Tank move starting to get ugly

[Anonymous]

I'm knocking down the 100 gallon for the second time in about 7 months, as we are moving house. I am actually going to take this to my office, but the main point is I set up a 29 gallon tank, put in about 2/3 fresh (aged) saltwater, and about 1/3 from the 100 gallon, the live rocks, corals, etc, and fish. Already it looks like a blue tang is dead and a shrimp, and the other animals appear distressed. I'm now pumping the thing full of oxygen by letting a powerhead suck in some air, and there is a lot of circulation. The corals actually look fine (all things considered) but I worry I've introduced a toxin or stirred up something noxious when moving the rock, etc.

This could be a scene of mass carnage tomorrow morning.

Sometimes I really hate this hobby.

 

[Anonymous]

Pumping to much oxygen can cause a PH spike.

Good luck with the move. Moving tanks suck.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

No obvious new corpses as of 5:30 am. The fishies were breathing harder before I let a powerhead suck air. Frankly, I think the bigger risk was not doing anything. pH if anything is slightly too low. This makes me way uptight. The fish are a school of chromis, maroon, flame angle, and one remaining blue tang. (I got the two when they were the size of a dime.) So there is nothing extremely delicate or expensive, but they are my pets.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry you experienced the loss, Bill. Did you notice any off smells when you did the move? Did you do any water testing before or after?

Pumping to much oxygen can cause a PH spike.

Good luck with the move. Moving tanks suck.

Louey

It would be pretty difficult to get it to spike much higher than the mid-8 range in my experience, which wouldn't be problematic unless the pH had dropped significantly in the first place. And, again in my experience, there are times when it's just better to go ahead and get pH within range, rather than making the specimens wait while it's brought up. Killed too many animals not acting quickly enough.

 

[jamesw]

If you aren't using Carbon or Purigen use it in a power filter. When you stir up stuff in the tank it releases H2S and other stuff that you need to scrub.

Good luck!

James

 

[Anonymous]

While pumping CO2 can lower your PH, simply using a venturi won't effect the PH (make it go up) all that much. It's not like 02 is the opposite of CO2 in terms of PH swing IIRC.

 

[Anonymous]

Agreed, although I have used surface agitation and lower temps to bring up dissolved O2 levels, didn't test for pH because that wasn't what I was after.

 

[Anonymous]

Add flame angel to the casualty list. Yeah, the whole thing stank so much everyone in the house complained. Of course I couldn't catch any of the damn fish until everything else was pulled out and stirred up. I think they got a lot of exposure to toxins before I got them out. Then oxygenation was probably poor in the new water. I think the flame angel died yesterday, judging by its smell. One of the tangs fell on the floor, but I don't know if it was the one that croaked.

 

[Anonymous]

Did you have a DSB?

Stirring that would release many a toxin.

 

[Anonymous]

I had a shallow sand bed, but it was definitely nasty. My hand hurt for a day where it touched the sand.

I think the tank was kind of crashing when I took it apart. The sump definitely had a lot of nasty spew in it.