Questions mid tank relocation

Thisisfine · Feb 24, 2024

Ok - I have picked up my dad's 92g corner tank from 1.5hrs away. The process was awful but it's here. I kind of suspect the heaters in the tank were not working. There's not a thermometer in tank or one of the heaters that displays the current and set temp. I placed an old school glass thermometer he had in a cabinet in there but never really saw it get over 68 degrees.

First question - fish and coral can deal with sub 70 temps and if so how long? I have no idea how long it's been like that if that really is the case. I ask as there was a hippo tang in there 2-3 weeks ago that was MIA. The royal gramma didn't make the drive. Only thing left was a 3-4inch sailfin tang and a melenaris wrasse we assumed was gone until we started scopping sand out of the tank after draining. Only corals in the tank were softies, 95% leathers.

Second question plays off the first - How long will corals (pretty much leathers) do in a bucket with no temp control? Likewise, fish in a bucket with air pump and heater? I'm exhausted and it looks like I'm going to have to try to modify the stand in some way to get this updated sump in there.

Gumbies R Us · Feb 28, 2024

Bumping your post!

Thisisfine · Feb 28, 2024

Gumbies R Us said:
Bumping your post!

Thanks! I ended up sacrificing my 44g brute can for salt mixing to house all that I could. I say sacrificing as in I’m sure none of this was quarantined so I’ll have to get another.

I ran into issues with leveling the tank and breaking the seal on the drain bulkhead so they’re hanging in the brute until I can sort it out.

Crazy thing is there was supposed to be a sailfin, hippo tang, Royal gramma and melanarus wrasse. Never found the hippo during the breakdown but to my surprise he was swimming in one of the buckets of rocks the next day. Tough fish.

brandon429 · Feb 28, 2024

the #1 step you'd take is do not run the lights on the normal power modes, you'd start them very low in power, high blue no whites/and take about 2 slow weeks to come up, very slowly. that's your best bleach prevention trick after the setup. my tank dropped to 68 for about 2 straight months cuz I don't run any tests on it, I kept lowering the light power as it bleached slowly over weeks and couldn't figure out why lol.

once I corrected temps I kept the lighting very muted and within 2 more months all the color was back. if it was full power the whole time they'd be gone on the way out before I even caught the cause.

vetteguy53081 · Feb 28, 2024

Thisisfine said:
Ok - I have picked up my dad's 92g corner tank from 1.5hrs away. The process was awful but it's here. I kind of suspect the heaters in the tank were not working. There's not a thermometer in tank or one of the heaters that displays the current and set temp. I placed an old school glass thermometer he had in a cabinet in there but never really saw it get over 68 degrees.

First question - fish and coral can deal with sub 70 temps and if so how long? I have no idea how long it's been like that if that really is the case. I ask as there was a hippo tang in there 2-3 weeks ago that was MIA. The royal gramma didn't make the drive. Only thing left was a 3-4inch sailfin tang and a melenaris wrasse we assumed was gone until we started scopping sand out of the tank after draining. Only corals in the tank were softies, 95% leathers.

Second question plays off the first - How long will corals (pretty much leathers) do in a bucket with no temp control? Likewise, fish in a bucket with air pump and heater? I'm exhausted and it looks like I'm going to have to try to modify the stand in some way to get this updated sump in there.

Fish in the 70's - No problem. metabolism drops as water gets cooler.

For corals - Many are shipped and in transit 18-24 hours and even lost ones at 40+ hours pull through as long as temperature is not all over the place