Barnacle_Blenny
New member
After over two decades in the hobby I unfortunately had my first tank crash...
Being I live in a mandatory evacuation area I had to leave the tank behind. I set up my backup plan which included 72 hours of power for the tank. Packed 2 Grandmas, 3 kids, 3 dogs, My wife, and 1 bearded dragon and headed north to the smoky mountains. Being a family member has health issues we couldn't return till the power was back on.
Unfortunately hurricane Irma knocked out my power for 10+ Days and all was lost...
Fish - Coral anything living was dead even the rock. My house smelled of death so bad you could smell it from the outside of the house. The tank was a milky solid white. Since the power came back on the skimmer was overflowing with Black Death all over the house.
Heart broken after many days of cleaning and multiple 100% water changes I decided we can't give up not now not ever! We started the cycle all over again. Even after scrubbing the rock and rinsing it we still had die off deep in our very porous rock.
This led to the biggest and most intense algae bloom I have ever seen it went from nothing to almost over a foot in length in 3 or so days.
Well I couldn't just leave it there so I got the usual clean up crew and an algae blenny. This green thing was so massive they barely put a dent in it. So the rarest fish of all came to the rescue.
My wifeatus wrasse...
she would snatch handfuls of hair algae every time she would head to the kitchen. She made it look so easy the waving green monster didn't stand a chance!
At this point I decided I would do a fish only tank. The pain was still to new and sharp to think about doing a complex build with rare sps and lps. I couldn't replace my guys with false copies they all had there own personalities that I got to know and love. So I headed to the shops looking for fish that were different species then the ones I had.
Headed from store to store and friend to friend I told them the tragic story of my reef. To my surprise I had Reef Saints as friends they all offered to help one way or another with Coral, Frags, Fish and more.
I even had my favorite local fish shop help me out. Elite marine gave me some amazingsps frags to start out the journey!
My friend Cutler the owner of Altier jewelers in BOCA Raton gave me three huge Colonies!! Amazing guy!
Even people I have never met before offered to help. Rogger gave me a ton of frags from his amazing reef tank that was just featured here. https://www.facebook.com/RoggersReefFood/posts/1620803207941907
And he fed me some amazing lentil soup (he's an awesome chef for people and fish alike)
I have to say this journey has made me love this hobby and this community even more and I can't wait for these colonies to grow so I can pay it forward and meet more of my fellow reefers in need!!!
Thanks FEMA!!
Friends Equipping My Aquarium
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