Mongol hoards decimate Project Reef Tank.

[H.crispa]

Once again, the Chinese bandits have foiled our well-laid plans! Once again, the proprieters of this cursed location have raped, burned, pillaged and destroyed what remained of PRT in a manner reminiscent of GENGHIS KHAN! The news is grim. I finally got in there only to find that there were 15 gallons of water evaporated from the tank-- as you recall it was NEVER supposed to be an OPEN TOP TANK!!! The lights, powerheads, filter... EVERYTHING was unplugged. Consequently, everything, save some GSPs, a few dedicated hermit crabs engaged in a desparate struggle for life in this aquatic moon-scape of death, one snail, and a sea urchin that seems to be enjoying the feast. The carnage was appalling. Even the bristle worms were dead. The frogspawn, pom-pom, pavona, xenia, leather, and too many more to name, were quite literally, MELTED into piles of gelatenous flesh on the rocks below their once-proud skeletons. Damsel fish corpes riddled the aquascape. Were fire able to burn in super-concentrated seawater, I would have expected smouldering embers dotting the devastated reef.
:mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

We will rebuild! We have the technology-- and a clean, new venue where they actually speak English and understand NOT to UNPLUG the damned LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS!

I salvaged what I could. Some powerheads, the skimmer, the hermits and the GSP. I don't know who owns the filter, so I left it. I left the "deadrock" and the "deadsand" as well as the bleached skeletons of the former inhabitants as testimony to what had happened.

I have learned a lesson. We must pick and choose our allies carefully as there are those who seek to destroy what we create and certainly do not appreciate it! Any of it!

The name of the new "Californian???"..... "Shanghai Buffet". Well, that is almost poetic isn't it? We were certainly "Shanghaied".

With God as my witness, this kind of CRAP will NEVER happen again!

Thank you to all who participated in this endeavor and I hope your faith in the project is not shaken so badly that you will not participate in PRT II. New allies, new tank, new corals, new fish. I will see to it that this PRT is better, stronger, faster-- like the bionic man! More details of PRT II later. Let's just say that I'm covering all the bases, AS IS our new ally! Either party is free to pull the plug if it does not work out, and we get to take our reef and go home instead of me watching helplessly through a window at the back of a defunct restar-NOT as the tank melts down.

Can you tell I'm a little ticked off???? Actually, that verbage is a little light. Really I am "profanity removed" at this "profanity removed" kind of "profanity removed" "profanity removed" PROFANITY!!!!!!

In closing, I need to give credit where it is due. Thanks to John sKerry for the whole "GENGHIS KHAN" theme.

 

[sixliner6]

Wow! That is a great story. You could probably write childrens books.

 

[essop3]

That's bad enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth, and all I did was donate a few things. If I put as much work into it as some of you I'd be really upset.

 

[Reef4Fun]

I have some very healthy damsels I will donate to the tank. Two blue tip and two dominoes, and one of the dominoes is quite large.

Nancy

Sorry to all that lost in PRT, and especially sorry for the animals that suffered. I made it my life to protect animals and that does not stop with dogs and cats! They should be protested! I would NEVER eat there, for them to just let animals suffer...grrrrr....I will tell them too. My neice works for channel 13 news and I'm upset enough to use her, but I don't want the reason for PRT to be trashed, so I won't do that......unless you want me too, lol.

 

[grendl]

Thats pretty awful.... No business from me, ever.

 

[firefish2020]

I think we are all a bit let down by this news but I can not say it was unexpected news. This is just another reason to cut ties with that place ASAP. We will rebuild as Jason has said and we will do it right and there will be no danger of anyone trying to take advantage of the group for business gains in this venture. I would not worry about saying to much to them or about them we want to cut all CVRC ties with this place 100% and not look back.

As for media thing no lets reserve that card for a more pleasant circumstance like maybe our 1st annual CVRC swap/picnic which we will be having later this summer if all goes well.

More on that to come.
<b>
As for PRT II- the rebuilding starts now any donations of equipment are welcome and any monetary donations are to go through Jason personally as he will be handling assets for the tank. He will post a list of needed equipment soon.</b>

Thanks

 

[mcox33]

Jason
Get in touch with me. I have rock, let me know when You want it and I'll try to get it pulled from my tank.

Oh yeah you have my number or you can find me at the tanning salon.

Mary

 

[H.crispa]

Gang, I really don't think they did this out of any sort of malice but out of negligence brought on by a complete LACK of understanding of exactly WHAT there was in that tank and what it needed to survive. I'm still P.O.ed about it but it is all "water under the bridge". Dwelling on the past is not productive so we have to move on.

Bottom line here is, if you like the food, eat there. They did not do this horrible thing intentionally. They just did not know what they were doing and they have bigger fish to fry-- or cats and squirrels (joking)-- starting up a new biz. I really wish that it could have worked out differently but it did not. After all, WE are the experts at this reef thing-- not them.

It still ticks me off that I had to watch the water evaporate through the back window and then the life support system gets unplugged and all but.... the corals did not really "die" as they are all clones and the parent colonies are still alive and well. We will rebuild! Still, I'm going to kick Andy's arse for not telling me about this. He's a good guy and a hard-working American and a good capitalist!

I was a bit harsh in my original post but damn! That tank was really starting to look good! All down the crapper now.

Good news!!!! All the folks at the credit union are very excited about having PRT II there! Vicky, my contact, showed them some pics of the Zen Reef that she took last time she was over at my house and they can't wait!!!! They love the idea of the percs, the corals, the tangs.... the whole thing! I have a really GOOD FEELING about this.

Oh yeah, did I mention, they speak English???? Ease of communication is a big plus.

Here's to the future of PRT! This is going to be great for the club!!!! Also, I really want to involve more members in the upkeep of the tank. I think this should be something that as many members who want, can have a hand in. That is how it should have been all along. Now all I have to do is figure out how. That's ALWAYS the fun part.

 

[Nathan4Wvu]

If i was in charleston i would supprt the PRT2 but to far away right now so pooooo

 

[H.crispa]

Dude, you can donate anything you want to by mailing a frag, donating monitarily-- although I discourage that. Strongly! This is a project built on the principle of simplicity. Many folks think that a reef is "ridiculously expensive", or "way too complicated" or whatever.... too complicated or expensive for your average Joe. I started this project to do a few things:

1.To bring together club members in a common pursuit.

2. To put something out in the public eye that could serve as an ambassador of the club, to raise public awareness for our cause, and to show that it is possible to do a reef on a "shoestring budget". It IS within the reach of the "common man" (whateverthehell THAT is!!!).

3. I love the TDC crogram "Junkyard Wars". I want that to be my life! To get up every day and build stuff out of scrap parts to accomplish some insane goal with a "monster machine" of your own design! Only in America could this happen! Just probably not for me... ormaybe so. Perhaps I should put together a team??? Anyway, Putting together a really WICKED reeftank to represent our club out of FREAKIN' SPARE PARTS that we ALL have lying around is an idea that really SPEAKS TO ME!! JUNK YARD REEF WARS!!! WOO-HOO!!!! (OK. I AM a reefgeek. I hope you already knew that. If you did not... see my sticky entitled, "Ramblings of a reef geek"....oh, yeah, it kind of says that in the title huh??)

Honestly though gang, I kind of feel like I let you down on this thing in a way. I put this together the first time without ever really outlining what the project was all about. What my vision was, where I hoped it would go, why I wanted to do it in the first place, how it would involve the club bla bla bla. Really I didn't mean to do it that way it was just one of these ideas I had and I jumped on it knowing all this stuff and thinking what a great idea it was and all but completely failing to inform the general public!! Sometimes my brain misfires, what can I say?

Anyway, Here's to PRT II!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is an all-inclusive club project to showcase what we are all about! Let's roll up our sleeves and make it happen. And please, no petty squabbling. Let's do this right and work together.

 

[firefish2020]

Well said