1st Tank Crash :( and maybe the last.

[a4goulet]

So I was on vacation last week and came home to a crashed tank. All my fish (1 yellow tank, 3 carberryi anthisa, 3 chromis, tail spotted blenny, 2 ocellaris clowns, 1 yellow fin wrasse, 1 purple dartfish, and an azul damselfish and all but 5 pcs if coral are dead. Power flickered sometime last week and when everything turned back on it tripped the GFCI outlet. Tank went 2.5-3 days without power. I was getting email alerts from Apex fusion saying my apex was disconnected but I just assumed it up to my crappy wireless router acting up after the power outage. Stupid me. If I was smart I should have had my neighbor check-in on the tank. This could have been preventable. I have been working on getting the tank stable by water changes to see if I can save the last pieces of coral that are barely hanging in there.  Right now I am thinking I will give a way the last pcs of coral and shut down the tank and leave the hobby for a while. Such a devastating blow.

I know I am not to experience this and too those who have how did you have motivation to restart?

 

[bcavalli]

I am so sorry to hear that happened.  I can't imagine how devastating it must be.  If you can get your ammonia down the coral can recover.  As long as it's white and not covered in algae.  Let us know if there's anything we can do to help you.

 

[Dmitri]

So sorry to hear about your loss. How big was your tank?

i’ve had tank crash before and my motivation was to go bigger every time.

Im sure you next system will be even more amazing.

 

[danh]

Dang that sucks........ So sorry.

 

[snowmansnow]

crashes stink, but they are part of the hobby. If stay in the hobby long enough you'll eventually experience it. My advise would be to clean things up and start again. There's no rush to have a tank full of animals. Spread the cost out over a few years if you want to persistence eventually wins... years and years of persistence You can do this

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

I bought over 40 pieces of coral a week ago, some were good size colonies.  My temp shot up a few times into the 90's over the forst few days amd now most of the coral is white.  Thankfully it was in a seperate system from my main tank.  It sucks, but this stuff does happen in the hobby.

Stick with it and setup backup plans for major problem areas like water top off, heating, and cooling.  Most coral seems to bounce back over time with a good maintenance plan - repeated 93 degree heat seeming to be an exception😣.  Whether or not the coral bounces back, it is a valuable lesson as long as you remember what went wrong and how to prevent it again.  While the main focus in the hobby is making beautiful systems, a good part of the hobby is setting up systems and precautions to prevent tank dissasters.



Good luck!

 

[FutureInterest]

Man that bites.  Sorry to hear that.  It is best if you can setup a tank buddy from the club.  Someone that will stop by periodically while you are away, especially when you are getting that message from the Apex.

I'm confident you will stick around cause you're no quitter .  I'd be happy to give you some frags to help start you back up. Just PM me when you're ready to put some more things in there.

 

[a4goulet]

Thanks everyone! Setup was a standard 120g display, 170g total volume. I have been in the hobby for 6+ years and this was my first real crash. I guess I have been lucky so far but I kind wish I would of experienced something like this a little earlier on.

So after much consideration and with your guy's encouragement I think I will continue on! but just with a FOWLR for a while.  Surprisingly my wife still supports me with continuing on. I don't think she would if she actually knew how much I have spent on everthing! Shhh.



So to apply my lessons learned I have come up with two corrective actions to help preventing this from happening again. First is to subscribe to my weather station app that will alert me via email of temp changes. This runs off battery power so if this was in place before my vacation it would of caught the lack of power by the temp drop. Second is a web cam with 2way communication for remote viewing and guiding any tank sitters when needed.



I also need to dig into the root cause. My GFCI outlet tripping.... and before investing much more into the system I'll look into a generator for actual power outages.



Thanks again everyone.

 

[hnguyen]

Sorry to hear about your tank crash, these are the stories you never want to read. I hope you bounce back quickly and I'll be happy to donate some frags whenever you're ready.

I have an Amazon cloud cam pointed at my tank and can remotely access it anywhere to view the tank. This gives me peace of mind while I'm away or even at work, I can log on and just watch my fish swim around. I also take very e-mail my apex sends me seriously and look into it right away. Lastly, I have 2 echotech battery back-ups for my mp40's in case of a power outage. Not much I can do with heat or cold though, all I can do is keep the water moving and hope for the best.

 

[tbub1221]

I have a very similar story and I shut my tank down for a yea +

Sorry for your loss

 

[jsmoak3]

Bummer.  Really sorry for your loss.  My prior reefs have all been shut down related to moves, but they were also having some issues in both cases.  I generally leave myself fallow for a few years and start all over again bigger and better.  have been a hobbyist since 1965.

I'm a new member so "Hello all".



John

 

[joseayes]

I've had two or three things happened in the past, and I'll say, no matter how seasoned you're, things always happens, it could be you or it could be faulty equipment or it could be anything.  I had poured like 10 gallons of RO water in the appartment apartment floor where we used to live years ago, I have gone through salinity swings and some of the most recents were dealing with hot temperatures and then a broken chiller that precipitated decided to chill the water like if it was ice cold beer, happened overnight, it might just were some hours, luckily my "temporary" tank didn't had a crash.

It's hard when we want somenthing for our enjoyment and relaxation and it becomes painful and stressing. Hopefully you'll get the best decisions.

 

[a4goulet]

Thanks @Hnguyen, I will always remember to take every apex alert very seriously now.

Thanks @Tbub1221

Thanks @JSmoak3 and welcome to ARC!

Thanks @joseayes, I always watch the BRS videos and they always talk about redundancy.  My redundancy was there and I failed on my part. That's what is making this so hard. If it was a equipment failure or something else that was out of my control I wouldn't be so hesitance with continuing in the hobby.

On positive note. Some how my yellow tail wrasse survived.  I found him down to my sump and I have no idea how but he is still kicking. The coral survivor list: Florida ric mushroom, green trumpet, hammer, purple psammocora, leptastrea and a cyphastrea.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Glad to hear there are survivors!