Concerned about corals after recent upgrade

A

Andrew76021

I upgraded from a 55 gallon DAS tank to a 75 gallon tank with refugium on Sunday night. After the dust settled from the sand bed, I moved the live rock, fish and corals into the new tank. My corals still have yet to open and the ones that have look weak. They dont look like they are dying, but not near as healthy as they did before the transition. With the refugium, I have about 150 lbs live rock and just checked my parameters which looked to be not as good as usual, but not as bad as the tank looks.

I know most will say to do a water change and I plan to do a 20% change on Friday. Any additional help or insight is greatly appreciated.

Salinity 1.025
PH 8.2
Calcium 500
Nitrate 10
Nitrite .1
KH 110
Phosphate .25
Ammonia .5

The old tank vs the new tank
 
I would run zeolite or put some amquel+ in the tank. It will get rid of the ammonia and nitrates. You seem to have a small cycle going.
-Chuck
 
I was thinking the same thing, sorta - I was thinking if you disturbed the sand bed, there may be some rather bad stuff from the bottom of the old tank, now floating around in the water.

If the corals start bleaching, or looking really bad, do water changes, and fast! But otherwise, I'd also give it a day or two more. Nothing good happens quickly, but if you shock your tank, it can go downhill quick!
 
Water change now...25% at least. Get rid of the ammonia and nitrites any way you can, definitedly a small cycle going.

Cheers!
 
another thing to consider is that your new tank itself has to go thru a break in period. I moved my current tank several mos. ago whenbought my house. Removed sand and all, Decided to clean the tank before setting it back up. I went thru a diatom bloom and a n03 problem for about a month before it settled back down. Don't panic, stick to your weekly water changes and regular maintance and you should be fine. I had no loses. Lps are pretty hardy in most cases. Kept them for close to 15 yrs. Now I don't have any lps, all sps.
 
Test for ammonia and nitrite daily for the next week. And keep in mind that some tests will give you false readings once you add Ammo Quel+, etc... It would be wise to find a test kit that works with the particular product you are using the lock up the free floating ammonia in the water.

If you tranferred your sandbed from one tank to the other, that is why you are dealing with a cycle. Or if the LR was out in the air for a long time during the transition.

If your water quality doesn't pick up fast, you may be better off setting up a rubbermaid vat full of newly mixed (aged one day hopefully) saltwater, and put the corals in there for now with some powerheads, lighting and a heater (for nights when things get cooler). That way the corals are safe and the tank can finish that cycle.

I tend to use Prime (by Seachem) to lock up ammonia or nitrite/nitrate issues. It is livestock safe. However, I think you'll get false readings with your test kit, which is why I wrote the warning in the first paragraph. Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 whenever livestock is involved.
 
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