Murphy must be my neighbor!!

[Geoff]

This is one of those stories that are like well, dude, that sucked. I was not going to mention it but it just sucks and it is one of those that sometimes there is nothing that can done.

As most of you know my 55 made it through the big ice storm and the 3 days of without power fairly well. Using my trusty Honda Civic and a 400w power inverter. I used the power inverter to power the gas stove to keep our tooties warm and to power a PH and the heater in the aquarium.

Anyway we left to go on vacation on the 20th to Atlanta to visit family (and to say hi to Rick O). Well this is when Murphy decided to stop by. We have programable thermostats in the house, so when we go on vacation i set the temp in the house to 55, no sense in keeping the furniture warm.

When we got back on the 30th and getting everything out of the car i noticed the 55 just did not look right at all. after closer examination i noticed that the tank temp was not reading anything, ok this is bad. Somehow the heater had become unplugged!!! I am still trying to figure this one out. We had someone come in to check on our house while we were gone, but i am sure they did not do it. The plug was extremely loose, if i touched it it would fall out ( it is on a vertical outlet strip, just in case those physics majors out there were wondering how it could just fall out ). I think what had happened was the power went out for about 3 hours and when it came back on, the jolt must have popped the plug out. Go Murph!! I guess this is one of those times that 2 heaters is a good thing, but come on it was an Ebo Jager, granted it was over 10yrs old.

I lost just about everything. The only survivers are my billion year old Kole tank (ok maybe 8yrs old), a 12yr old black brittle star, and a 6yr old pencil urchine. I lost both my bubble corals, one was over 8yrs old. If you have not guessed I do not update my tank very often. I also lost all of my encrusting gargonia. It must have covered 70% of all the exposed LR in the tank.

Needless to say, I sped up my switch to the new 125. After the temps equalized I moved all that were living into the 125 and left most of the LR in the 55 to see what would come back after a couple of water changes, it does not look good though.

I guess the moral of the story is always heat your house. or have more than one heater not matter what size tank you have.

As of now the tang does not know what to do in a 125g tank. I do not think i have ever seen him/her swim around so much.

Thanks for listening/reading all of my ramblings.

Always keep an eye out for Murphy,

G~

[Rick O]

That sucks in a big way Geoff. I'm sorry to hear it.

If you're going to be down this way again or if you're parents are going up to visit you I would be happy to help you restock the tank.

[asmith]

Arrrgh! I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I trust that your tank will be better than ever after you recover from your disaster.

Andrew

[Casey]

Bummer Geoff that does suck sorry man. Casey

[cyberchef]

Originally posted by Geoff
Somehow the heater had become unplugged!!! I am still trying to figure this one out. We had someone come in to check on our house while we were gone, but i am sure they did not do it.

This is one of the reasons we stopped breeding parrots. It was so much trouble to find someone responsible enough to watch the birds that we basically had to finally stop taking any kind of vacation that lasted more than 2-3 days. Coming home to find something dead because the person that agreed to watch it hadn't bothered is a real devastating feeling. I'm really sorry to hear of your loss Geoff. The one other thing learned here is to make D*mn sure that if you have someone watching your animals that they are responsible and trustworthy enough to handle the task.

[lzb3]

So sorry for your loss...but I know how you feel. In addition to the reef tanks I have a kennel full of show dogs. We really couldn't go anywhere. About 2 years ago though, a dog show friend told me about a girl that runs a pet sitting service. She is familiar with every type of critter and even has her own reef tank. She is nice enough to not only stop by the house and take care of everything, but she spends the night for $5 extra...a great deal! It might be worth the effort to find a professional that is used to the kind of care a reef requires. It has been a blessing to us!

Hope all works out well....

Elizabeth

[Geoff]

I thank everyone for their kind words. So far everything seems to be doing fine. I was just hoping to let the 125 go for another month befoer putting fish in there to make sure my DSB was going well.

Rick O- i will have to take you up on that when i get the last of my water perams dialed in. your corals have a pretty high standard of living i have to match.

Thanks,

G~

[lzb3]

Hey Geoff...I keep noticing your avatar...is that your Newfie? It's very pretty!

Elizabeth

[Geoff]

lzb3- yes it is, his name is Fezzik. he is a little over a year and half now. 126lbs the last time we weighed him. at the time of that picture he was probably around 100lbs.

Thank you,

G~

[Alice]

Oh man, Geoff, I'm sorry. That really does suck

Good luck with the new tank.

Alice

[big t]

I am really sorry to hear about your losses, that is a really tought thing to take. I am sure that you will have your 125 up and running in no time, good luck

[Dan]

Geoff,

I used to work for a LFS, on many ocassions we would look after customers clients tanks while they vacationed. It may be slightly more expensive than having a friend look after your tank, but considering the possible alternative I believe it is a viable option.

Dan

[Geoff]

So far this is what the new 125 looks like. it has been cycling for a couple of months even before the disaster occured. right now it just look like i am trying to see how long it takes to cook rocks in water using iwasaki's.

G~