Reefmageddon

[Stu]

Everyone who has been in the hobby long enough seems to have a defining tank horror story when Murphy's Law finally catches up. I got my story two weeks ago when I came home from a long Christmas vacation.

 

I left for Florida on Dec. 16th, after having triple checked all my equipment, cleaning the tank spotless, and making sure all the fish/coral were fat and happy. I have two roommates, and both seemingly knew enough to get by for the 2 1/2 weeks that I would be gone. So I checked in every couple of days to make sure all was well, and got good reports. One roommate was feeding the fish every other day, and when he left for Christmas, the other took up where he left off. I checked in with him every other day or so, and heard that all was well. The last time I checked with him was the night before I came home. "Yeah, the glass looks pretty grimy, but everything seems fine. I've been feeding the fish a pinch of flakes like you said every other day." I thought to myself, "Okay, I'm sure there's a good deal of regular slime algae on the glass after 2 weeks without a mag float scrubbing. No problem. Glad the tank made it through a relatively long period away."

 

Next day, 10 PM, after a long drive up I-95. I walked up the stairs to my bedroom, eager to check on the tank. About halfway up, I noticed the strong smell of something akin to a mangrove swamp. I walked in, and have literally never seen anything like it. The water level was a good 3 or 4 inches below the overflow, the SPS colonies at the very top of the tank were bleach white and out of the water. The parts that were submerged were also dead but covered in algae. My derasa clam was a shell with a big pile of mush inside; my beautiful mystery wrasse, flame hawk, percula clown, and yellowtail damsel were rotting on the sandbed. Long strings of mucous coming out of snail shells and sloughing off LPS skeletons. My entire tank was dead. Everything.

 

I looked at the top off container, and it was nearly full of water. I'm pretty sure the top off failed somewhere about halfway through my vacation, and water just didn't get to the display tank. Once water wasn't getting to the display tank, I'm not sure if everything froze (with the heater being in the sump) or fouled from hypersalinity with all the evaporation. What still baffles me is that my roommate continued to feed the tank while fish and inverts decomposed on the bottom of the tank.

 

Ironically, the part that upsets me the most is not the loss of the "name brand" corals. Those are all replaceable. It's those one-of-a-kind random pieces picked up over the years that I doubt I will ever be able to find again. That, and seeing a dead colony that was grown from a 1/2" frag.

 

So besides a little post-mortem venting, I am writing this to reinforce two things:

 

1. Tank automation can and will fail at some point, regardless of how many backups are in place

 

Which leads me to my next point...

 

2. ASK SOMEONE FROM THE CLUB TO WATCH YOUR TANK.

 

If I had simply asked one of the many great people who I have met through WAMAS to check on the tank, none of this would have happened. I had read similar stories before, never really thinking it would happen. Never did I imagine that a tank filled with a cloud of microbubbles or the nastiest ammonia smell you can imagine would be disregarded as normal. WAMAS members know how to operate skimmers, pumps, top offs, etc. In my case, all it would have taken was the flip of a switch to re-engage the top off. In my experience, the greatest part of WAMAS has been the generosity of its members and people's willingness to help. Make sure before you leave town to get someone to keep an eye on your prized possession.

 

**The tank crash was actually not a total loss. Five brave blue-leg hermits toughed it out (and have been happily feasting on the resulting algal bloom)

[Der ABT]

When you get things back up and normal let me know and I'd be happy to help you start restocking with some frags

Others helped me when I had the batty incident so it will be nice to be able to repay that

[lhcorals]

Are your roommates still alive ( ). I am sorry to hear of your losses. LMK when you are ready and i will see if i have anything you are interested in.

[basser9]

That why i use gravity and a mechanical float as i had problems with anything else i used.

[Coral Hind]

Wow, that was rough to read. I'm so sorry to hear that story as I can relate because the only tank I have ever had that totally crashes was 15 years ago while I was on vacation and the guy watching my tank didn't do such a great job. When you get it cleaned up and ready to go again let me know as I am sure I will have something for you.

[dakotasreef]

Wow. Sorry for your losses. If you need some sps frags let me know, I can throw a few your way.

 

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[Origami]

I'm so sorry for your losses, Stu. That was, as Coal Hind said above, a really tough read. It's stupefying to think that anybody could view the situation that you describe as "normal." You raise a very interesting concern. Many of us have heaters that are remote from our tank such that, when the main pump fails or the main circulation loop stops, the tank is vulnerable to cooling. At the very least, those of us with controllers should be monitoring tank temperature and possibly also sump temperature, so that if large differences are observed, an alarm can be sent.

 

Please let us know what we can do to help get you back up and running.

[Jon Lazar]

Stu,

 

Send me a PM when you're ready to go again. I've got frags of soft corals, LPS, and sps for you to help you get restarted.

 

I hope you can turn this into an opportunity to make those hardware changes or improvements we always want to do but are hard to make with an operating tank.

 

Good luck,

Jon

[mogurnda]

That why i use gravity and a mechanical float as i had problems with anything else i used.

My gravity fed ATO developed air bubbles in the line for unknown reasons when I was away in December. Working for 5 years, then failed. Fortunately, I had a WAMAS member watching, and he added water manually. I still prefer gravity, but Stu is right that anything can fail, resulting in a flood or a dry pump.

 

Really sorry to hear about it. I always get nervous when i travel for more than a few days.

[WaterDog]

Jeeze, it's always tough to hear about these.

But on the other hand, yay for the hermits!

[Matt LeBaron]

Man that is just heart breaking, you are taking it a lot better than I would I think. Just horrible to hear about things like this.

 

As far as top offs go, I have a gravity fed ATO, and the float actually broke off from the holder. I had to re-attach it with super glue last week. Nothing is fool proof and having someone with some basic knowledge of the hobby can make all the difference when you are away.

[surf&turf]

Sorry for your loss, when you get going again I have some SPS frags to get ya started again.

[Chad]

Wow, stu, I am really sorry to hear. It is rough reading that. I am glad, though that you shared your key lessons learned from the issue, as we can all get a piece of wisdom from your issue.

I, too will help you with frags when you are ready.

[Stu]

Thanks for all the kind words and offers to help, guys.

 

If I can find one silver lining in this, it's that I have a fresh canvas for coral placement. I custom made my rockwork with the intent of showcasing just a handful of nice coral colonies (minimizing clutter). Over time, I got away from this (as many obsessed reefkeepers do) and found myself picking up "just one more frag" again and again. As a result, a lot of my SPS was growing into each other and crowding the tank. Hopefully this will allow me to re-implement this original vision.

Edited January 16, 2011 by Stu

[dakotasreef]

That is a positive way to look at it. Actally that is a great way to look at it.

 

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[treesprite]

Sorry to hear about you tank crash. The question that came to my mind was, was the outlet for the ATO water submerged in tank water? I discovered my refugium really low on water one day and the fresh water container almost full when it had been half way. The end of the hose was below the water level, so when the pump would shut off, the water would back siphon.

[Stu]

Sorry to hear about you tank crash. The question that came to my mind was, was the outlet for the ATO water submerged in tank water? I discovered my refugium really low on water one day and the fresh water container almost full when it had been half way. The end of the hose was below the water level, so when the pump would shut off, the water would back siphon.

 

Back siphoning wasn't the issue, as I made sure the outlet was zip tied on above the sump (I was worried about the same problem you mentioned).

 

In other good news, it appears a few phoenixes are rising from the ashes. Looks like my grandis palys and a few little zoos made it. I imagine they expelled most or all of their zooxanthellae, so it will probably take a while for them to color back up. But encouraging nonetheless!

[trockafella]

After reading this, the one thing I like the most is, you never once mentioned quitting.. The understanding that S happens sometimes, and its no reason to hang it up.. Glad your rebounding from it, and looking forward to seeing you put it back together..!!

 

Oh, next time you go out of town, just give me a call, id be hapy to tank sit for you.!!

[bluce]

Tough loss to handle - I second Trok's comments. You have a great attitude.

Thanks for sharing as your experience will undoubtedly help others (including myself).

[lanman]

Ugh! Fortunately, my daughter understands what it is 'supposed' to look like, so wouldn't think things were 'normal' when they weren't. And I give her a phone number or two of WAMAS member when I leave.

 

Best of luck on getting it going again!

 

bob

[Stu]

Ugh! Fortunately, my daughter understands what it is 'supposed' to look like, so wouldn't think things were 'normal' when they weren't. And I give her a phone number or two of WAMAS member when I leave.Best of luck on getting it going again!bob

 

Bob,

 

Your sunset monti was one of the nicest corals in the tank. BRIGHT orange and neon green polyps. That piece was gorgeous.

 

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been really impressed with the resilience of my tank. After the initial water changes and basically getting the dead stuff out, I have noticed one thing in particular: chaeto growth in the refugium has exploded. I have been taking out a handful every couple of days. I believe it's sucking up nutrients at a very high rate, and has taken my tank from a cesspool to a clean system (the initial algal bloom is gone and parameters are back to normal) very quickly. I also can't count out the value of my skimmer and water changes, but I think nutrient export via the chaeto has been key in getting this under control.

[steveoutlaw]

Stu - I really hate hearing these stories. Glad to hear that there are a couple of survivors at least. I have a nice orange cap colony waiting for you when you're ready, as well as some other SPS and LPS frags. People donated to me when I had a problem so it's the least I can do. Just let me know.

[Stu]

Stu - I really hate hearing these stories. Glad to hear that there are a couple of survivors at least. I have a nice orange cap colony waiting for you when you're ready, as well as some other SPS and LPS frags. People donated to me when I had a problem so it's the least I can do. Just let me know.

 

Thanks for the offer Steve. I lost a softball-sized colony of tri color that I got from you as a frag a while ago

 

I forgot to mention in my initial post that I believe I may have had a reaction to palytoxin similar to what you experienced (okay, my lung didn't collapse!). When I was first assessing the damage, I walked over to the tank and (probably stupidly) took a sniff to see how foul the water was. Within about 10 minutes my throat began to swell up and feel very sore. Over the next two days, I experienced very flu-like symptoms (chills, congestion, sore throat). My dog was also acting very weak and lethargic. It may just be a coincidence, but the fact that these symptoms occurred right after inhaling what i think were either ammonia fumes or some remnant of palytoxin seems like it may have been more than coincidence.

[Origami]

I forgot to mention in my initial post that I believe I may have had a reaction to palytoxin similar to what you experienced (okay, my lung didn't collapse!). When I was first assessing the damage, I walked over to the tank and (probably stupidly) took a sniff to see how foul the water was. Within about 10 minutes my throat began to swell up and feel very sore. Over the next two days, I experienced very flu-like symptoms (chills, congestion, sore throat). My dog was also acting very weak and lethargic. It may just be a coincidence, but the fact that these symptoms occurred right after inhaling what i think were either ammonia fumes or some remnant of palytoxin seems like it may have been more than coincidence.

 

Oh man. I know that feeling. I've been exposed a few times. Never as bad as Steve's boil-in-a-bag incident, but all attributable to paly's like Steve dealt with. In each case, the symptoms presented themselves about 2 hours after exposure. Very flu-like. Hit's you like a bus. Bad chills and fever in my cases, lasting pretty much around 8-12 hours. It didn't take much, either. In on case, I'd dunked a few rocks in some (warm) fresh water hoping to clear the rock of the palys. In another case, I was breaking down an old frag rack that had a few that had grown on it. Sometimes I think that you need not only gloves and safety glasses, but a respirator on when dealing with some things.