Gobie74's wide peninsula 200
- Thread starter Gobie74
- Start date
Gobie74
New member
The address you left in the PM sounds correct, yes.
Gobie74
New member
Winter storm Alfred came thru on Oct 29th. Because the leaves hadn't fallen from the trees, the snow piled up and the weight caused thousands of trees and tree branches to fall taking out power to over 800,000 people in Connecticut. I was without power for just over 7 days.
I've never had a power outage here in the 10+ years that I've lived here that lasted more than 6 hours. I thought my Vortech battery backup had me covered. It did, for about a day. After that, I lost everything.
So I sit here now looking at an empty tank, water and sand only. I removed all the rock yesterday to get as much of the dead life out of the tank as possible. The skimmer is going absolutely crazy, I switched to the lower performing impellor too, and its still overflowing.
Now I have to decide what to do next. I'm 50/50 on rebuilding vs quitting altogether. But if I do continue, I won't put anything in the tank until I have a generator and transfer switch installed. I promised my fish as I buried them that I'd never let this happen again.
I've never had a power outage here in the 10+ years that I've lived here that lasted more than 6 hours. I thought my Vortech battery backup had me covered. It did, for about a day. After that, I lost everything.
So I sit here now looking at an empty tank, water and sand only. I removed all the rock yesterday to get as much of the dead life out of the tank as possible. The skimmer is going absolutely crazy, I switched to the lower performing impellor too, and its still overflowing.
Now I have to decide what to do next. I'm 50/50 on rebuilding vs quitting altogether. But if I do continue, I won't put anything in the tank until I have a generator and transfer switch installed. I promised my fish as I buried them that I'd never let this happen again.
mikelaubach
New member
That sucks, sorry to hear it. :-(
If you want to save money and install the transfer switch yourself, I'd be more than happy to help install it. I did mine and it is easy. You'd need to pull the permit and have it inspected afterwards, but I'll gladly come up and help.
Your tank was my final straw for moving to LEDs after seeing what your Profilux did with those LEDs. Don't give up. My generator and transfer switch cost under $1K (generator was used and less than the transfer switch).
If you want to save money and install the transfer switch yourself, I'd be more than happy to help install it. I did mine and it is easy. You'd need to pull the permit and have it inspected afterwards, but I'll gladly come up and help.
Your tank was my final straw for moving to LEDs after seeing what your Profilux did with those LEDs. Don't give up. My generator and transfer switch cost under $1K (generator was used and less than the transfer switch).
RTMA
DIY Fanatic
Wow, how heartbreaking. That tank was beautiful. If your ever in my neck of the woods, I'll hook you up with some free sps to get your rebuild going if you decide to move forward. I've been lucky to escape pretty much unscathed near the coast, so if you want to rebuild, I'd be more than happy to donate to the rebuild. Good luck!
Sorry to hear about your loss. What a beautiful tank it was. I wouldnt waste that talent you have because of it though. Your tank are the ones that give us motivation and what to look up too.
My sister and Brother in Law were up there from Florida that same weekend in Bridgeport. They were without power that whole weekend next to the fireplace. It was all over the news too everywhere so we know it was bad. I lived there in '93 when that blizzard hit and I was only there for 9months and came back to Florida quick.
Please keep us updated
My sister and Brother in Law were up there from Florida that same weekend in Bridgeport. They were without power that whole weekend next to the fireplace. It was all over the news too everywhere so we know it was bad. I lived there in '93 when that blizzard hit and I was only there for 9months and came back to Florida quick.
Please keep us updated
1fishkeeper
Premium Member
Now that just sucks the life out of you by loosing everything. I just spent the last hour reading this full thread to find out this happened. But dont give up. You can have it right back to where it was in no time. But before the power loss it was a great looking tank and it gave me a lot of ideas on my new tank that Im planning right now. I would really love to have a set up just like yours.
Gobie74
New member
So I'm still not 100% sure I'm back in, but what I've been doing recently hasn't cost me any money so might as well see where it takes me.
I had, before the storm, been thinking of redoing the rock work to try something a little more sparse. The 'rock wall' style of the tank just wasn't doing it for me, so I had bought some brand new dry rock, some of the rock cement from Marco Rocks, and some acrylic plates and rods to mount some crazy rock formations on. I got some inspiration from some of the other threads in this forum.
Well the process of cementing the rocks together is definitely a long one, and I probably should have drilled the holes for the bases before cementing, but in the end I'm really happy with how it came out.
Here's a shot of them post assembly and initial wash via garden hose.
Since I had the time, and my kitchen table is approximately the same size as my tank, I used the table as a mockup and arranged the rock in what I thought would be an interesting arrangement. I tried many different configurations, but this one seemed best. This is one thing I didn't get to do when I had set the tank up initially, I just moved everything right from the previous tank into here with no real direction about what I was trying to accomplish.
I had been stirring the sand every couple of days to clean it out, but moving it all to the side made an incredible mess and it took a few days to get it back to a somewhat clean state. You can see the inlet of an extra canister filter I put on the tank to help out.
After I was satisfied the sand was mostly out of the way, and I have found an arrangement of rocks I liked, I put the formations in and made another incredible mess. But after a few days I'm back to this.
So far I'm really liking the look. Lots more open space, enough room to mount some corals on the top of the rock with places for things like monti caps on the lower portions, and plenty of sandbed for clams and other stuff.
The water still isn't as clear as it was before I started this, but it's getting there. Unfortunately at the moment the skimmer isn't helping because I put too much AquaSafe in it. Not sure why, but I had it around and its supposed to help with water clarity and get the tank going. The skimmer is basically bubbling over non stop for the past 2 days now, but seems to be slowing down. Hopefully once that's back to normal the water will really clear up.
So, next weeks job is to start getting quotes on a generator and transfer switch installation. I'm thinking I'll go with a natural gas generator since I already have natural gas service to the house. I'm sticking to my rule, nothing alive goes into the tank until I have a generator installed.
I had, before the storm, been thinking of redoing the rock work to try something a little more sparse. The 'rock wall' style of the tank just wasn't doing it for me, so I had bought some brand new dry rock, some of the rock cement from Marco Rocks, and some acrylic plates and rods to mount some crazy rock formations on. I got some inspiration from some of the other threads in this forum.
Well the process of cementing the rocks together is definitely a long one, and I probably should have drilled the holes for the bases before cementing, but in the end I'm really happy with how it came out.
Here's a shot of them post assembly and initial wash via garden hose.
Since I had the time, and my kitchen table is approximately the same size as my tank, I used the table as a mockup and arranged the rock in what I thought would be an interesting arrangement. I tried many different configurations, but this one seemed best. This is one thing I didn't get to do when I had set the tank up initially, I just moved everything right from the previous tank into here with no real direction about what I was trying to accomplish.
I had been stirring the sand every couple of days to clean it out, but moving it all to the side made an incredible mess and it took a few days to get it back to a somewhat clean state. You can see the inlet of an extra canister filter I put on the tank to help out.
After I was satisfied the sand was mostly out of the way, and I have found an arrangement of rocks I liked, I put the formations in and made another incredible mess. But after a few days I'm back to this.
So far I'm really liking the look. Lots more open space, enough room to mount some corals on the top of the rock with places for things like monti caps on the lower portions, and plenty of sandbed for clams and other stuff.
The water still isn't as clear as it was before I started this, but it's getting there. Unfortunately at the moment the skimmer isn't helping because I put too much AquaSafe in it. Not sure why, but I had it around and its supposed to help with water clarity and get the tank going. The skimmer is basically bubbling over non stop for the past 2 days now, but seems to be slowing down. Hopefully once that's back to normal the water will really clear up.
So, next weeks job is to start getting quotes on a generator and transfer switch installation. I'm thinking I'll go with a natural gas generator since I already have natural gas service to the house. I'm sticking to my rule, nothing alive goes into the tank until I have a generator installed.
Robb in Austin
New member
Just read the whole thread. Very nice build. Darn storms. Like the new rock work.
Sorry for your loss. Ive been enjoying all your pics and vids, showing extended family how great your tank is on thanksgiving, only to see this big setback happen as I finish the thread. Please cheer up and get your tank back over time. You've made some great choices that will only get better now.
Best wishes,
Philip
Best wishes,
Philip
Similar threads
