water first the add fresh. I float the new buckets of water in my tank to get them up to proper temp to insure I do not send a cold or hot wave through my tank (reason it takes several hours to do a change) I perform a water change every couple days for I dont have enough time in the day to do the 25%. I always match the salt close to the tank or slightly lower depending on the current salt of the tank.

break down
remove water
fill bucket with fresh
add salt
add chemicals as needed (i.e. Prime)
mix and check again
float in tank to get to even temp
dump bucket slowly into tank.

Water change was done early in the morning finished around noonish

my tank is filtered using a Fluval 304.
I use a 300W heater to maintain temperature(never turns on for between my condo and the lights its hot... 83 F)
I use a powerhead I cant recall the maker but its a 1600L/hr

nothing new has been added to my tank since sunday.

only my hermit crabs are still alive but dont look good
all my corals look good

any other questions?

Sorry about your troubles

I would say also, that it could have been due to not letting the salt mix for long enough....mix for at least 12 hours before your water change....I have a 20g rubbermaid tote(like $8 at wallymart) that I use to pre-mix my water in... an inexpensive heater and power head is used to keep it at tank temperature and mixed.

Do you shut off flow to the tank for the couple hours it takes to do the water change? No flow for that length of time is bad and could have caused the "crash"