Complete loss
 

Well my house smells like corpse reek now. :cry: Left on vacation for a week, family member left to house sit /tank sit. Family member tripped breaker when she plugged in vac to tanks power bar. Didn't realize what she had done till days later when fish began going belly up. Just spent the last two hours siphoning water, chucking out "once-live" rock & endless fish corpses never mind the corals. Anyone in the market for a new skimmer? Euroreef RS135 like new. First with $300 can have it. I'm done. :(

Ohhh .... I am SO sorry, that's terrible :(

So sorry for your loss :( What a nightmare :sad:

That really sucks.

It is sickening but don't be hasty. Pack everything away for a while and you will find yourself dreaming of the new set up and the critters you will keep.

that's so sad...

This is why I will no longer ask friends or family to look after my tanks. It has to be another reef keeper otherwise I know something will go wrong again and just like in your case they wont even notice it (or even if they do notice they'll be clueless as of what to do). I've suffered a few needless losses and almost had a complete tank crash like your own. Then the worse part is you cant help but blame them in part for it...

That is why I am scared to go on holidays anywhere at the moment. I have 10 Thousand in my 1 tank alone, and that is a HUGE risk of loss if someone has no idea what they are doing.

Sorry to hear about the loss. But I think as someone mentioned before, you should put the equipment away and wait a bit. Don't be in a rush to sell. You may want to start over again a bit later after you have had a chance to absorb everything.

Don't toss out the live rock. You can cook it for several months and then, if & when the bug hits you again, you can reuse this rock.

I have a reefer who lives down the street look after my tanks when I go away. Left them in the care of my wife's cousin & he used up 6 months worth of goldfish pellets on my angelfish tank, to the point where my barebottom looked like it had a layer of brown river gravel.

There should be someone close enough to trade tank sitting duties with for most members here.

Anthony

Sorry to read about your crash. Like others have said...give it a few days before you call er quits...Think of it this way....If there was ever anything you thought you might like to change as far as stocking, aquascaping.......the system itself.....now is your chance.

I agree. If you can, have someone with at least some knowledge of keeping fish look after your system.If you dont know anyone....post here...."L/F someone in N.W. Calgary(etc) to house-sit tank"....Im sure someone would ante up....I have tank-sitted for a couple canreef friends and helped another by babysitting some coral when his tank was crashing....To me, its the least I could do...I know, gawd forbid if I ever need that kind of help, I would hope someone would return the favor... Ask you favorite LFS if they have a tank maintenance guy....Also ask them if they can leave the LFS number with whoever is taking care of the tank in case of emergency.

Like most others, I agree, pack stuff away, reconsider in a week, month
I would be disheartened as well if that happened to me

So Sorry to hear of your losses.

Sorry to here about your losses.

Chris

Arrgghh!!! Yet another tank loss caused by "relatives". I don't know how many times I've seen this happen. "Relatives" are more deadly to reef tanks than dinoflagellates and red bugs combined! Isn't there anything that can be done about "relatives"? Is there something you can put in a phosban reactor? Or is there some kind of perscription medication you can steal from a local vet? I guess a FW dip could kill a few relatives but that would take a while and then you'd have to deal with the cops and all.

I've come home to tanks so overfed I couldn't see through the water. Hopefully you find a way to keep at it. Good luck.

thanks everyone. Trying to look on the positive side of things lol. The rock & sand are absolutly gross so that was the end of that. I just lost my $3000 Solaris unit before this crash too !@#@$%!
Well there's no way I can afford new live rock for a 100gal plus everything else so she's being converted to freshwater in the next few days. Got it cleaned out with a 10% bleach solution & the rock & sand are in garbage cans for a trip to the dump. At least the house doesn't small like corpse anymore.

Why not pressure wash and dry the rock out and sell it as base rock? Or even sell it in its current state and let someone else figure it out. Regardless of how it looks/smells at the moment it still has value if someone is willing to put some work into it.

I would keep the rock in water and run the skimmer before giving up on it. I doubt your rock is totally dead and you could always sell it at a later date if it is still ok. Hate to see it go to the dump if it's not needed.

Like others have said give it a little bit before giving up. Right now it seems very frustrating but selling and then wishing you didn't and buying back in is more costly. What I do is leave a list of if this should happen you should... and leave a contact number to the nearest live fish store so they can at least call to find out what can be done.
Sucks though.

Did all that, the "house sitter" didn't follow through though. You would not believe the nonsense. Absolutely clueless.

Sorry for your loss. Hopefully you won't completely give up on reefkeeping. You can always find a new tanksitter in Mission.

Sorry to hear the loss, did you check with your insurance company? I asked my provider if I would be covered in the event of total failure and was told I am covered, not sure how or what the process is but would be worth looking into.

So sorry for your losses :sad:

Terrible! So sorry to hear this.

Sorry to hear of your losses. I had a similar experience; don’t give up lesson learn and your new tank will even be better you already have the equipment....

TJ

OMG, that is my nightmare. I only have one tank sitter and I make sure that she knows everything. We were roommates for 6 years so it helps that she knows my tank really well. But if she is on vacation at the same time as we want to go, we don't go. Simple as that.

Sorry to hear about your "challenged" house sitter. Man they were vaccuming? Thats quite the service they provide :wink:

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Wow man, sorry about your loss too. I came home to a bad situation yesterday, my overflow stopped working. I only lost a few gallons of water, so I was lucky. I can't imagine losing everything.

In my experience that won't work, you have to cook it. There are so many little places in the rock that even a pressure washer won't get everything.

total loss
 

Sorry to hear about your loss. Pretty much the same thing happened to me last year almost to the day. I through all of my rock into a spare tank and started recycling it. I was just going to bail on the hobby but I had to leave fto Toronto the day after. During the week I was away I started to think about how I could improve my system. By the time I got home I was in a better mood and I some how conned the wife into letting me upgrade from a 90 to a 225 inwall. (had something to do with all of the pouting i guess!)
Take some time off and think about it before you bail.
Good luck!
Keith.

Sorry to hear, it is so heart breaking when things go so wrong.
My DH and I were thinking of setting up a live feed on our tanks
so we could check in on them when they are being babysat.
I thought we were nuts but now, I think it sound like a good idea.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Hopefully you decide to give it another shot.

Well I'm trying to look at this as opportunity in disguise. I spent the afternoon converting the sump into a respectable DIY trickle filter. I am going to make this into a real sweet F/W set-up. Really have a thing for New World cichlids & I'm starting to think seriously about ordering a high end Flowerhorn. I will get back into reefing someday but of course BIGGER & Better :biggrin:. Heck I'll get a loan & make a monster custom lol.

Sorry about your situation, but it's awesome you are trying something new... my biggest fear is to go away and have my tank bombed... no holidays for me I guess.

Flowerhorns are really cool. Golds in Calgary has two huge show quality makes. One is green and burgundy... what a fish!

I never could decide if Flowerhorns were gorgeous or grotesque lol.
I have had a fetish for Green Terrors for years but never grown one to maturity, perhaps now.......

Yeah the flowerhorns are different. It is awesome you have a new plan. If my tank crashed I would probably do fresh water as well. I have now noticed that there are some beautiful fresh water fish out there. The expensive ones, are cheap compared to my Achilles tang and other fish I have purchased. Good luck with the new plan and keep us posted.