o2manyfish
o2manyfish
This is one of those horrible posts. This post is so bad it took me almost 3 weeks to make it. It's all gone! We had a 2 strike catastrophe and lost everything. On Mar 17th we treated the display tank with Salifert Flatwrom exit at 80% dose strength. I added a wooden airstone, turned on all the pumps, add 2lbs of carbon to the tank and thought I was safe to treat. But just 2 hrs after dosing the fish just started falling to the bottom of the tank. Lots and Lots and Lots of fish. Out of about 140 fish maybe only 15 survived. All the angels (Interruptus, Joculator, Pair of Goldflakes, Trio of Flameback, Pair of Golden, Pair of Venustus, Flame, Yellow Belly Regal), most of the tangs (9 yellows, 2 purples, Gem, Black, 1 Hippo, 3 Hippo's with no tails), all the anthias just gone. My wife and I were just devestated. So many fish just falling to the bottom of the tank. We caught as many of the bodies as we could out of the tank and sat to wait and see how things would pan out. This was on Thursday night. On Saturday sometime before dawn the 300gal outdoor sump blew apart at the back corner seam. The sump drained to 3" of water. Then at 5am the Topoff turned on to fill up the system before sunrise. With a 4000 gal a day top off system it didn't take long for it to try to fill the sump back up. But the more fresh water the topoff pumped in the more freshwater got pumped out of the sump and into the tanks - Diluting the salt in the whole system. By Saturday morning breakfast all the corals were bleached. By Saturday evening all the tissue was gone. Display tank, frag tanks, sump, anemone tank - everything but the chaetomorph dead.
Here is a youtube video showing the disaster.
The wife and I talked at length and the wife said I can't quit. So we ordered a new 300 gal outdoor sump - this one made of fiberglass - no more worries about splitting. And if you have followed my posts and videos from the past year you all know I hate the 36" deep 560g tall tank we put in as an emergency fix in Dec of 2020.
We are waiting on a quote for the new tank now - We already had quotes for the new tank to be made out of glass. But this experience with a 3 year old glass tank just reminded me of the risks involved with a glass tank. And I am going to stick to acrylic, as I have for the last 36 years.
My fellow SoCal reefers, I am going to need your help to restock the new tank and frag tanks. I'm not going to start collecting anything till we get the new sump in place. And at that point I will start collecting fish and corals. The sump should hopefully be here by the middle of May.
If you are breaking down a tank. If you have large colonies you are thinking of rehoming or getting rid of, if you can hold off till mid May I promise to give them a great home and also use them to share with the So Cal Reefing community in the future. The new tank is going to be big - so starting from frags is not going to work. If you break off a chunk of something cool, let me know. Willing to take as many donations as possible. But also willing to pay for chunks and colonies of coral. It doesn't need some fancy name, it doesn't have to have a high price tag, It just needs to be a pretty coral.
Dave B
Here is a youtube video showing the disaster.
The wife and I talked at length and the wife said I can't quit. So we ordered a new 300 gal outdoor sump - this one made of fiberglass - no more worries about splitting. And if you have followed my posts and videos from the past year you all know I hate the 36" deep 560g tall tank we put in as an emergency fix in Dec of 2020.
We are waiting on a quote for the new tank now - We already had quotes for the new tank to be made out of glass. But this experience with a 3 year old glass tank just reminded me of the risks involved with a glass tank. And I am going to stick to acrylic, as I have for the last 36 years.
My fellow SoCal reefers, I am going to need your help to restock the new tank and frag tanks. I'm not going to start collecting anything till we get the new sump in place. And at that point I will start collecting fish and corals. The sump should hopefully be here by the middle of May.
If you are breaking down a tank. If you have large colonies you are thinking of rehoming or getting rid of, if you can hold off till mid May I promise to give them a great home and also use them to share with the So Cal Reefing community in the future. The new tank is going to be big - so starting from frags is not going to work. If you break off a chunk of something cool, let me know. Willing to take as many donations as possible. But also willing to pay for chunks and colonies of coral. It doesn't need some fancy name, it doesn't have to have a high price tag, It just needs to be a pretty coral.
Dave B
