More bad news, lovely summer were havin aint it?

Justin74 · #1 09/06/2006, 07:48 PM

Well put another notch in the sorry summer sap belt. Came home yesterday durring lunch to find out no power in the house. A very big and very expensive mix up on our parts here at home. Needless to say that mixup put me and my family in the hot dark up untill 2 oclock today.

So I did the best with the resources I had which was nothing other than a gallon jug, splashing and making as much bubbles as I could pour into my tank in a meek and feeble effort to oxygenate it, same with my 30,20, and 15. Pretty damn pitifull.

This morning I had the obscene pleasure of fishing my once beautifull and vibrant copperband butterfly's shocked body out of my tank and into the trash. And when I was hoping it couldnt get any worse I look to my 30g and begrudgingly do the same for my beautifull poor little flame angel. Talk about heart break guys, these fish were pure miracles to me and nothing short brilliance.

Now that everything is circulating and filtering, I just got finished having to snap several twigs from acros that also have alot of meaning to me, one was a gift from Fred that he one at a raffle from Pam. And another which more than likely will be a total loss as well one of my first acro colonies, ya that one in my avatar. Sorry Pico

Im still working my damnedest to save anything and everything, but I know the RTN and STN has not filled it's belly yet.

Ya, 2 battery powered pump couldve prevented at least half this. Let my lesson of procrastination/lazyiness be your lesson as well. 30 bucks is alot cheaper than 200 dollars and still counting.

Sure, you can throw in a prayer for me tonight.

-Justin

Unarce · #2 09/06/2006, 07:52 PM

Sorry to hear that, Justin

kdblove_99 · #3 09/06/2006, 08:01 PM

That sucks. Real sorry for your lose!

cwegescheide · #4 09/06/2006, 08:02 PM

Yes.. I just got 4 of those battery operated air pumps that automatically activate when the power goes out. I'm thinking 3 of them will go into the 90 and one in my 20.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Not only is it the money but the time and care that you've spent working to provide a comfortable environment for your animals. I'd be devastated if i lost my critters I know. Soon I am going to be investing in a chiller and a generator so I know I am prepared in the event of a catastrophe. After you invest in about 50 sps and 20 different zoo's and fish and the like not to mention years of caring for them I think its a small price to pay for the security. Of course the air pumps themselves can do a lot to keep your critters alive.

Live and learn...

dots · #5 09/06/2006, 08:03 PM

Let me know if you need any help

Justin74 · #6 09/06/2006, 08:06 PM

Thanks everyone. I wish there was some help I could get that would just,well, help! But, I think all I can do is test, waterchange, and test again right now. Thank you though Doug.

-Justin

jlfnjlf · #7 09/06/2006, 08:14 PM

Dude that bites...

I have never heard of these battery pumps that come on when the power goes out. where can I find more information?

Once again deepest sympathies.

John

funman1 · #8 09/06/2006, 08:20 PM

This sucks.
Sorry to hear.

Let me know if you need anything.

~Steve~

lanxang · #9 09/06/2006, 08:55 PM

man that really sucks. let me know if you need anything.

John, you can get the pumps at Ost. That was where I got mine. I don't know if Yourreef has any though but it doesn't hurt to call. The that one I got is made by "Tom" or something like that.

Justin74 · #10 09/06/2006, 09:18 PM

Thanks guys. Well when and where I went looking I couldnt find one, but finally stopped by Petco near my house and they had one for 16 bucks. Youreef also has one.Ya, Im just finding em all over now

By the way just tested the water and it's pH is 8.0 :/ That tells me it was at least as low as 7.7-7.8. this morning. Already spiked some sup.buff dkh in, waters spewin' out the RO/DI gettin ready for a mix and late night waterchange. Gonna be another long night....
Stop by around 2 am we'll talk

:rolleyes1:

-Justin

MandM · #11 09/06/2006, 09:22 PM

So sorry to hear about your loss, hope you are able to keep the rest recovering.

A must-have for all our tanks, IMO

Battery air pump

Underwaterparadise · #12 09/06/2006, 09:43 PM

damn bro sorry to hear. I got a frag or 2 for ya

BTW I have a generator if you are ever in need to borrower it just holla you got my #

Peace

Pico1 · #13 09/06/2006, 10:06 PM

I'm really sorry to hear that Justin, LMK if there are any frags of mine you want. Atleast some people have frags of your avitar coral so you can get a frag back when someones grows out.

BTW if you look in my top down pics thread you can see how much that green digi you gave me has grown since I got it in March (it started as a 1/2" frag)

WarrenG · #14 09/06/2006, 10:14 PM

I'd suggest an inverter that you can run off your car. They're not expensive at Harbor Freight and Radio Shack. They can easily run a fan to cool the tank surface and some pumps. Blocks of ice from the store in waterproof bags?

duec22 · #15 09/07/2006, 01:53 AM

Damn Justin that sucks big time. Hopefully things will take a the turn for the better soon.

dhnguyen · #16 09/07/2006, 01:59 AM

I will second the power inverter. Got mine from Circuit City for like $50 and this thing can put out maximum 200watts. Plug that onto a car battery and you have yourself a backup power source for a while until the power comes back on.

Sorry about your loss though Justin. I KNOW how that feels.

My recent hellish move to the Seattle area had cost me ALL of my SPS. Like an idiot I didn't include a heater into the mix and the water just got too cold for the SPS to survive. All the fish, softies, and LPS made it though.

D.

Justin74 · #17 09/07/2006, 02:41 AM

Thanks Dave and Dan,

Dan: Glad your in your new home safe and sound, but damit now I cant plan that pit stop at sunnyvale to have a fellow retired punker hook me up and that sweet mod!Ha! retired punker! Did we ever forsee this coming? I know I didnt! Now it's all EMO, wth is that??A cruel joke I tell ya!

The burn spots happend very fast, like a few hours after the tank was back on. The spike of buff water may have just slowed it down I fear, the acros that were bad hopefully will stop where I snapped them off, but theres some spots on the base as well. I was having a salinity and pH battle before this even happend due to lots of fragging and forgetting to replace salt water besides RO :/. So I really had the chips stacked against me. I just used the last of my Oceanic and cant afford to buy more right now, so Im very lucky I still have the unopend REEFsalt from SeaChem at the WMC. I'll see how it works out. Best I could squeeze out of it though was a pH of 8.2. Which is way better than my tanks at right now, I buffed a second half of the suggested dosage(did it in half incraments, scared of a fast spike) and surprisingly only an hour before lights went off I tested it again and see it slippen down to 7.9ish. So hopefully the waterchange will slow it down a lil more. Im also dripping some kalk tonight in hopes is doesnt drop to a dangerous level. Hmm, 12:30pm, got finished before I thought I would

-Justin

Reefugee · #18 09/07/2006, 09:24 AM

Hey Justin,

Sorry to hear about your mishaps.

I been tempting fate myself. I have two of those battery operated pumps, but have been too lazy to install them. Guess what I am doing this weekend? Thanks for the reminder.

Minh

Izsabelle · #19 09/07/2006, 11:00 AM

Justin, sorry to hear about your misfortune.

LMK, if there's anything we can do for you.

CaliforniaDreamer · #20 09/07/2006, 11:21 AM

Wow Justin, that is really sad. I too have been putting off some safety measures that I should be taking. Looks like I will be doing some work this weekend too. When you get back running let me know if I can give you some frags of what I have. As it turns out I lost my Copper Banded last week too. Don't know the cause, one day fine and the next the hermits are crawling all over him.

Justin74 · #21 09/11/2006, 08:42 PM

Just wanted to add a lighter note. I think everyone could use a good ending

Although if I were a doctor I may still consider not removing them from ICU just yet. But, the necrosis has appeared to stop. I see normal PE in all corals, including the acros, and pocci's. Although some are basically just encrustments, it is not a total loss

I've managed to maintain a pH before lights go out at 8.2. I contribute that to Kents superbuff for the first 2 days after the waterchange(as much as I wanted to spike the hell out of it I opted to go slower 1 notch at a time,heard it causes less stress and appears to be true IME) and filter cleaning(very important to remove any old die off).Then nightly gallon drip of kalk. to supplement and maintain pH(helps with sudden drop offs during the night in pH, especially with an already sick tank!)
Just threw in the lil details in case it happens to a new reefer/reader.

-Justin

BenH98 · #22 09/14/2006, 06:26 PM

Dang! Sorry to hear about this Justin! I have some frags if you would like

Justin74 · #23 09/14/2006, 06:49 PM

Hey Ben

Your already fraggin what I gave you?

Actually my loss as of now consists of fish. The flame angel I showed you guys, and the copperband butterfly. Although it has been almost a week, I have yet to find my sixline in my 30, and my yellow wrasse in my 55. My fear is they burrowed instinctually but may have been to anaerobic in the sand for them, dunno. My yellow guy did this when I first got him a couple years ago, so hopefully, but I think it may be wishfull thinking. We'll see.

My corals, some have lost as much as 2/3 of there totality. But all those now have normal PE and appear to be springing back, especially with all the kalk Ive been putting in Im actually seeing alot of new growth believe it or not. Although, the two fish I did lose for sure were my most proudest to have and to me a major accomplisment at sustaining there health and vitality. It's gonna take me some time to want to climb that mountain again. Thanks for asking

Hows the stuff I gave you? Working out ok?

-Justin

BenH98 · #24 09/14/2006, 06:56 PM

I'm not fraggin quite yet (makes me sad for the coral swap) - but i'll give you back something if you want

Everything you gave me is working out great! The light cycle is back to it's normal cycle so everything is starting to color back up!

The kenya tree and mushroom seem to be doing good. I can't wait to watch them grow.

You gave me some zoos a while back - orange colored ones... remember? no? well - anyways, they survived the "crash" and are doing great as well! They have grown at least triple from when I first got them. Also - my horried battle with flatworms has seemed to disappear!

Nu2SW · #25 09/16/2006, 03:54 PM

Well that is awesome that its getting all better.