My Tank crash - Hopefully you can learn from my experience :(
 

My Tank crash - Hopefully you can learn from my experience :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC1MXVUFN50

Well thats sad to hear.

A few questions out of curiosity,

How long was the power out? 4hrs?

What is you total system volume?

How many fish?

How did the inverts fair and which ones do you have if any?

I do have a battery back-up on of my Gyre recirc pumps which should keep things going for apox 36 hours at 30% flow. I hope this would be enough until I could get to the tank as I am away a lot. For longer outages I picked up a small gas generator but that would require me to be home to set it up. It has enough capacity to run everything in the tank. I guess that in the short term my hope is that the tank temp would drop slowly enough in the winter and rise slowly enough in the summer so that temp isn't a big issue but that is only a hope...don't want to ever test my set up for real. Very sad video, and I can tell that it was hard for you to make but thank-you for doing it.

Shitty deal. That's a nightmare of mine for sure. I have the battery back ups on my mp40's as well as a natural gas fireplace in my basement which will kick in even if the power is out and keep the basement warm. On top of that I have a couple D cell battery powered air pumps with air stones on the end that I could add to the tank. Those only work if I am there and awake. The battery backups work automatically.

Sorry for your losses, they looked cool!

shady

I purchased a battery powered air pump with bubble stone at Caballas a few years ago. It's to keep your live well oxegenated when your fishing. It's saved my butt a couple of times. My tank lost power for 48 hours once and I didn't loose a thing, all it cost me was some d batteries to keep the bubbler going. Everyone should have one to keep your tank oxegenated and the water moving...

My Tank crash - Hopefully you can learn from my experience :(
 

So sorry to hear that. Hopefully it doesn't discourage you from the hobby

I had a tank crack one and it was a chaotic/traumatic experience but thankfully I was home

My apex would send an email & txt when communication is lost......

Then I have T - however long to get my inverter running....

I had the power go out like 3 years ago for 4 or 5 hours and everything was fine (I was on vacation when it happened and my tank sitter was unaware). I think it depends on a few factors.....

Number and size of fish, volume of water & outside / room temp..... As well have a back flow / check valve so your tank doesn't all run into a sump that can't handle the increased volume.

I find check valves will fail the second they get fouled up a bit. I'd rather have the sump system designed to hold the total volume in the event of a pump outage.

+1

I watched the linked video. I think at this point I'm comfortable calling out the OP as someone making a concerted effort at fame and fortune. She may have a reef tank, she may or may not have had the crash described, but I have the creepy feeling of being scammed.

She does posts like this here and on RC that I know of; starts a thread that invites attention always with a link to some video she's made. The information is always super basic, and occasionally questionable. For example, in this video she suggests that after 1 hour without power the O2 levels crashed to the point that most of her fish died. I highly doubt that the tank pictured in the video would suffer that effect after 1 hour. She also suggests that after an hour without power the bacteria would start dieting off. Please. She also says the temp dropped to 22 (from what she doesn't say though) in 4 hours. The tank pictured is big. Unless the house was freezing that's pretty fast to cool off. And even if it did, 22 is not that cold. It's not ideal, but fish would be fine. Then she says she tore the rock apart to get the fish bodies she couldn't scoop up with a net, including a scooter blenny? That makes no sense. Who here would tear up their 180+g tank to scoop out a fish body you couldn't find?

She ends her video with a really unconvincing suggestion that she's so affected by this tragedy her future in the hobby is uncertain, with the shameless suggestion to stay tuned to the next video to hear what her decision is! Helpfully included in her comments on the video is a link to a site where you can give her cash.

This OP never engages in these threads beyond the first post. This is not someone seeking to share or engage with like minded hobbyists. This is someone looking for attention and money.

I don't trust check valves either, but some tanks require one & they need to be acid soaked frequently to ensure they are clean...

I agree, seems fishy (pardon the pun)
We were without power for 66 hours last year, my temp dropped from 26-22 over a period of 12 hours (this was in fall so ambient temp wasn't too cold )
Since then we've had another 3 power outs (gotta love these windstorms) and I've had the tank dip to 15 over winter-everything made it through no trouble. As long as the change is gradual your livestock will adapt.

I had an electrician wire in a generator plug and bought a big generator that will run my whole house. Plus I'm looking into solar power panels as well.

To the people here doubting I am willing to give the benefit of doubt as Depending on what is in the tank I have read and watched on youtube (In fast time of course) tanks that crashed in a matter of hours to those that took 2 or 3 days to crash.

Most of us have experienced some sort of tank crash at some point in our career hell I've lost count the amount of fish and coral I've lost through various means including crashes

Shiiit happens we deal with it and hopefully rebuild

I tend to agree with Ian. I have watched the OPs YouTube videos and the fact that she started the thread and never came back to post again makes me suspect that it is all about hits to her YouTube channel. I do feel bad that she may have had a tank crash, however I am wondering why she has not been back.

I agree with Treebeard and Ian. And don't even bother to post questions for her like the guy on the first page did. She's posts her vids on about 75 other sites around the world, from Singapore to London. All with links to her donation page.

We had a 48 hours power outage and my tank was out of power for 12 hours before I put the pumps back on, unfortunately I can only run the pumps and the water temp dropped to 21 degrees and everthing still made it through....not sure if ammonia would set in that just 3-4 hours. It just doesn't make sense....even all my Sps pulled through and I have a lot of Sps with abandonce of fish. Obviously what happened to ops tank is heartbreaking and I feel bad for her but this is the hobby we have chosen, never said it was gonna be easy. Brush it off and start again, it's kinda fun to restock anyways, probably a good time to have a backup plan too....🙊

I agree. Something ain't right. I don't doubt she had a mass die off but I don't thing 4 hours without power did it. I've got 3 times the bioload and I've had power go out for half a day before and I lost nothing. Id like to know what really happened.

My jaw was dropped the entire video in sadness of what happened, until she said to check out her next video to find out her decision! That second I was like... Mmmmm No.

No doubt she posted this for the views and revenue from YouTube. That and nearly all the forums and then never responds as others have mentioned.

This has been my experience too. I asked the OP a few questions on their Copperbanded Butterfly thread and got crickets. I suspect you'll get crickets in this thread too. By all means, discuss among yourselves but don't expect the OP to be involved in the discussion :neutral: It's too bad really. I'm normally foruming on my tiny phone screen so I don't want to watch YouTube videos. I would rather read and discuss the topic.

My tank has lost power quite a few times in the past 7 years. The longest it was without power continuously without supplemental intervention (backup power/generator) was probably 24 hours. Tank never crashed. Corals and fish weren't happy but the entire system didn't.. wait for it.. .. tank (pun intended).

this video freaked me out. Just wondering how popular/ useful are those back up battery packs that lfs sell to run your powerhead at 35% for "X" hours?

BTW I too have looked at the posters videos online. I find it funny she had to make/ post a video titled "exactly how rich am I"

guess she got a lot of haters lol

I just want to be clear, and I'm 98% sure everyone else feels the same way, that I feel devistated for her loss! It totally sucks and is a gut wrenching feeling to know something went wrong with your system.

The social media hustle is quite apparently a part of her thing and so be it. People become rich off social media nowadays, good on her for trying. But to string people along and draw out our sympathy into another video view is pretty rough. I for one can honestly say I will not click on a loumaggs post on any forum I see now. I have zero hate for loumaggs, I just don't want to be a part of that process more than I already have been.

Peace

There are far more educated and experienced reef keepers on YouTube that I DON'T watch.

+1

Yup, pretty much.

Personally, I have no problems with any of these videos.

Also, when I had a devastating tank crash due to a Marine Velvet outbreak, it took the heart out of me with regards to this addiction. I was ready to throw in the towel. But I didn't make a hasty decision when I was feeling devastated by the losses. Instead, I took some time out to think if I still had it in me to continue. It was actually my wife who encouraged me to take a bit of a break and try again. For the OP, stating that she hasn't made up her mind whether or not to restock and start over after this massive tank wipeout is the same situation I went through (although I'm not a YouTube kinda guy). If she has a lot of "online followers" then its a logical step to state that she will make her decision later and post it on a future video. How else would someone who posts videos online regularly do it? If I usually text my ideas or opinions to my fishie friends, then I would text that I will let them know by text once I make up my mind on a fairly significant decision. So to me, this is the same thing, except she does things by video. I don't see anything "sinister" in mentioning at the end of this video that she'll let everyone know her final decision in a future vid.

For the record, I have posted on some of her earlier videos and the OP did respond back both by post and PMs. If she posts links to her videos on 75 forums (as another member stated earlier) I'm sure its a very time consuming chore to respond to every thread on every forum. I am only on BCAquaria and Canreef (regularly in terms of fish forums) and its sometimes not easy to keep up with everything going on with just two forums. I believe she's in the UK so Canreef is a foreign site to her, so one she will less likely to post on or visit as regularly as UK fish sites.

BTW, I have read a lot of threads on both my "home" forums where someone posts a question or opinion in a new thread and never responds back to follow up postings, so again, not a big deal. Why get offended or consider try to find something sinister behind it? Seems a waste of energy to me, since lots of members are more lurkers than posters. After all, I belong to a citrus growers forum which I visit occasionally and it is often weeks between posts for me on that forum, since its not one of my main "home" forums.

Also, if my tank was just wiped out, the last thing I would be doing is deciding if I should still buy a Copperband Butterfly fish, which are notoriously tricky to keep under optimal conditions.

Just my opinion.

Anybody who doesn't want to watch any future videos by the OP is following their own inclinations and opinions. Just seemed the comments on this thread were becoming too one-sided for me to stand on the sidelines and not post my own comments.

loumaggs, hope this tank crash does not discourage you from resetting up your system, but with more backups to prevent future problems.

Anthony

Well said Anthony

Answered above

Apex is something I'll look into if I do continue

Thank you Anthony, it's a very sad day when you film something and people still don't believe you... I received around 150 messages from various social media sites everyday and 95% I reply to. I've had 300 messages of,support on that video and every messages I've replied to. It's almost a full time job

Sorry to hear about your loss. It sucks to go through something like that. So what are you plans moving forward?

And it's gracious of you to come in and reply to Anthony's post. That's much appreciated. There are however a few other posts before his with various questions posted that I myself am interested in hear the answer to if you have time to answer them?

I don't think anyone is doubting the legitimacy of your tank loss. Everyone is very sympathetic toward you about that :) I hope you get back on the seahorse and carry on with the hobby.

I totally understand what you are saying, it's not that we don't believe this happened just can't rationalize why it happened in such a short time. I have personally been through countless power outages and the longest one was about 10 years ago where we lost power for three days straight and my tank had no alternate aid for the same duration and when the power came back on I still made it through with all my fishes.

I think we would like to get some more info on why and how this all happened, there is got to be something else that caused this and not just a few hours of power outage. We all love this hobby and that'why we use our hard earned money to ensure all inhabitant live happy and well. I would do anything to avoid a disaster and I think that goes for everyone who had questions so we can examine exactly what caused it, OP needs to answer a few questions on here so we can investigate and some how come to a collaborated conclusion which should help her and help us in the long run.

Get back on the seahorse.....hahahahah:mrgreen:

Last night I got home from work and my Cali Tort was 3/4s bleached/dead. I thought "maybe I should quit reefing" for a moment or two...lol I can't imagine a total tank wipe out, must be devastating.

Louise has a place in the youtube reef world. She may not be hardcore like some of the guy reefers who do video's like scientists but her vids have a place like anything else. I enjoy watching from time to time and if I learn something, bonus!

loumaggs: did someone advise you that there were negative posts here? Is that why you came back so quickly? Previously, you hardly ever responded to your own threads or questions in them..is why I'm asking.

There have been some legitimate questions posted as to how your tank crashed so quickly...no one here seems to have experienced anything like that, despite almost all of us having experienced power outages, many of far greater duration in tanks much more heavy loaded than yours.

We're not saying it didn't happen of course, its just your explanation of why it happened seems rather unusual (tank ran out of o2 in an hour or so) compared to anyone here's experience.

Again, not to say it didn't happen like you said it did, but if you are going to hold yourself out as an expert while soliciting donations from us, you must expect questions like these.

*edit* My sympathies for your loss...nobody enjoys seeing beautiful fish like that die.

:biggrin:

and there is a perfectly good reason why this thread (and others like it) are completely one sided. It's because the "other side" isn't here to help contribute to the discussion. Even though the "other side" was here, the "other side" still chose not to take that opportunity contribute to the discussion that they started. :neutral: