Installed sump from a HOB filter and now fish don't seem to be doing well?

[cypike]

I installed a sump for my 40 gallon tank from eshopps 75 and now my fish don't seem to be doing super well overnight. Any reason this might be? I put the bioballs/media into my sump so that it still has the same processing ability. The hoses are all vinyl and meant for water, says for fish tanks on them. The only piece i'm unsure about is one of the plastic reducers but that was made of polystyrene so I thought it would be fine from the reading I did. Do they just need adjusting to the new flow/noise or is there something more nefarious going on?

 

[Evil1]

Did you put any media from your hob into new sump ?

 

[cypike]

Yes I moved the media from it to the sump

 

[Evil1]

When you filled the sump/ or replace water in tank after sump filled you used rodi and made sure all levels including salt specific gravity were identical to tank parameters before switch?

 

[cypike]

Correct the salinity is the same as it was

 

[Cthulukelele]

When you say not looking good what are they doing? How much did the flow increase? Do you have any photos? What livestock do you have? What is the flow rate of your return pump? Do you have any other flow?

 

[Evil1]

How about your PH? Do you have any coral or fish only?

 

[Evil1]

How about your PH? Do you have any coral or fish only

 

[cypike]

When you say not looking good what are they doing? How much did the flow increase? Do you have any photos? What livestock do you have? What is the flow rate of your return pump? Do you have any other flow?

Well my pipefish I think is going to die, I have an urchin, two conchs, a clown fish, a goby, and some snails. Things just seem lethargic. The snails aren't moving at all, two of them were off the rock when I woke up. I can't find the goby but he hides a lot. The clownfish isn't eating and is just hanging out in one spot, and the urchin isn't moving around. When I put the snails back onto the rock they hang on at least but they aren't moving/feeding.

I have the flow on the lowest setting but it's still pretty strong, I turned off one of my powerheads to account for that now.

 

[cypike]

I have fish and snails only at the moment, I'll check PH in a second

 

[Wasabiroot]

Was the old media left unoxygenated for an extended time or anything like that? Potentially an ammonia spike that caused deoxygenation? How long did the installation take, and where was the filter media while the flow was off to install?

The second situation is conjecture on my part, as polystyrene is basically safe, but styrene (which it breaks down into under certain conditions) is decidedly not. If rodi water touched it, maybe it leached something. I think the first paragraph is far more likely than the second. Testing will help narrow this down for sure. Sorry for your troubles.

 

[cypike]

The old media was out of my tank for less than an hour it was in the HOB filter until the install of the sump which took less than an hour. PH is 8.2

 

[Cthulukelele]

Well my pipefish I think is going to die, I have an urchin, two conchs, a clown fish, a goby, and some snails. Things just seem lethargic. The snails aren't moving at all, two of them were off the rock when I woke up. I can't find the goby but he hides a lot. The clownfish isn't eating and is just hanging out in one spot, and the urchin isn't moving around. When I put the snails back onto the rock they hang on at least but they aren't moving/feeding.

I have the flow on the lowest setting but it's still pretty strong, I turned off one of my powerheads to account for that now.

What's the GPH rating on the return pump? Pipefish are very poor swimmers. How old is the tank, and how long have you had the urchin and snails?

 

[Evil1]

The old media was out of my tank for less than an hour it was in the HOB filter until the install of the sump which took less than an hour. PH is 8.2

Ok I don’t think there is anything to be concerned about. As a precaution add some carbon in a media bag to your sump if you haven’t done so already.

 

[cypike]

I have the Jeabao MDP 2500 pump, I have it currently on its lowest setting.
is the pump I have, the tank is 1.5 years old, I've had the snails for almost a year now, the urchin a bit less.

I think the pipefish is dead, I had him for about a year too so this sucks, I wouldn't have changed the HOB for the sump if I knew it would do this. I wonder if he got caught up in the flow and got slammed against the wall.

 

[brandon429]

new cycling science has a rule that old cycling science doesn't have/know and it would help tremendously here by preventing you from chasing red herrings

if the fish are stressed, about to begin a loss cascade then spending time going after the wrong things facilitates demise vs saving

the rule:

at no time in reefing does removing surface area from a reef tank's sump put the system into lack of bacteria mode. it does not happen, due to rocks in the display.

that means you can rule out surface area + bacterial issues here whatsoever. your tank didn't need that material, it was put there because someone said it was required, and that someone did not own a seneye to see that it is not required.

 

[Evil1]

Sorry to hear that. So at max that pump is 660 gph assuming turns down all the way is half power 330gph isn’t crazy for a 40 gallon tank. A bit much but not over the top.

 

[brandon429]

you can't have trouble from lack of bacteria in this scenario, but you can have trouble from waste upwelling. if there were pockets of undisturbed waste that were put into suspension during the disconnect/connect of new setup that can be irritating.

coincidence of fish disease cannot be ruled out; a stasis was changed and that can bring on latent disease. this pattern exists in the disease forum for tank cleaners and we've talked about it a few times there. also can't rule out short term contam from chemicals/glue or plastics.

 

[cypike]

Well this blows, I hope my clownfish makes it, she seems to be doing the best out of everything so far but who knows.

 

[brandon429]

post a video real quick of it so we can see unique things, perhaps unstated things. load to youtube then link here to see