Murdock5150
10/12/2006, 06:29 PM
This is the story of how I managed to take my most prized possesion that I had spent over 5 years learning about, and taking care of, and kill it all in just four days.
I have recently had to move my 72gl reef tank due to a military change of station. I was in Montana, and now I'm back home in California. I thought I had everything covered. Not so much. I disassembled the tank the morning before we left Montana. Live rock, sand and water went into buckets. My mistake came with the livestock. I purchased a very large rubbermade container. Put in water, a pump for circulation, a heater, and a digital thermometer. I figured the livestock could ride with me in my suburban since I have the electrical outlets in the back to supply power. It was a 2 day trip, or at least it was supposed to be. Looking back I think my mistake was putting ALL the livestock together. Fish, inverts, corals...everything. I thought that since the container was so large (approx 40 gal or so) that everything would survive.
I lost EVERYTHING!! The frst casualties were the fish, I think. By the time we hit Vegas the smell was unimaginable. The wife was not happy, but I just couldn't bring myself to toss out hundreds of dollars worth of coral, dead or not. I was clinging to the hoope of just a piece of something, anything, would somehow make it. Nope.
So we get to our new base and things get worse. They don't have a house for us for 1 month! I asked around but no one could help. My only option was to put the buckets of rock and sand into storage along with all my household goods. 1 month later, we get a house. Yeah!!...kinda. I started the gruling task of re-setting up my system.
So the tank is in the house. The filtration is in the garage. I mixed up new salt water with my RO/DI unit (all weekend!). Now comes the task of opening the buckets. OMG! The smell!! I can't desribe the smell. Let's just say I shouldn't have eaten that morning. The buckets of rock were the worst. Black, sulfery smelling...just bleah. The sand was better. Stunk at the bottom pretty bad, but nothing like the rock. Again, wife not happy.
That was 3 weeks ago. The tank has since cleared up. The rock was bare, then brown with algae...very brown. Now the rock is just covered here and there with the usual long green hairy stuff. Obviously I am far from putting in any livestock. My PH was high at first, but now is barley staying at 7.8 to 7.9. Calcium is coming up, but I'm not concerned with that now since there is no livestock. All other tests are still very high (nitrates, nitrites) but that doesn't suprise me. It looks like a rocky, underwater desert. Very depressing.
In all this death and destruction, there was one small ray of hope. My refugium survived. It was a 20gl long tank full of live sand, small pieces of rock, chaeto, pods, worms, the works. It all survived and is still the only place I am seeing any life. In time, I hope it will re-seed, so to speak, the main tank and the rest of the system. A lesson learned...a painful one.
I have pictures of the system if someone wants to see them and can tell me how to post them on here. Also, please post any questions you have about my current set up. I would be happy to post all the specs of my set up.
Sorry about the long post, but my wife is sick of hearing about it. After all, the only thing she wanted from the start was a "nemo fishy". :)
I have recently had to move my 72gl reef tank due to a military change of station. I was in Montana, and now I'm back home in California. I thought I had everything covered. Not so much. I disassembled the tank the morning before we left Montana. Live rock, sand and water went into buckets. My mistake came with the livestock. I purchased a very large rubbermade container. Put in water, a pump for circulation, a heater, and a digital thermometer. I figured the livestock could ride with me in my suburban since I have the electrical outlets in the back to supply power. It was a 2 day trip, or at least it was supposed to be. Looking back I think my mistake was putting ALL the livestock together. Fish, inverts, corals...everything. I thought that since the container was so large (approx 40 gal or so) that everything would survive.
I lost EVERYTHING!! The frst casualties were the fish, I think. By the time we hit Vegas the smell was unimaginable. The wife was not happy, but I just couldn't bring myself to toss out hundreds of dollars worth of coral, dead or not. I was clinging to the hoope of just a piece of something, anything, would somehow make it. Nope.
So we get to our new base and things get worse. They don't have a house for us for 1 month! I asked around but no one could help. My only option was to put the buckets of rock and sand into storage along with all my household goods. 1 month later, we get a house. Yeah!!...kinda. I started the gruling task of re-setting up my system.
So the tank is in the house. The filtration is in the garage. I mixed up new salt water with my RO/DI unit (all weekend!). Now comes the task of opening the buckets. OMG! The smell!! I can't desribe the smell. Let's just say I shouldn't have eaten that morning. The buckets of rock were the worst. Black, sulfery smelling...just bleah. The sand was better. Stunk at the bottom pretty bad, but nothing like the rock. Again, wife not happy.
That was 3 weeks ago. The tank has since cleared up. The rock was bare, then brown with algae...very brown. Now the rock is just covered here and there with the usual long green hairy stuff. Obviously I am far from putting in any livestock. My PH was high at first, but now is barley staying at 7.8 to 7.9. Calcium is coming up, but I'm not concerned with that now since there is no livestock. All other tests are still very high (nitrates, nitrites) but that doesn't suprise me. It looks like a rocky, underwater desert. Very depressing.
In all this death and destruction, there was one small ray of hope. My refugium survived. It was a 20gl long tank full of live sand, small pieces of rock, chaeto, pods, worms, the works. It all survived and is still the only place I am seeing any life. In time, I hope it will re-seed, so to speak, the main tank and the rest of the system. A lesson learned...a painful one.
I have pictures of the system if someone wants to see them and can tell me how to post them on here. Also, please post any questions you have about my current set up. I would be happy to post all the specs of my set up.
Sorry about the long post, but my wife is sick of hearing about it. After all, the only thing she wanted from the start was a "nemo fishy". :)