LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE!! Please.

[Sammibaz]

"Sharing is caring, right?!?!? Ok, so if I didn't love all my virtual fishy friends, I wouldn't be so willing to share --- instead I would just continue crying myself this river!

I've learned so much by reading these forums over the years...but today I learned from my own mistakes (or just not knowings).

For those who don't really know, I have a 240 gallon reef tank. It was my pride and joy (I know that goes without saying here, but ...).

I have been out of town, doing the right thing I asked a reef keeper to please swing by each week to just say hello to the fish, feed the corals and just take care of the basics. It was such a piece of mind to know he was coming!!! Everything was going great.

Clearly the power surged from a monsoon or something else tripped the breaker around 7pm on Tuesday night (based on where the timers had stopped and when my family last saw the lights on). My dad visited the tank on Wednesday, he is old and just assumed no lights was OK because he knew I had them all on precise timers. He didn't mention anything to me.

When my reef keeper went today he said it looked like a fish graveyard. Death loomed everywhere! No real survivors that he could see. Power was still out. Appears everything has died, except a few snails and mini starfish.

Lesson to be learned here.....HAVE A POWER BACK UP!!! You NEVER know when you are going to have to leave town and this is NOT what you want to face while trying to vacation.

Another great idea I just learned today....Invest in a cheap security camera that you can aim toward your tank and view at anytime from your iPhone (DUHH>>.why didn't I think of this one!!) How easy would that have been!!!?!?!?? And I would have noticed within hours, and no more than a day after the lights went out.

Please....consider my total loss, your gain of knowledge of what you should certainly have if you are investing big bucks in to your tank.

 

[jvdub20]

I'm so sorry to hear about your tank

 

[jporter]

Sorry to hear about this. If there is anything I can help with let me know.

 

[303travism]

Man sorry to hear this, thank you for the pointers.

 

[defchild84]

I'm really bummed to hear this-the photography of the tank was fantastic. I couldn't agree with you more on this thread about Pwr. backup

 

[Reef-o-Roni]

From what you described a power back up would have been useless,they only last hours.

 

[rollinnoland]

Im really sorry i dont have battery backup either, time to invest in one

 

[reefstew]

Really sorry to hear this. I have around 20 back up battery air pumps in the fish room on all the tanks. I had a breaker problem which tripped the water pump & the air pump was on another breaker. Lost 400 clownfish. I know what it feels like.

 

[Weyrman]

Total bummer! Sorry about your loss. I'm trying to get everything squared away for a trip and power backup is something I want to get installed. My family will still be here but they wouldn't know what to do.

If a breaker tripped I'm not sure even a power backup unit would have helped though. That is unless it was something like a gas powered generator that is hooked into the house.

 

[rafajara1985]

That sucks to hear.

Similar thing happened to me to a couple years ago, We left for the weekend during the summer and the wifey turned off the AC. Needless to say everything boiled.

 

[cranchreef]

I'm so sorry for your loss! The power surge is a great idea!

 

[coonasssaint]

Sorry to hear this happened. Maybe look in to an Apex controller. That's what I did for vacation and it saved my tank from a high ph swing. I got an email and a text from my tank telling me the ph was approaching the high ph point. From my phone I turned off the lights and the ATO which was dosing kalk to my tank. I then called my tank sitter to go check on the tank and lower the temp in the house. Even if I didn't get an email and a text the controller would have shut down that equipment on its own.
Apex is very worth the price.

 

[slumlord]

I just don't go on vacation

 

[Elliott]

sorry to hear this, I too have learned the hard way over the years, now have a auto back up continuous duty 15kw generator that runs on natural gas, backs up everything including the air conditioning, which has turned on and run for hours twice in the last six months! the last time was just a week ago with it being 104 outside, power was out for about 2 hrs

 

[Merrell056]

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[Stolireef]

Very sorry for your loss. For those who don't want to spend the money on a full generator, another option (although would not help with an out-of-town problem) is an inverter that can plug into your car or hook up to your car battery. This, and a long extension cord, got me through the great northeast blackout a few years ago. Neighbors thought my car looked funny parked on my front lawn (won't crack a red neck joke here) but the tank was fine.

 

[rwessels]

I feel for you as well. My wife refers to the 'tank crash of 2007' often and says it took months to get the dead fish smell completely out of the house. I had multiple breakers, but the GFCI popped on the circulation one. Halides cooked the tank while the chiller sat around and was only able to watch.

Now I have an Apex that will email me if any of the 4 power strips loses power. I can turn anything on or off remotely and view graphs of all of the probes.

 

[Elliott]

Very sorry for your loss. For those who don't want to spend the money on a full generator, another option (although would not help with an out-of-town problem) is an inverter that can plug into your car or hook up to your car battery. This, and a long extension cord, got me through the great northeast blackout a few years ago. Neighbors thought my car looked funny parked on my front lawn (won't crack a red neck joke here) but the tank was fine.

very creative and excellent idea, never thought of that one!

 

[lostmyz]

OMG that is horrible im sorry to hear that. But like multiple people have said. A back up power supply wouldn't have helped unless it was a generator outside. The breaker tripped and unfortunately nobody caught it in time. The only thing i have for back up right now is a battery operated air pump that kicks on when the power goes out. But I like your security camera and iPhone idea to watch the tank. I wish I did that because i wish i could see my tank every few days while I am in Florida and my Fiancee (who is very observent of my tank) watches it for 2 yrs.

 

[bugs713]

Sorry for your extreme loss here!
BUT, poop happens Sam, dry your eyes, wash your face, hold your head up and start over again! Things always seem to be better the second time around!

A controller like RKE, Apex etc is a must IMO; I just hooked up RKE's on my two biggest SW tanks and don't know why I waited so long to get these... There are a ton of things that can go bad in reef keeping and we can do our best at reducing these things, but will never cover them all.

When your ready, I'm sure the FRAG commune will come through and help get you started with some frags!

Hang in there!