Reef Cotastrophy (worst case scenario)

[DonnyHolland]

I don't know allot of you guys but I wanted to share this and hope that some of you would have compassion on me.

I am the proud owner of a 120gal reef tank that I've had for about 4 months now but the reef was about 4 years old when I acquired it. I have read non-stop on how to care for it and proper husbandry and have done my very best with it and it was thriving! I had just set up a litermeter 3 system for top off and auto water changes and everything was going beautifully.


(the bad part)
2 weeks ago I left for Louisiana *my home town* to spend 2 weeks with my family for Christmas so they could spend time with me and my wife and mostly our 10 month old. Well 3 days after I leave my friend and fellow reefer *who got me interested* came by to check on my tank for me and found my house at 95 degrees. Needless to say my tank was 96 degrees and nearly every living thing in my tank was dead. My wifes kenya's, hidnapora and all her favorite zenyas pulsing and a couple others and everyone of my beautiful shrimps (fire, 2 skunks, 2 camels, 12 pepermints) and all of my stoneys (hammers, frogs, acros multiples varieties, monoporas and like 30 beautiful mushrooms as well as several other things. The only things that survived were some zoanthids,some button polyps, several hermits and snails and the sally light foot and most amazingly the gold banded maroon clown survived hes a tough bugger but now he's homeless my 3 year old anemone is dead.


My friend called me immediately and we got to work trying to save anything we could. Fortunately, i had about 60 gallons of RODI water ready to go because I thought I would be gone a long time and he started mixing up fresh salt water. He said the stench was almost unbearable and my house was still 95 degrees *In the middle of winter* Did I mention this is a 1 year old twelve thousand dollar top of the line heating and air system that failed??? This is by far the absolute worst case scenario that I could have ever imagined. I mean who would think that your house would get that hot in the middle of winter. Anyway he got the tank temp down with Ice and started pulling out all of the carcasses. After changing about 80% of the water and removing all of my dead pets *cry* he left for the night and changed water everyday until I got back today.

I mean I tried to prepare myself for what I would see but after seeing it I literally have to cry. I worked so hard to set up everything with fail safes and then this freak accident wipes me out. The only thing I hadn't purchased yet was a chiller and I thought surely I won't need it till summer... Well I will be ordering it as soon as I figure out which one to get. Any suggestions???


So I'm back here looking at my once beautiful reef and I'm sad and have no way to restock the 1500 dollars worth of stuff my heater from hell killed. Its been 2 weeks now and all of my levels are normal again but my tank is bare.


All that to say, can anyone help? I have to start over and was hoping that some fellow reefers could help me in my time of need bringing tidings of joy and Frags for the New Year. Seriously, if you can spare anything I would be forever grateful… I'm not a begger, If you need money for the frags I can try and come up with some but this has hit me hard and at a hard time.



This has got to be the worst Christmas present I have ever got. But I believe God will make something good out of it yet.

I've included a couple of pictures of before and after unfortunately i never got a current picture with everthing so you can't see how beautiful it was.

Thanks and Blessings for the new year
/donny holland


This is before the catastrophy. Unfortunately, this is old so you can't see everything.







This is after. A barren waste land of skeletons :cry:

[Jflip2002]

Your pics dont work. But my little 20g had everything killed when my temp got to 89F (my house was at about 90), but it was during summer. REal sorry to hear that, I hope you get it up and running soon.

[Stevhan]

pm sent

[Lifestudent]

PM sent.

[ScruffyRubicon]

PM Sent.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Did you ever find out what went wrong with your heat? I have heard of batteries going dead in electronic thermostats and causing the heater to not shut off. Good idea to change them at least once a year.

[DonnyHolland]

I'm sure its something to do with the thermostat, I was able to duplicate the insident once I got home. I turned the heat on and set it and it blew right past the setting and kept heating. I mean seriously I bought this setup like 1 year ago and its the top of the line amana products with an amana therm.

As soon as I can talk to someone I am going to try and find out who responsible for this piece of crap...


sorry bout the tone i'm still pretty upset..


/donny

[hng]

Very sorry about your loss, I have some GSP, white pulsing xenia, and colt coral that you can have. Are you in Atlanta?

[DonnyHolland]

Nah I'm up in Ringgold, but I plan on attending the meeting next week. If need be I can make a trip down to atlanta today or tomorrow. But if not those days I have to work the rest of the week. but maybe next weekend.

Honestly I'll do whatever is convienient for you because I'm desperate...

thanks
/donny

[JennM]

I know nothing will replace what you've lost - but I'd check with homeowner's insurance to see if any of that can be covered. Often livestock is NOT covered unless you have a rider for it.

I'd also contact the manufacturer and/or installer of the heating system to see if they can compensate you for this.

Thank God it didn't burn your house down... I'd hate to see what your gas bill is gonna be...

Condolances for your losses - I hate reading stories like this - but unfortunately they do happen.

Jenn

[DonnyHolland]

update:::

Ok my wife and I just added it up and we figured out we lost around 2500 dollars worth of stuff.. How depressing.

I think were going to try and hold amana or the installer responsible but only God knows if that is going to work...

Thanks again for all the support!

/donny

[DonnyHolland]

Ahh something funny... Guess what also survived???

The freeking Aiptasia !!!

Now thats funny...

[Rick O]

Sorry to hear about your loss Donny.

Amana furnaces are manufactured by Goodman. Thier warranty says they won't pay for consequential damage BUT some states don't allow for that exclusion. I'm not sure about Georgia. It sounds like you have a thermostat problem. Who is the thermostat manufacturer.

[tashier]

Bummer man. Good luck holding them responsible for any of it.

[DonnyHolland]

hehe its an amana thermostat... Yea well whatever happens I'm believing something good will come of this...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!


/donny

[GOHOKIES]

regardless of whether the law alows your claim, take them to court. Often they will settle just to avoid a trial. Who cares whether its anyone's fault. Their business is hvac and if something so very wrong occured they should feel some degree of responsiblilty.


***I edited out that last sentence for your protection and ours. That's not something that needs to be said here.***

Rick O.