tealio
New Member
I started into the saltwater hobby a little under 2 years ago after maintaining fresh and brackish fish for over 10 years.
I consolidated my 2 saltwater reef tanks into one 55 gallon yesterday morning and this morning when I woke up all of my fish were dead.
I've had all of these fish for between 3mon - 2 years and none of them showed signs of being sick. I setup the 55 using water from my previous 2 salt tanks, and added about 18 gallons of new pre mixed water. I setup the 55 using only cycled sand out of my old salt tanks, I used the same canister filter, same live rock, and most of the same tubing for the filters, I replaced 2 pieces of my tubing because I needed longer ones. I tested the PH, calcium, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SG, and temp and the results were:
PH: 8.1
Calcium: 400 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm
SG: 22.5
Temp: 77.8
My nitrates were actually higher in my old setups because I neglected to do water changes for 2 months prior to my upgrade. My fish have been through worse with me than changing tanks and they are all pretty hardy fish in general. ( 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 red anthias, 1 lawnmover, 1 yellow-tail damsel, 1 purple dottyback, 1 pajama cardinal) For now, my corals are all still alive as are my crabs, snails and worms.
I moved tanks before and have never had anything like this happen to me. I'm hoping someone more experienced than me can help me figure out why it happened and if my water is safe to start over, thanks!
I consolidated my 2 saltwater reef tanks into one 55 gallon yesterday morning and this morning when I woke up all of my fish were dead.
I've had all of these fish for between 3mon - 2 years and none of them showed signs of being sick. I setup the 55 using water from my previous 2 salt tanks, and added about 18 gallons of new pre mixed water. I setup the 55 using only cycled sand out of my old salt tanks, I used the same canister filter, same live rock, and most of the same tubing for the filters, I replaced 2 pieces of my tubing because I needed longer ones. I tested the PH, calcium, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, SG, and temp and the results were:
PH: 8.1
Calcium: 400 ppm
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 40 ppm
SG: 22.5
Temp: 77.8
My nitrates were actually higher in my old setups because I neglected to do water changes for 2 months prior to my upgrade. My fish have been through worse with me than changing tanks and they are all pretty hardy fish in general. ( 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 red anthias, 1 lawnmover, 1 yellow-tail damsel, 1 purple dottyback, 1 pajama cardinal) For now, my corals are all still alive as are my crabs, snails and worms.
I moved tanks before and have never had anything like this happen to me. I'm hoping someone more experienced than me can help me figure out why it happened and if my water is safe to start over, thanks!
. It didn't smell any worse than I think saltwater tanks generally smell, but it makes sense because the sand is fairly old, it was given to me a couple years ago by someone who had it in their tank for 5 years. I'll do what you suggested and do the water change and re cycle the tank.