back from vacat.house flooded...everything dead...
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Topic: back from vacat.house flooded...everything dead...
Posted By: improdigal
Subject: back from vacat.house flooded...everything dead...
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 8:28pm
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...including the hard wood floors. Who do we call? Anyone help save what corals are left? Clowns still alive...tank is straight fresh water now ------------- Patrick |
Replies:
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 8:30pm
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-------edited--------- ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: SNOWRIDER
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 8:39pm
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What happened? wish i lived closer. ------------- 75g Just starting out, Stand and canopy From Richins carpentry. |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:02pm
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Looks like the refugium drain was plugged up. I wondered why it wasn't standard to drill 2 drains just in case...never again. Flood damage crews coming...would still appreciate some refuge for my survivors ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Ann_A
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:05pm
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If you can bring things up here I've got a 29 for fish and corals that's all setup and running with a few frags. Text me if you need to bring things up here. ------------- http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53856&title=annes-65g-rsm-reef" rel="nofollow - RSM 250 Reef |
Posted By: mermaidcamille
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:10pm
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I am sooooo sorry!
------------- 135g...D.E.A.D Welcome bright and shiny 120! |
Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:38pm
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I'd pm Linn Griffith here, he does flood damage and restoration for a living. Also, if anything is alive there are people with tank space and spare frag tanks... like myself. But honestly I'm not sure if the tank is really on your mind right now as opposed to the rest of the house. Wow. Adam ------------- Come to a meeting, they�re fun! |
Posted By: Josh95
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:45pm
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Ouch, that sucks man! text me if you still need some help
------------- Josh M. Phone: 406.471.1334 |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 9:49pm
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I've had a few offers now but I'm not sure if they'd survive now anyway...pretty far gone...it's probably been flooding for over a day. Flood guys are already here ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: pgravis
Date Posted: May 05 2013 at 10:18pm
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I'm sorry to hear this. You had a great looking tank. I've come home and found a seem had gone out on a 55 gallon and there were fish and water all over the floor. I can empathize man. If you want some frags off your peach zoas let me know (when things are up and running) Pj ------------- See my house: www.eclecticvictorian.com |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:14am
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Thanks everyone... May have saved the fish, but alot of dead coral slime floating around. Big decisions well be tomorrow. Have to tear down the tanks so they can work on the hardwood floors...question will be if they will ever go back up or if I'm having a blow out sale on here :'( Big thanks to Faith who was close and came by to try and save some corals. Fish wouldn't come out but they may be ok after all...tough ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: suiso man
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:31am
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I am sorry I just got back to town and I read your thread!!! Is there anything I can do to help? |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:39am
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Thanks but I think we've done what we can for tonight...might take people up on help tomorrow if I have to tear down and relocate...or just borrow enough pumps for tubs ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: suiso man
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 1:16am
| I work down town if you need anything watched let me know I have a 180 that I can hold corals for you. |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 4:22am
| So sorry! Had I seen this earlier, I would have come directly over. Let me know if you need anything. |
Posted By: JohnnyHeavens
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 6:47am
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Sorry I didn't see this till now. I do have spare (clean) brute cans and a couple small mag pumps. I also have frag tank space but I only have a couple par bulbs over it at the moment. Enough light for all but SPS growth but plenty of room as it's all but empty right now. I've also kept a few larger styrofoam boxes around should those help in transport and I could swing by about noon if it helps. 8O1.755.1eight ninety nine - call/text ------------- @Home 300g System 150g-Cube Reef+60g Frag+WaterChange 150g Tall FOWLR RIP @Work RSM 130D w/LEDs txt anytime @ eightO1-seven5five-eighteen99 Scuba! PADI Pro DM/AI/TecDeep NSS/CDS-Full Cave Diver |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 11:44am
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thanks all... if/when they need to tear up my hardwood floors, I'll need to tear out my tanks... at that point I might need to borrow some mag pumps for various bins... I have a bunch of rubbermaid bins fortunately. ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 11:45am
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terror at first site (see the ceiling)  stalagtites (or was it mites)?  my poor little girls' rooms... puddles... soaked their dressers, clothes, basically rained...  the waterfall from the light cover was a nice touch...  this is what a tank full of slimy dead-coral guts looks like...  can you see the ripples in the floor? this one is about an inch tall ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:10pm
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Oh man I am so sorry! While it may be painful can you explain more about what caused it? you mentioned a clogged refugium drain? Do you mean the drain from the display to the refugium got clogged some how and you only had that one drain? Any idea on how it got clogged? Again so sorry about this. ------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:27pm
I had my refugium on a stand next to my tank on display because me and the kids love to watch the bug life. (oldpic)  I have a sump under the main tank so both drain to the sump and my return pump sends water to both. It appears a bubble algae in my refugium managed to float up and in and plug my refugium... so the pump kept send water and it didn't drain... worse yet, my auto-top off system kept filling up the sump with freshwater which was promptly pumped out to the main tank and the refugium... and on and on. When I had them drilled, it was mentioned that it was standard to only drill 1 drain... I had previously wanted to implement the http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310585" rel="nofollow - beananimal fail-safe overflow , which gives 3 drains (1 valve controlled, underwater drain (silent), 1 normal at-surface drain with upside down U (again silent), and then a 3rd emergency drain right at the top edge of that tank, so that if it it's going to overflow, it goes straight down a drain. You'd probably still kill your fish/coral if it got to the emergency drain (due to freshwater auto-top off), but you'd NEVER have a drop of water hit the ground. Hate it when I don't trust my instincts... 2 drains seems like it should be a no brainer, plugs happen. of course for me, they had to happen when I was out of town for 2 days and hadn't had a problem since setup. ------------- Patrick |
Bryce wrote:Posted By: Ann_A
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:37pm
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I really can't tell you how sorry I am for you. If there's anything any of us can do please let us know. Tank related or not I'm sure almost everyone here would be more than happy to help. ------------- http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53856&title=annes-65g-rsm-reef" rel="nofollow - RSM 250 Reef |
Posted By: DanhNgo
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:40pm
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Sorry man. did you had your ATO directly connect from your RO to your tank? ------------- 200 Gal Reef 25 Gal Nano Reef |
Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 12:45pm
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Oh man that sucks! thanks for the detail, hopefully it will help others. I run a "herbie" which is just missing the 3rd "emergency" but I have not thought of any impact to the ATO if the 1st drain was clogged and and the 2nd drain was handling all the flow...since no water is escaping the system I would think it would be unaffected but when I tested that senario I do remember there was more fluctuation in the sump water level as the second drain could not build up a full syphon and would periodically flush more water at once in a repeated pattern...slow, slow, flush, slow, slow, flush..which may cause my ATO to keep kicking on. I know my Tunze ATO has some built in feature that it will turn itself off if it pumps for more than 5 or 10 minutes or something and then it has to be manually reset but this has me wanting to test it as I have never tested a fully clogged number 1 drain WITH the ATO installed...it was fine without it installed though. I think my ATO sensor/floats would go underwater pretty fast if extra water was entering my sump from the ATO due to the fluctuation in the sump water level and shut itself down but now I really want to test it. Good luck with the clean up, I hope this doesnt take you out of the hobby.
------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: icenine
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 1:32pm
The osmolator shuts off at ten minutes, one more thing that makes it worth the two hundred bucks. Sorry to hear about the accident. |
Posted By: mermaidcamille
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 2:01pm
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When Randy was at my house Saturday i was talking about my leak fiasco (nothing compared to this!) and he mentioned how it was funny that disasters happen, but we keep coming back. I hope it doesn't take you out and when you are ready let us know and let us see what we can do to help replace what you lost. I am sure many would be happy to help. ------------- 135g...D.E.A.D Welcome bright and shiny 120! |
Posted By: Will Spencer
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 2:22pm
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I'm so sorry to hear about this. For some reason crap always happens when you are out of town, no matter how short a vacation you take. I've come home from vacation twice to all fish dead at the bottom of the tank and once to 100-200 gallons of water on the floor, all after 2 or 3 days out of town. It sounds like you have a LOT more damage to the house than I've ever had though. Good luck cleaning it up. I you place can be salvaged without too much tear down and rebuilding. |
Posted By: love2skiutah
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 3:29pm
| Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear about this. I just bought the neptune leak detection module and probes because I flooded my sump last yet by not being lazy and not changing the sock out. |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 3:35pm
Direct to my sump yea ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: chuckfu
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 4:44pm
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You should contact your city and let them know you had a leak. Most cities wont bill you for the extra water charges if you let them know what happened. ------------- Try, try, try, then give up! |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 06 2013 at 5:02pm
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Ok so tonight or (preferably) tomorrow, I have to tear out all my tanks and clear my living room to tear out and replace all the hard wood. Sooooo... Anyone that could lend extra powerheads for bins...and/or heaters ...any help would be much appreciated ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: JohnnyHeavens
Date Posted: May 07 2013 at 7:38am
I have a couple small mag pumps and at least a heater. You good on bins? I have the below: The cans have only been used for live rock or fish. Let me know what you could use and I'll get it up there to you.
------------- @Home 300g System 150g-Cube Reef+60g Frag+WaterChange 150g Tall FOWLR RIP @Work RSM 130D w/LEDs txt anytime @ eightO1-seven5five-eighteen99 Scuba! PADI Pro DM/AI/TecDeep NSS/CDS-Full Cave Diver |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 07 2013 at 8:43am
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Thanks Johnny, you are my hero, pm'ing... ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: May 07 2013 at 10:18am
Geez that sucks. 
------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: justchillinuno
Date Posted: May 07 2013 at 2:54pm
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I have a crap load of heaters if you want them... im in Kearns! PM ME ------------- 55g - RIP - Moved to 90g 36g Bow holding tank 90g Reef Tank Dreams of many more! |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 08 2013 at 4:08pm
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drying out and starting repairs   Oh and the bucket didn't save the survivors... RIP: Carwash, Dart, Kissy-Face(3 yr old purply tang), Poon (5 years old yellow tang), Reaper (10yr old serpent sea-star), and the blues brothers. That leaves 2 clowns as the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse. All corals, invertibrates, and probably rock .... d e a d... poop :( ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: May 08 2013 at 4:32pm
| Ah man! That sucks! If you get another system going, I'll gladly donate a couple frags to help you get going again.. |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 08 2013 at 5:49pm
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Thanks phys ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 09 2013 at 4:36pm
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Aloha Patrick, So sorry for your huge loss. If you would like some tips on preventing that kind of thing in a simple way that won't require drilling more holes and having a bigger jumble of pipes, I'm available to give my sage advice. It's not difficult and it's not complicated and when people see it they go, "That makes so much sense." Mark  ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Jacknugget
Date Posted: May 09 2013 at 4:51pm
Mark, You're going to leave us hanging after that? You have my attention... ------------- 125 Mixed Reef |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 09 2013 at 5:40pm
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Yea better hurry....I have 2 tanks in the back on their way to get 2 more hole each lol ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 10 2013 at 5:10am
Second best advice is to know what information to trust. There are so many voices in this hobby. Some of those voices are very popular because of their slick delivery, but their knowledge and experience lacks substance. It's normal to have a knee-jerk reaction after this kind of an accident. It wouldn't hurt to take a few moments and examine what happened. Then consider how some simple design changes could have prevented the mishap. 1. You indicated that a loose Valonia/bubble algae clogged (or partially clogged?) the drain. Look at the drain design and how the algae got there. Please feel free to describe it here for our review. A properly positioned screen or screens can prevent a clogged drain. Screens can be placed at several points en route from display to sump. The pic demonstrates a screen right at the standpipe. A screen of same or smaller mesh size can also be placed at the overflow teeth extending several inches above the water line or even completely covering the overflow opening. This is commonly used to prevent snails from entering the overflow chamber.  (The screen in this example is okay but to make it even better it could use some modification, a long, stiff structure to prevent the screen from collapsing when crud collects at the point of highest suction.) 2. With the drain clogged, an unlimited source of freshwater kept dripping into the tank causing tank water to overflow onto the floor. A top-off reservoir is a safe way to add a finite amount of freshwater that can be limited to match the aquariums' reserve capacity. Even if the entire reservoir is dumped in at once, it will not overflow the tank. These are just a few points of advice. I hope other experienced hobbyists will chime in with additional good advice and/or pics. Aloha, Mark ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Bryce
Date Posted: May 10 2013 at 9:56pm
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I agree
with Mark on screens but I also say drill two holes (1 extra for the display
and 1 extra for the fuge if you are going with same set up) as you now know that
you stand to risk thousands of $ in repair in the event of a flood, you dont
need years of experience to come to this conclusion, all you need is to have 1
flood or read of 1 flood...can you get away with one hole for 20 years and a
screen? sure, can two drains still get clogged? Sure. Is there any reason not
to have two drains other than a small investment in drilling a hole and having
an extra pipe? No. I also agree on a top off reservoir vs direct plumbing to
the ro/di system. I also say test every possible failure (short of cracking
your tank on purpose :)) to see how well you are prepared for power outages,
clogged drains, in sump skimmers starting when power is restored after an
outage that may overflow on to electrical (a risk I had before I got a manual
reset GFCI plug for the skimmer as the water in the sump rose 4 inches when
power went out), if a reactor or uv fliter hose fails where will the water go?
in the sump?, in the tank stand?, on electrical? etc., Thats my advice but I
dare not claim to be an experienced hobbyist.
------------- 65g Reef |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 11 2013 at 6:29am
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Yup, in the end I opted to get the 2nd drill, but not a 3rd (mostly because I couldn't run an emergency drain without a great deal more mess. The screens and filters would be similar to how the drain was. Those drains seem to work fine for lower water volume, but not for 12-2400 gph, which is how I tend to run things now. Side note that I'm sure you'd all find humorous... I'm trying to save what I can of the refugium life now, that mostly being macro and live sand (or dead sand?), and I also didn't want to let my bioballs go dry... here is my current refugium/sump lifeboat... Wish I had set this up before all my fish were dead.... of course since it's outside... temperature control would probably have been a problem LOL  ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 11 2013 at 6:37am
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Side side note, the refugium in question may be up for sale shortly, along with the stand you can see it sitting on sideways above. Despite having just finished the plumbing for my future 3 tank/2 pump/0 powerhead setup (that was to be plugged in the day I came home and found the flood), my sweet wife has become understandably tired of fish tanks now and is wanting to reduce to 1 (I'm trying to negotiate to for 2 so I have some place for macro). Wish me luck... I suspect if I have to throw out all but the one tank, I may just toss them all (since I'm not sure how stable it will be with just a bio-ball sump). I'd be starting over from scratch now anyway... ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 11 2013 at 8:01am
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Then why not go with a sumpless tank? It's the absolute safest. Except for one tank, for economic and space saving reasons, I've run sumpless on my last 6+ wonderful tanks. No floods, no damage, no upset wife, no worries mate. By the way, I agree with Bryce. Remember this though, for every hole drilled into the glass the risk of cracked glass either during the drilling or after it's set up, increases greatly. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
|
Posted By: chuckfu
Date Posted: May 11 2013 at 8:39am
There is still risk with any tank, but of course with a sumpless the risk is much less but things still happen. ------------- Try, try, try, then give up! |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 12 2013 at 10:01pm
Side side note for people looking for prevention tips, one of the other cool tips from the beananimal setup... on your gravity drain, instead of just leaving an open air hole on the back to prevent 'slurping' noise, run an airhose from the back air inlet into the drain just above where you want the water line:
 What this does is, if the water line gets too high... the air line is plugged, and the line becomes a siphon drain rather than just a gravity drain and starts to PULL the water down at top speed. The tank above is the refugium that caused the flood and by adding this during my testing outside, it not only repeatedly prevented further flooding, but after several alternating fill-ups, siphons, it actually seemed to clean out the plugged drain and then balanced out the gravity drain to keep up with the water flow rate again. ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: aceofspadeskb
Date Posted: May 13 2013 at 7:30am
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That is slick! I definitely feel bad for what happened, but I hope you can take a little solace in the fact that some of us are learning *a lot* from your experience.
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Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: May 13 2013 at 12:08pm
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------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
|
Posted By: Pete Moss
Date Posted: May 13 2013 at 12:22pm
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I agree with Mark  ------------- 125g 90g 2x33g 34g What stores do I recommend? Up North: Bill ( Saltwater Paradise 801-317-8115 ) Down South: Jerry ( Reef On 801-563-0600 ) Member of GCFB |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 13 2013 at 12:29pm
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Thanks guys... can use any good news... I'm sitting here as we speak contemplating the fact that it will probably be a long while before I recover from this financially.. which means I have no reason to keep 2-3 tanks full of water and rock :'( I think I'm just going to have to sell it all and hope I can come back someday  There is no point in having an empty tank and even less reason to keep 200 lbs of live rock in a bucket with water and pump LOL... plus this was my mother in law's house... so my wife and her brother are notably bummed about their childhood home and more than a little apprehensive about having tanks in here anymore... .... and all the same day I was excited to turn on my even cooler setup.... dang it.. ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: chris.rogers
Date Posted: May 13 2013 at 3:43pm
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Sorry to hear it, improdigal. If I were you, I'd just hold on to as much stuff as you can in a closet - dry and dead - for the hopes of bringing it back up later. I wished I would have done that with my last tank. ------------- Ils sont fous, ces Romains! |
Posted By: Boxerboy
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 12:17pm
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IF it were me id sell everything to help with the repairs and find a cheap biocube or something really small and simple thats not risky at all, but can be stocked rather cheaply and keeps the hobbyists flame burning. Then when the "someday" comes you can make a full scale comeback.. Just my 2¢ of what i would do... Good Luck with everything! ------------- 120G's Radion/T5 Combo Vertex 150 Skimmer Apex Controlled SPS LPS & Softies |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 2:00pm
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Ironically, that's why I would rather not keep just 1 tank though... the volume the less work. Unlike the average reefer, I actually loathe the maintenance, so I get obsessed and spend tons of money and time on elaborate designs that require as little maintenance as possible LOL... thus little cube, would look cute but then you HAVE to do regular water changes hehehe... when my last tank was established.. I changed my water... maybe every 6 months ha ha ha ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: May 14 2013 at 2:26pm
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Just setup and auto water change system and then "you" don't even have to change the water, you just keep the mixed water bucket full. It really makes a slick setup and gives you tons of time to enjoy the tank and not worry about maintenance. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 15 2013 at 5:46pm
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well... insurance adjuster came by today. House is covered... everything in the house... is NOT. EVERYthing... so, the kids beds, dressers, my tank lights that fried, all the dead fish and coral, all gone :-) lovely.... Apparently if your mom leaves you her house in the will, but it's still in the family trust name.... then the house is insured like a rental (even if you aren't paying rent).. so apparently we were supposed to get renters insurance all this time and had no clue. Lol  HO HO  HE HE  HA HA  .....  !------------- Patrick |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: May 31 2013 at 12:52pm
I've really sick of the buckets of live rock all over. I had never considered just letting it die. If you do that will anything ever come back on the rock later, or would it just be starting your rock over from scratch? The tank isn't selling and I'm not sure I want it to, but the noise of the buckets of live rock cycling is driving me nuts. Maybe I should sell half, keep half dead in a closet for 'some day'. ------------- Patrick |
Posted By: improdigal
Date Posted: July 24 2013 at 2:12pm
Thought you all might get a kick out of this.... until further notice our family fish tank will now be THIS: Ironically, this was the first tank I had on my desk 14 years ago that started my fish tank obsession... at my peak I had 7 tanks.... and now we're back full circle.
------------- Patrick |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: July 24 2013 at 3:03pm
Just add salt! :) ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: July 24 2013 at 4:09pm
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awesome. A true blue hobbyist. ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
|
Posted By: aceofspadeskb
Date Posted: July 24 2013 at 4:14pm
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Glad to see you landed on your feet! Hobby on!
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Posted By: Mike Savage
Date Posted: July 24 2013 at 4:25pm
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Be careful, that little tank is a seed and it will grow! -------------  |