Tank is gone

T

travis32

New member
Well, I felt I should tell me story on here eventually. I have to be honest and say I've been avoiding this post. Mainly because I don't want to acknowledge the harsh reality of what's befallen me and my finally beautiful 125g tank.

As some of you know I battled 2 year algae battle and many times thought about giving. I won that battle In January of this year. And my tank was finally looking the best it's ever looked!! more beautiful and clear and colors all great than ever before and I had just gotten Solar Blast UV Reef LED lights to mount on my 125g.

Everything was going great until the fateful night of April 17th, 2013. I was just leaving work when I got an email from a former coworker and friend of mine. He said "There's a fire in your neighborhood, just wondering if you home".

I said no, just leaving work, I was planning to stop at home to change clothes anyways, so I'd stop there.

I drove up to my neighborhood with the road blocked off by the news crew. And smoke billowing from 2-3 blocks down where my house would be located... I asked the news crew which house is on fire.. and what's happening... after what seemed like an eternity one of the news crew went and checked the house number, sure enough, it was mine...

I ran down the two blocks, I had parked my car in the middle of the street gotten out and ran to the news crew, and now ran down the block towards the smoke that was filling the street. I came upon firemen and police officers franticly trying to control the situation.

I had a townhome connected to 4 other homes, the hole building was billowing smoke. As soon as I found out all the people were safe, I immediately wanted to rush in to somehow save the fish that were in the process of being boiled alive and/or poisoned by carbondioxide and fire supressing chemicals.

I lost my entire home... Everything I owned, the tank was still standing because it was on a steel stand and steel doesn't burn or melt very well and the water absorbed the heat to prevent the glass from shattering. But, the contents were destroyed. Thousands of dollars in fish and corals. Corals that were so unique that I don't think I'd ever find them. A 10" rust colored Monti in the shape of a bowl. It was beautiful and as I got all my chemicals balanced the rust was turning to a purple color. The polyps continued to expand and grow. I was so proud of that piece, that it was my most prized coral. I had a chevron tang that was just a little over a year old. It was the only tang I could get to survive in my tank.

I'm not bothering with salvaging anything. The tank leaks and the lights were burned in the fire. I hadn't even taken the LED lights out of the box...

Was in the process of building a new stand and canopy. :(

The canopy was at my house, I was planning on mounting the new lights in it and then replacing my old halide canopy.. I never even got to see it with the new lighting....

So, that's why I've been gone. Now I"m just in the process of putting my life back together. Next week I'll have a new home. And I'm debating putting a new tank in. I was thinking of doing a starfire depending on the cost. I had decent insurance, but, I they only allow replacement of what I had, not what I'd like.... In terms of cost. So, I can apply what I got to what I want, but, just wondering if you have any suggestions for a good reputable company to get some estimates from on starfire glass?

Any other suggestions on used or new goods to start over with?
 
Sorry about the tragic loss of your fish tank. I think about things like this happening and it scares me. We sink money into our hobby and before you know it you have thousands in equipment and livestock. I know there seems to be insurance for everything I wonder if something is available for our tanks? Very shortly I plan on investing in a generator for the power failures that sometimes occur where I'm at.
 
Thank you, My home owners insurance had so much for content replacement. I had to go through and create an inventory of everything I owned, and put reasonable price estimates for everything, My estimates came to $10,000 for the aquarium. Provided you don't go over your maximums for contents, they give one depreciated value of everything. And then if you replace it you turn receipts in to get the difference. Or you can use the money to buy whatever you want and be happy with the depreciated buy out.

Kinda sucks. I was surprised that most of my items weren't depreciated much more than 25%. Some were at 50-60%.

I'm thankful it wasn't the aquarium that started the fire. I was worried about that. And it wasn't the aquarium at all. My new house I put in 20 amp Arc Fault GFI circuits (2 of them) for the aquarium. Hopefully to prevent any fires from the aquarium.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, but I'm happy that no one was injured or killed in the fire. I'm sure it's been a living nightmare over the past few months, but wouldn't a nice, colorful reef tank make you feel better? :D

Did they ever determine what started the fire?
 
one of the insurance companies was thinking of sueing Samsung. I had a 2.5 year old Samsung Side by side fridge that was reportedly known to start fires.. Supposedly anyways.

Otherwise, the most likely culprit was an electrical fire in the crawl space. The crawl space was more or less a half basement. (due to former flooding possibility 20-30 years ago). However, the north side of the crawl space is wide open to wildlife.. So, who knows, maybe a cat or dog wanted to chew on some wires. And got more than they bargained for. All the wiring for the hosue runs through the crawl space.
 
That really stinks! Sorry to hear that!

Hopefully some reefers in your area can help you start everything back up with some frags. I would try making a post in your local forum.

I know in my area (PA,NJ,NY Area) alot of people were hit with superstorm sandy, and lost all of their fish too due to power outage. I know a few local ones where alot of our local reefers donated frags to them to help rebuild their tanks.

Best of luck and I hope that you can get back into the hobby!
 
Man, I'm so sorry about your loss ... :( Your tank, your house, your goods ...

I lost all my tank when the light went off when we were out for the weekend. Returning home, and seeing your wonderful fish spread over the sand, the corals melting ... my heart broke ...

anarchyx914 said:
I know a few local ones where alot of our local reefers donated frags to them to help rebuild their tanks.
Click to expand...
That is a nice idea, if we lived nearer :D I'll give you something to start with.

Think now in positive, a fresh new start, a new tank ... I wish you the best luck, and wait for the post of your return.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the sentiments. It was gross.. The water turned green. I didn't bother to remove anything, a friend from the local reef club retrieved my rock. We'll acid wash it and get it curing in a little bit. But even getting the rock was dangerous, no idea how much coral toxins and deadly bacteria are in there now with all the death and rot. Plus the tank had started to leak etc..

So, yeah, I'll probably start over, but, it'll be a few months before I get a new build going. I'm checking out Starfire glass tanks to see what I can get, I figure if I'm going to start over, might as well go better...
 
Horrible story, sorry about your loss. :(

Hopefully you can everything back together...best of luck when it comes time to rebuild.
 
I agree Mello! I've taken up the hobby of beer brewing at a friends place in the meantime.. That helps mellow out! :)

any suggestions on good vendors for tanks / stands to work with???
 
Many LFS have venders that an do Starphire or low iron glass. Marineland will make them and many stores handle them. I know there are a number of venders: reef savy, coast to coast aquariums, glass cages, and Great Lakes aquarium.
 
I like A.G.E. as a builder of tanks. They make nice hybrids with PVC bottoms.


I feel your pain as my house was struck by lightening a few years ago. We have lightening protection cables running from the roof to the ground which prevented a major fire but our low voltage equipment including computers, pool equipment, was fried. Fortunately my tank was not up and running but was being built. Wires, controllers, timers would have been lost and required replacement. Standard electric appliances fared well and insurance covered all. Best of luck to you.
 
Sorry for your loss. I suffered an apartment fire about 10 years ago. Not a fun experience. Luckily, I did not have a tank at the time. I didn't lose everything but was a pretty close thing. It was mostly contained to the bedroom...an electrical fire. I was home and smelled smoke and immediately got others out of the apt building. Was very lucky that the fire station was up the block. They were able to contain it fairly quickly but I lost everything in the bedroom and the rest of the apt suffered smoke damage. My insurance was awesome, I must say. I had no problems with them. It helped that the fire was not my fault, I think and was electrical issues with the building. I couldn't find my cat so he was still in the apartment. I was so worried but the firemen found my kitty-boy and saved him for me.

I think that if you love the hobby that you should, you should stick with it. I am sure there are reefers in your area who would be willing to pitch in....perhaps with frags, used equipment, etc. I local person lost their entire tank and everyone pitched in to help with frags, giving time to help her set up her new aquarium, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
  • Question Question
Soft Water
Replies
13
Views
476
wvned
wvned
B
Left Tank for a long time, now want to reboot
Replies
8
Views
210
SantaMonica
S
R
How is my chemistry looking?
Replies
1
Views
78
Uncle99
Uncle99
E
What's Old is New Again
Replies
2
Views
403
Uncle99
Uncle99
A
New to saltwater
Replies
3
Views
103
Acetaprofen
A
Back
Top