My Weekend

RasBobre · #1 01/02/2006, 09:43 AM

As you all know, we had a powerful storm come through last weekend. Well, I unfortunately received the worst of it when our electricity went out on Saturday morning and didn't get restored until late last night.

I lost it all folks. My seven year old 90 gallon reef tank was full of bleached corals, dead clams and fish. I fragged off tips of what I thought would make it, but this morning they're all gone.

Gone is everything I ever got from Tim Plaza, most heartbreaking my aquituberculata monti, the rose bubble anemone that has given me a half a dozen splits in the past few years, the beautiful turbinara that I got from Rich before he moved to his new home, the huge green slimer that I got from Pam that I fragged a bunch of times, the acan that Rob "jusreefin" held on for me for months, all gone. I was able to move my eight year old percula to a friends house, but he went in a 55 with a large yellowstripe maroon, hopefully they get along for awhile.

As I look at my tank, I have a lone green chromis left and Rich's green nepthea and a bunch of closed up zoa's.

And this is just my display in my house. My 75 gallon gallon, 40 gallon and 135 in the fish room were also lost.

My wife and I have said for years that we need to get a power generator, the electrician down the street knows it and we'll be talking to him about the installation of a 15,000W that will run the house. (I do have a power inverter on my truck that I hooked up my display tank to, but after five hours of idleing I thought it was best to not over do it with my truck.)

I've got a lot of work ahead of me, maybe even an upgrade to a 180, but no plans to do much except to try to save what I have now and get a power supply installed.

Enjoy what you got.

want2reef · #2 01/02/2006, 10:12 AM

Wow!

I feel for ya man.

Look at the bright side, as long as you and your loved one's are OK, thats all that matters.

After that storm, I am too going to get a generator.

thereefgeek · #3 01/02/2006, 11:21 AM

What a bummer man, I'm so sorry to hear about your tank and all your prized long time residences. This last round of storms had me sweating just a bit myself. You know that whenever you're ready, all of us in the club will be ready to help you re-stock your tank. I still have some of that turbinaria in my tank now, so let me know. I just hope that Percula can hold her own with the GSM.

tfp · #4 01/02/2006, 11:41 AM

man rob...that really sucks. sorry to hear about this

that last storm was brutal and the winds coulda took power out to any of us. i was kinda nervous yesterday as i was doing routine tank maintenance.

lmk when you're back online and ready...you'll get a VERY nice care pack from me

tim

Elite · #5 01/02/2006, 12:22 PM

Sorry to hear that man... My power went out from 9-5 yesterday. The only thing doesn't look good is my red zoo. Other seem to be OK.

budgetyourself · #6 01/02/2006, 12:55 PM

Rob - what a bummer - when you are ready, I have lots of corals that need fragging and can help restock your tank - Pam

boviac · #7 01/02/2006, 12:59 PM

Wow I am so sorry. As a Mech Engineer, I too have pondered about the continual loss of electricy for my tank(s). Until now, I have been focusing my time planning my upgrade but now it seems I should first be planning an electrical backup. I too have an overstock of nepthea, LPS, and other soft corals. As others have said, let us know when you are ready to restock and I'll be happy to help out as well. Again, so sorry about your loss. I currently have battery powered air pumps but really that's it for me.

user48953 · #8 01/02/2006, 01:03 PM

Sorry to hear Rob.. when you get everything stabled out, there'll be plenty of frags from my tank to help your restocking efforts..

huy

Justin74 · #9 01/02/2006, 02:15 PM

My condolences Rob to you and your wife..Extremely depressing,Im sure. I have a couple things I can donate as well to the cause when you and your tank are ready.

-Justin

Unarce · #10 01/02/2006, 02:57 PM

Sorry about your misfortune, Rob. I'd definitely like to contribute RasBobre Disaster Relief Frags when everything's back up and running.

sagitariuscbc · #11 01/02/2006, 04:09 PM

we are so sorry to hear of this Robert! let us know what we can do for you! we'll be more than happy to kick you down what ever we have in our tanks is yours! when your ready we have a very pretty rbta for your family. together we stand divided we fall.
once again our condolences.

shawn and family!~(

lilleahseafreak · #12 01/02/2006, 06:38 PM

any one know a good power generator? i am SO buying one now!!!! crap i would be bawling my eyes out if that happened to me. shoot i feel so bad for you.

so any one have a generator to reccomend for all us paranoid reefers?

RasBobre · #13 01/02/2006, 08:29 PM

Thank you all for your offers, I'll definitely let you know of my future plans.

I got home from work early today knowing that I had some work to do and that the power had been out again all morning, and man did my house stink! I pulled out so many dead corals! Good news though, I did find my Tyree undata looking alive.

I made up sixty gallons of water last night and did a major change. Also, on any coral that I was able to remove from the water, I broke it off as close to the rock and returned it to the tank rather than chucking the whole thing. I have seen things come back after bleaching.

Although it's a bummer of an event, things could be worse and I am grateful for the time that I enjoyed with this aquarium. I look forward to building something better or bigger.

Lilleah, here is a link to the supplier of the generator that I am getting, model 4390.

http://norwall.com/specials.htm?src=...OVMTC=standard

bluenassarius · #14 01/02/2006, 08:55 PM

man sorry to hear that. if you need help restocking in the future, i have no probs sending some frags your way.

cyclgrl · #15 01/02/2006, 09:16 PM

Really sorry to hear about your loss, but just wanted to say how much I admire your attitude towards what happened--good luck in your new and improved setup!

Question about your generator--wasn't sure from the specs, but are you planning to have it installed such that it will automatically come on in the case of an emergency?

I bought a portable gas-powered generator to run my tank in just such emergencies--but it requires me to be home. I have only used it once or twice since I bought it, and of course this time I was out of town (when Santa Clara had its longest power outage since I've lived here). Thankfully no losses (I also have a UPS and battery powered airpumps, but eventually that wouldn't have been enough if the power hadn't returned...).

Cindy

RasBobre · #16 01/02/2006, 09:35 PM

Thank you Cindy. I have said to myself many times the past few days that it is only an aquarium. My wife, daughter, dog and the roof over my head are way more important.

About the generator, yes, it will be plumbed into the natural gas line and after a half a minute or so the breaker box in my home will be disabled and the generator will fire up and all running items that were on will remain on.

...the power just turned off and on twice, no three times since I started this post...

And my wife being in charge of the Placer County's Executive Office in Lake Tahoe just got off the phone with Sierra Pacific Power and they say that they have major "main" line work to do the next 72 hours.

MandM · #17 01/02/2006, 10:18 PM

Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm sure with us all chipping in we can get you started again. Our power was out from 2pm Sun to about 2pm today. We managed to keep the canister filters and heaters running on our camping generator (1875 watts) taking turns with fish tanks and refrigerator/freezer. So far, no losses so I think we made it. Good thing we were home. That Generac system is a great deal, cheaper than a new reef setup.

Reefugee · #18 01/04/2006, 01:37 AM

Robert,

Sorry to hear about your loss. But thank you for sharing with the rest of us so that we can learn from it. When you're ready - I'll donate whatever I can.

Minh

rnoreef · #19 01/04/2006, 02:22 AM

Sorry to hear about your loss, I heard that some people up there at the lake were going to be out of power for a few days due to the storm. We lost power down here in a few parts of reno for a few hours. Fortunately I have a generator for my RV that I remembered about after freaking out for about 10 minutes. I pulled an extention cord out to it and pluged in my return pump, skimmer and heaters. Then with all of the extention cords all over my house it got me thinking how dependant we have become to ameneties that we take for granted every day, like electricity. Makes you wonder what things were like about 100 years ago for some people.

TCC · #20 01/04/2006, 06:58 AM

I just wanted to add my condolences. That's really aweful. Sounds like you have plenty of donators lined up to help you re-stock. Feel free to consider me on that list too.

Thanks for sharing your story as well. It's a sobering reminder to everyone to think about backups and emergencies.

racrumrine · #21 01/04/2006, 02:48 PM

Sorry to hear of your tragedy. We just got back from Incline Village where the power was out several times the last few days. It was really hard on the last day packing with the lights out and trying to figure out what lights you had left on and not.

If you are coming to the next BAR or MARS swap, let me know and I can donate something.

Best of luck,

Roy

andyman · #22 01/04/2006, 02:57 PM

Do you think you could have saved your tank if you simply ran only a heater and an air pump? I'm wondering whats the minimum needed just to sustain the tank for a few days.

andy

CaliforniaDreamer · #23 01/04/2006, 03:31 PM

Wow, so sorry to hear this. I can always make some frags if you want them. Our little reef environments are so dependent on technology. Really, really scary.

Marc Daniels · #24 01/05/2006, 05:50 AM

Hey Buddy...man that just sucks. When you get everything back on-line let me know and I'll contribute some tank raised A. perculas to the cause. I also have some frags to go with them.

As always, it is so nice to see so many of the club members come together to help another member out.

RasBobre · #25 01/05/2006, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marc Daniels
As always, it is so nice to see so many of the club members come together to help another member out.

Yes Mark, if I were to take up everyone's offers I'd need to set up a much larger tank.