Never leaving again

[blythe]

So this is fun.

My fiancee and I went to the beach for the weekend to visit friends and had some neighbors watch teh house and feed the cats. We were only gong to be gone for two days, so I said not to do anything to the tanks, they will be fine.

We get back, and the reef tank lights are off...strange for 6pm. Upon closer examination, the powerheads and skimmer are off too. After an "Oh S**T" moment, I frantically try to get everytihng working, but the plug has no juice. It looks like there has been some water damage and maybe the outlet got fried (bad walls at our apt and whenever it rains, we get water). I run an extention cord, get everything back up, and things look horrible!!

Everything is closed up and sliming, looking for all the world like they are dissolving, fish are lethargic, one has pop-eye. There are flakes of food floating on the surface (remember I said not to feed the tanks).

After some investigating, I discovered that the outlet was switched off at the wall (design flaw if you ask me). They must have tried to turn on a light and killed the tank power instead. After I talked to the people watchign our place, I find out that the power was off for over 24hrs. They thought it was strange, but still didn't feel the need to call me.

I run to the lab, get some ultra-pure water for a water change and hope that things will look better in the am.

All in all, some things are looking worse, some are looking a tiny bit better, and all of my levels check out. All I can do is another big water change this afternoon and hope for the best.

Wish me luck! and I will take any advice I can get, Especially from the people who dealt with the power outage last year up north.

Cheers

[MojosReef]

I feel your pain man, I had a similar thing happen twice last summer and I lost all fish both time a couple of corals the first and a bunch the second time. I hope all works out for you.

[Woodstock]

Uuuughhhh!!! Sorry to hear that blythe! Remove that light switch from the wall or atleast put tape over it. Turn your skimmer on high and add new carbon. I hope you don't loose anything!

That is such a nightmare for me when going on vacation. I only trust my husband to care for my tank... Atleast the power wasn't off longer

[mwrager]

Lucky it was only 2 days. I will be gone this summer for around 5 weeks. My oldest daughter will take care of my tank. 2 of the 5 weeks I will be out of the country.

[Tarasco]

Sorry to hear about that, it seems that these things always happen when you're gone. I had a similar experience when I was gone for two days from my place and a heater malfunctioned. Hopefully some things will recover.

[BoomerD]

I dread things like this when I have to go away, even overnight. We're going to Maui to "help the knee recuperate" in a couple of months, and I have one of the neighbors going to help with the tanks. At least he's kept quite a few fresh water tanks for several years. Knows NOTHING about s/w, but knowing fish tanks in general, I SHOULD be able to teach him the few things he will need to know while we're gone...(fingers & toes crossed!)

[Cougra]

Yuck! That's a horrible thing to come home to. I always worry about my tanks when I leave the house! What makes things worse is that it was an easily preventable thing as well! I really hope things pick up soon! Good luck.

[blythe]

Yeah, the switch was immediately taped up. It is strange how things that are so relaxing when we are home can be so stressful when we leave, even for a few days.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Woodstock, that is a good idea. I have a spare filter that I can run some carbon on for a few days. Thanks!

[tommyp]

Good luck getting everything back!

Tom

[jks1]

Hope everything comes back for you-

[Scooterman]

It is always hard to leave such had work in getting things right then come home to a mess, it is a nightmare, I hope your losses aren't so bad!

[ScottT1980]

Blythe, sorry to hear it buddy. I tell people when they watch my tank to be "alarmists" and to call me even with the slightest suspicion that something is going wrong. I hope all turns around for you, if you do lose anything, let me know and I can ship some frags your way. Athens is not too far from Raleigh so shipping wouldn't be too difficult.

Take er easy
Scott T.

[Craig Manoukian]

Post a pic and keep us posted! Hope everything is not too worse for wear!

[blythe]

Thanks everyone, I'll try to post some pics tonight, but it'll be late if I get to it.

I added a HOT filter with a crap load of carbon that I had on my 30gal planked tank before I upgraded the filter on that tank.
My plan is to run the carbon for 48hrs and do another 25% water change after that. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?


One thing that did come out of this was that the flat worm outbreak was killed by this episode as well (which probably made things worse, those guys give off toxins when they die right?), which is a plus (and maybe a minus).

My brain and fungia are looking much better, and my zoos are starting to test the waters again. The rics, schrooms and xenia are looking much worse for the wear and my unnamed branching SPS that had been growing like crazy has died. The little sarco seems pretty unphased by the whole ordeal after it decided to stand back up again. As far as fish go, last night the blenny's eye looked better, but I haven't seen much of the cardinal and the pink skunk clown is not quite sure what to do now that his "host" frogspawn is all pissed off and retracted. Actually, both of my frogspawns are pretty pissed still, but I don't see any tissue recession anywhere and none of the crabs have started picking on anything yet.


Oh well, we'll see how it goes. Thanks again everyone.

[Craig Manoukian]

Plan sounds reasonable. Crabs not picking is a good sign. What are your parameters? Only time will tell.