Tank move HELP!!

[HunterBryan]

I just transferred fish and coral to new house and placed in brute can till I get my 75 cleaned and back up on stand and plumbed. Im mixing 50 gallons new tank water with red sea coral pro salt.

Problem is my coral looks horrible and starting to turn white in the container. Im wondering if taking all the the rocks out stirred up some phosphates.

Question is: Can I mix my new water all day and fill the tank up and start putting my fish and coral back in the tank? Ive already losted 2 fish and coral look rough. Need advice please!!!

[Mishri]

Yep, you certainly can do that. do an acclimation process just like when you bought the fish/corals originally.


Are you getting proper lighting, water movement and temps in the temporary container? doing water changes in that can help.


Do a full battery of water tests on your temporary container water.. see whats wrong if everything else looks good.

[HunterBryan]

yes lighting is fine! reef breeders photon48. I was having probs with hair algae and im guessing I had a bunch of phosphates come with me when I transferred. Just hope all my coral will recover

[HiFidelity]

First things first, is your temp the same in the container as it was in the DT before you tore it down?

Do you have adequate flow in the container?

On the new water, as mentioned in Mishri's comment make sure you acclimate but to make the acclimation process silky smooth and quicker match the new water salinity & temp as close as possible to the Brute before you start acclimating. Should make the transition least stressful on your livestock.

How'd you lose 2 fish?

Not accusing you of doing a bad job in any way but just to share a story; a while back I helped a friend move his tank (72g) and he simply didn't plan properly which resulted in a dead yellow tang and livestock sitting in containers for at least 12 more hours than planned during which his temps dropped drastically and flow was not even half what it should be. When I arrived at his place he'd already taken everything out of his tank and had it on the livingroom floor in buckets, I helped him move his tank and told him many times that if he has to stay up all night putting the tank back online that he should. I show up the next day and his tank still had no water in it, yelled at him & called him back that evening when he put everything in the tank, yellow tang was stressed and never made it.

I've been guilty too but not by choice, my tank sprung a leak and I had to pull everything out in a hurry, couldn't plan for that so I ended up losing some corals because it took me about 48 hours to find a replacement tank & set it up. Meanwhile everything sat in a FW tank with a powerhead and a single heater with no lighting. Basically, I hate tank swaps & moving a tank from room to room :-/

[HunterBryan]

yes I have a 10 gallon tank and a 20 gallon brute with heaters at 80 degrees and maxi jets circulation the water. I put all my coral and fish and rock in 5 gallon buckets and transferred it all to new house which was 10 mins away but outside in Arkansas was 30 degrees. I did it all in about an hour.

The only is my tank at the house was 82 degrees and the storage container is 79-80.
Will 2 degrees mess up everything? and I have no clue why my two fish died. I had one for 2 and half years

[Mishri]

Getting everything back in the display tank ASAP is probably your best bet at this point.

[HiFidelity]

82's a bit high just in general, Not sure how accurate your measuring instrument is but I'd get the water close to 1 degree difference and start acclimating...

2 degrees shouldn't kill everything, my recommendation of matching temps/salinity is to simply minimize further stress as much as possible.

[HunterBryan]

alright well my wife has me moving and painting all day and night so Ill have to wait till we are done with that before I can move everything and set it up tonight.

You think things will be alright till then? Gotta let my water mix too

[HiFidelity]

as long as your temps are stable and you have water movement there isn't much you can do but I'd be in a hurry to get them in the tank and situated.

[HunterBryan]

alright thanks for all the input

[Mishri]

If they are already seeing signs of stress/dieing I'd make my priority of getting the tank area setup (paint if needed) and get everything back together and tell the wife too bad... but that might be why i'm 34 and still not married :)

have you tested the water conditions yet? amonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity? make sure something isn't off.. maybe something happened. btw, phosphate shouldn't harm anything. (It would just cause an algae bloom, SPS is the only thing that might have trouble with high enough phosphates, and usually it wont be instant death). and like hifidelity said check temps, you could also try dropping the temp a bit, it slows down metabolism rates of both corals and fish which can help keep them alive. It's probably a good idea to always drop temps down around to 72-74 before a move for that reason... 80-82 is good for coral growth, but I like to keep my tanks around 78.. faster metabolism rates can dirty the water quickly, so with less water volume you could be having an amonia spike.

if any of your water parameters are off do water changes asap. How long have they been in there?

[HunterBryan]

yea wife already is ****ed about this whole moving the tank before anything deal so im gonna try my best to get some stuff started but I highly doubt ill be able too haha. Ill try lower the temps tho a bit. Ill keep yall posted. I just think they might be stressed to the max. My rose bulb anemone are doing fine so im sure its just stressed.

I haven't checked my params yet because I just moved them yesterday and Wednesday and everything was fine before then except a lil hair algae

[ExpensiveHobby]

when I moved last year I had a 125 gallon coming with me. I planned of work 2 days. One day to move every single thing in the house that we owned, and one for the tank. And Damn if that tank move didn't take longer than everything else. I didn't lose anything though.

My best guess like the others is the temperature swing. I've seen corals die super quick with a 5 degree swing. Like 2 hours quick.