Everything is Dead

disc1

disc1

-RT * ln(k)
Well we had an epic white Christmas here in Little Rock. Knocked out the power all over the whole town. Generator is down so I couldn't keep the tank going. I've been snowed in across town anyway. Finally got to the house this morning to find that nothing made it through. All the coral are dead. All the fish are dead. Nothing is eating the bodies so I asume all the worms and snails are dead.

Looks like it is time to start over. :(

My girl has been wanting to move the tank and I've been telling her that is easier said than done. Guess it just got a lot easier.


Anyone have any advice on what next. I plan to drain it as soon as I can get power. I should probably scrub all of the death out of the rocks. Now I'll basically be starting from dry rock since I don't want to go buy a whole new load of live rock. That means a long cycle and all that. I've never lost a whole tank all at once like this. I'm kind of at a loss.
 
I don't think you will need to replace your current rock unless you want to. Just let it cycle again. The "death" is what gets the cycle kicked off in the first place.
 
oh man! So sorry.

You may not be at a total loss with the rock. I would set up some tubs of new saltwater and rinse the rock. try to knock off the obvious nasty stuff. You may need to just totally wash the sand. try puting the washed sand and the rinsed rock back in the tank and get it up and running with new water and let 'er cycle. good luck
 
Wow sorry to hear David. Now would be a good time to move it and make all those tweaks that you wanted to do if only it wasn't running. After losing mine from a power outage due to a hurricane I just treated it as starting a new tank. Picked out all the dead critters and CUC. I also did a few WC to get some new water turn over. I was pleasantly surprised my cycle did not take nearly as long as I thought. The Rock seemed to be amazingly resiliant. Good luck I know you will get it back up and running.
 
David very sorry to hear that.
i went through same thing in 2007 blizzard and los the whole tank in Oklahoma.
I took everything out rinsed the sand and rock with ro water. cleaned the tank with vinegar water and restarted like new setup.
i used Bio spira to kick start some bacteria and it all worked well.
i wish u luck and hey i am not too far away if u need help.
 
Sorry to hear of your loss. The one time something like happened to me I took it as an opportunity to do change the things I wanted to change, i.e. rockwork, live stock, and sump setup. In the end it ended making my tank look alot better. Maybe a newish build thread?
 
Ouch, David. I have no advice to give, other than to encourage you to grieve the losses in any way you can. This is the kind of event that keeps me awake on stormy nights. I've got a generator, but I couldn't fire it up the last time we lost power. And Santa didn't bring me the new Honda model I asked for.

P.S. I'm glad you restored the Tesla avatar. I was a big fan of Mr. Carlin, but a bigger fan of Tesla. And a huge fan of the role you play here at RC.
 
I'm really sorry to hear that. I'd also guess your rock is still good, after a re-cure. You might have more things survive from that beat up rock than you expect.
Glad to see a positive attitude, hang in there.
 
I guess I should throw the good news in here too.

I gave her the ring and she said Yes. So I am now officialy engaged.

So it wasn't all bad. Matter of fact we had a beautiful Christmas dinner by candelight with the power out.
 
sorry to hear about your losses, but congrats on the engagement! May your next tank be better than the last!
 
Congrats on the engagement. 25 years from now it will make a great story around the anniversary table LOL. Be a trendsetter coral on the registry I like it.:beer:
 
disc1 said:
I guess I should throw the good news in here too.

I gave her the ring and she said Yes. So I am now officialy engaged.

So it wasn't all bad. Matter of fact we had a beautiful Christmas dinner by candelight with the power out.
Click to expand...

Aww! Wow, that's awesome! Sad to see your tank crash. I've had it happen once, and it's not pretty... nor pretty smelling.. heh. But, this is really beautiful Congratulations on the engagement!!!!
:celeb1: :celeb2:
 
I think Bulk Reef Supply has a wish list feature -- may be the closest thing to a registry.

Anyway, if you're going to be recuring your rock and treating it like it's dead, you might consider just starting from scratch with Marco or Reefsaver.

It's all personal opinion, but I think that dry rock looks better than live rock because it's easier to connect the pieces in a way that looks seamless. Many (not all!) live rock tanks end up looking like stacks of irregular bricks.
 
I am sorry for the tank loss, and happy for your engagement!

When I lost almost everything in a tank crash I kept my live rock. I had to do about 20 water changes (not kidding) to save the tank. You may have commented, I can't remember.....but it was the gummy worms melting into the tank..anyways almost everything died. But you would be surprised just how much does when you think it's all dead....

I'd personally just rinse with saltwater and re-use. Mine turned out fine. Lots of things came back and that was after waking up to water that looked like milk and smelled like death. I had it in a configuration I didn't want to change but if I had just taken it out it would have been simple to rinse instead of all those water changed I did.
 
bad break. keep your head up. perhaps your local club can help out with a frag drive. im sure you arent the only one who ended up with losses.

congrats on the engagement.....
 
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