squiddly October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 Well, looks like one of my tanks crashed while I was gone and I lost all my jawfish, skunk shrimp and a scooter blennie. Something seems to happen every time I go away, despite all the precautions in the world. I love jawfish. I'm quite sad. I'm hoping this is my only disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 sorry to hear about your loss, do you knw what happened?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squiddly October 9, 2007 Author Share October 9, 2007 sorry to hear about your loss, do you knw what happened?. I'm only getting spotty information from the tank sitter. Something about the tank going cloudy, so apparently the filter burned out, so I walked her through replacing the filter with another one I had, then she said it went cloudy again and a shrimp was dead, so she called DaveS. Last message I got was that it was a total loss. I suppose I'll know more in the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 that totally sucks. Sorry to hear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 Yea I got there about 20 minutes after she called me. When I arrived the tank smelled pretty bad. I couldn't see through the tank front to back but I could see the dead shrimps. The HOB filter was running as was the skimmer but the cup was full. I found the bucket of salt and the Brute trash can plumbed into the RO so I quickly mixed up some water and did a 50% water change. Looked like all the animals were gone but hopefully the water change will keep the smell down and maybe the tank will cycle again soon. It wasn't immediately obvious what the problem was. Maybe the filter failure caused something to die and things went downhill from there. The sitter didn't really know enough to give me any more clues. Sorry for the loss, I wish there was more I could have done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squiddly October 9, 2007 Author Share October 9, 2007 Thank you so much for your attempt. *sigh* It went downhill VERY quickly. Husband failed to turn on the auto top off, so the water level went down, so the filter died, so the animals died. Very sad. I'm hoping my main tank and seahorse tank make it through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zotzer October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 Oh gosh, I am so sorry! Please do try to enjoy the rest of your vacation....there is nothing you can do. Tracy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamal October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 man a total crash must be rough. so the tank sitter isnt a reef nerd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gman91 October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 this is why I don't go on vacation anymore, the last time I was gone my 75 sprung a leak. only problem was that I was 6-8 hours away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnguyen4007 October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 man a total crash must be rough. so the tank sitter isnt a reef nerd? I dread going anywhere for more than a day because of my fear of something like this. Couple of years ago, I had 2 discus died on me because our then housemate, did not know what a thermometer and a heater looked like. The heater I had then went bad while we were away, it shot the tank up to 105. Our housemate called me up and told me that they died and he didn't know why except that the tank showed condensation under the glass top. I asked him to tell me what the thermometer reading was and his replied was at 80. It turned out the dang fool gave me the temp setting on the heater. Not sure about you, but it's hard for me to ask someone on this group to watch my tank for one simple reason, most if not all of us have families and other obligations to tend to. Even if you folks are only a few minute drive away, that is still a few minute too far and too long for me to ask for help and feel comfortable doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djcerna October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 Its way better to be in debt to a friend than to a credit card to replace all (possible thousands) that has been lost. Just return the favor or give them some frags and a lot of thanks. That's what this club is about, to share a common interest in the hobby. Ask don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 I agree with pretty much everything said about asking a reef guy to tank sit. But having been THAT reef guy I'd say it's not so simple as "have a reef guy, no need to worry". How many people have had their tank crash when they weren't on vacation? Not to get into too much of Squiddly's details but I think what she arranged for was very reasonable. She had a person living at the house and then a reef guy as a back up. The problem here is that something broke while the house sitter was out of the house. They came home, noticed the problem, fixed it. Then things went bad again the next day while at work. Yea I think there might be a few things that could have helped but realistically, how much more coverage could one expect? 1) Most people need to work so unless you willing to pay for someone to stay 24/7 at the house, they are going to be gone for 8+ hours at a time 2) If you find a reef nerd to help out, what is the chance they would be willing to live at your house? Again, even they would be out for 8+ hours at a time 3) Unless the guy is a super reef nerd, there is a good probability they wouldn't go over your system to the level of detail that they would notice an ATO pump not plugged in. I mean yea, we're all curious how things are set up but would you actually trace out every wire? Eventually they would notice the water level dropping but it's hard to say what the timing of that would have been like. I think the only thing that a reef nerd might have done differently is a preventative large water change after the first failure. But I also think many wouldn't have thought to do that for their own tank much less someone else's. Dunno, not trying to be a jerk here. Just trying to put some realism into the situation. I'd say there are about 300 reef nerds in the DC area and they are ALL on this forum (otherwise they wouldn't be true reef nerds). The chances of having one of them able to house/tank sit for you to the level necessary to prevent all failures is pretty slim. I will say however that at least the chances are greater than zero thanks to WAMAS and that's a huge step to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsaavedra October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 Its way better to be in debt to a friend than to a credit card to replace all (possible thousands) that has been lost. Just return the favor or give them some frags and a lot of thanks.David Yes David and I are "Reef Sitting Buddies" he watches mine and I watch his. We know where everything reef related items are in our houses. We know where everything is plugged and what goes where. Is very easy once you find a reliable buddy to pair up with.3) Unless the guy is a super reef nerd, there is a good probability they wouldn't go over your system to the level of detail that they would notice an ATO pump not plugged in. I mean yea, we're all curious how things are set up but would you actually trace out every wire? Dunno, not trying to be a jerk here. Just trying to put some realism into the situation. I'd say there are about 300 reef nerds in the DC area and they are ALL on this forum (otherwise they wouldn't be true reef nerds). The chances of having one of them able to house/tank sit for you to the level necessary to prevent all failures is pretty slim.Will disagree with you. Look at my response above. I think if you commit (in my case) to sit someones tank you need to know everything about that tank to level of detail as you know yours; if you don't I would feel wreckless and irresponsible for not preparing myself to battle tank problems to the same level as I would with mine. My .02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squiddly October 9, 2007 Author Share October 9, 2007 I was truly expecting that everything would be completely as it had been for the past year or so with nothing really major league insane happening so of course I figured that the house sitter would have no need of a crash course (pardon the pun) in tank theory. I did go over everything with her. Hubby DID ask her to turn on the auto top off (which he really should have done himself but forgot), and if that had been done, chances are the cascade of insanity would not have happened. No real use crying over spilled milk. It does give me much pause before I go on vacation again. Last time I went away for a long weekend, a heater malfunction cooked my tank. I had much more lossage then than now, but darn it still hurts. Lessons learned. Thank you so much, DaveS for the attempt and your hard work. I owe you one. I'll restock the tank at some point, but not for awhile. It's a bit too painful at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Ric October 9, 2007 Share October 9, 2007 (edited) uuuuuuuuhhh... This is a great thread to read as I am planning on going to Israel in a couple weeks! Do any Reef Nerds live or drive past Pentagon City in Arlingon? I was planning on having someone in my building feed them, but a reefer would be much better! Edited October 9, 2007 by 'Ric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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