Labor Weekend tragedy

[jhebi]

The title says it all.....Over the weekend I forgot to set the timer on my chiller and got back on Tuesday at the office and the water was over 100...Most everything got wiped out, 10 fishes of mine died and about 30 colony of corals....Started doing water changes yesterday, 2 w/c and today 1, ammonia was through the roof, the nitrates are going dow slowly now so is the ammonia. I feel so dumb not setting the chiller or even letting the AC on auto mode.
Here before

After

Just the smell when I got at the office was killing me.....Is getting better now and I will get my tank back again at no time.....Feel bad what I did to my fishes, hopefully will be more cautious next time when I leave for a long weekend.....

 

[nycbob]

sorry for ur lost. that was a really nice tank. i am sure u will get it back to what it was b4 in no time. good luck!

 

[scsinet]

Dude that sucks, with the size of that tank I can only imagine the investment.
If it's help, from the pictures, I'd wager it could have been a lot worse. In some ways, I think you were lucky.

 

[mach03infront]

eeeekk sorry!

i'm curious of what the smell smelled like?

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
Dude that sucks, with the size of that tank I can only imagine the investment.
If it's help, from the pictures, I'd wager it could have been a lot worse. In some ways, I think you were lucky.
I know, that's what some reefer told me that i was luck that it didn't look so bad, i just need to rebuild now and make it better

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by Mach03InFront
eeeekk sorry!

i'm curious of what the smell smelled like?
You don't even want to think about it....100 degree water + 11 fishes dead(some couldnt find it) + corals + inverts + whatever I had in there, smell really really bad.....When my employee opened the office she smelled something funny, but didn't think of that....

 

[efishnsea]

Sorry as well....Good luck and I hope it doesnt get any worse. Every time I spend the night at my gf house I wonder if everything will be okay when I return. I'm thinking about getting my tank hooked up with a pager alert if parameters get out of whack. There not cheap but it is in my near future....

 

[badboyj]

my lfs told me of a story just like that , only worse. a DR. went on vac. for a week and his maid came in as soon as he left to clean and do what ever it is that she does for the week and as she was leaving wanted to save the DR some money on his AC bills I guess , so she turned off the AC in the house......for the whole week , when he came home the whole tank was gone , fish and all , the temp. was crazy hot and the smell was to much......the tank had to be all redone!!!

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by jhebi
You don't even want to think about it....100 degree water + 11 fishes dead(some couldnt find it) + corals + inverts + whatever I had in there, smell really really bad.....When my employee opened the office she smelled something funny, but didn't think of that....
Ok so I'm curious... your employee opens the office door and smells what probably smelled like rotting flesh, but didn't think of the tank...
... I wonder what she DID think it was? Dead body in the walls? Dead horse in the office (ever seen Animal House??)

 

[saltymac]

sorry 4 ur losses, i agree, it could have been worse. LOL @ SCSInet 2nd response. sorry 2 laugh at ur time of despair, but that was funny.

 

[kwolfskill]

Wow, I'm really sorry for your loss. I always worry about something happening and I'm not around to catch it.
The first time we went on a two week vacation, I came back to find my 75 FOWLR with about half of the fish eaten in half

The guy who was house sitting and taking care of our pets said he never noticed. Gee, there were two, half fish laying in the front of the tank, how could he miss them.

 

[azfishgal]

OK, I'm getting scared about leaving my tank this weekend. I'll only be gone for one night, but still.
I don't have a chiller, so this may be a stupid question. Doesn't the chiller have a sensor, meaning if the tank gets up to a certain temp it comes on, and then goes off when it gets to the right temp? I don't understand why it needs a timer.

So please educate me.

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
Ok so I'm curious... your employee opens the office door and smells what probably smelled like rotting flesh, but didn't think of the tank...
... I wonder what she DID think it was? Dead body in the walls? Dead horse in the office (ever seen Animal House??)
Hahahaha, I know but they are just employee that dont know nothing on what to do, but only enjoyed the tank.....One of my other employee told her that it smelled like some fishes died, but you know you never want anyone near your tank, especially the ones that don't know much...

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by efishnsea
Sorry as well....Good luck and I hope it doesnt get any worse. Every time I spend the night at my gf house I wonder if everything will be okay when I return. I'm thinking about getting my tank hooked up with a pager alert if parameters get out of whack. There not cheap but it is in my near future....
Agree that would be the best, even if is too much at least you dont have to worry about loosing more than you invested inside your tank.....

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by kwolfskill
Wow, I'm really sorry for your loss. I always worry about something happening and I'm not around to catch it.
The first time we went on a two week vacation, I came back to find my 75 FOWLR with about half of the fish eaten in half

The guy who was house sitting and taking care of our pets said he never noticed. Gee, there were two, half fish laying in the front of the tank, how could he miss them.

Yeah is just sick on what happened when I got there, fishes were floating, some were below, smell like crazy, it was just something really bad that happened....

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by azfishgal
OK, I'm getting scared about leaving my tank this weekend. I'll only be gone for one night, but still.
I don't have a chiller, so this may be a stupid question. Doesn't the chiller have a sensor, meaning if the tank gets up to a certain temp it comes on, and then goes off when it gets to the right temp? I don't understand why it needs a timer.

So please educate me.
It does, but the thing is my chiller is a drop in chiller with no temp timer on it, so you have to actually hook up on a controller to have set it to hit, but since I didn't buy the controller I had a timer so I hooked it up to that, so even if it hits 100 the chiller won't turn on unless I time it for longer hours, which I forgot to do it....

 

[jhebi]

I brought some corals to my house to put in my tank....Will try to bring the rest tomorrow....Funny thing is that I can't believe that some corals and fishes were able to survive...Jesus superman fishes

 

[jesses89]

similar thing happened to one of my LFS.....
he took monday off, since it was labor day....
this past monday it was about 108 degrees...
so i went in on the next day to see what they had....
they didnt have much he told me that his tanks got to about 100 degrees and he lost 71!!! fish.... all his anemones he had... crabs, snails.....
he still had some fish that survived.... those are some hardy ass fish!
but he saw an anemone he missed that was melting.. he took it out.. worst smell ive ever encountered.. PUTRID smell...
Luckily for him all his corals where ok... theyre in bigger tanks in the middle of the store... like frag tanks..

 

[geckopsu]

OMG, you just went through my worst nightmare. I've wondered what I would do if that situation happend to me, and I think I'd have to quit the hobby. I just don't have the funds (or the patients) to start over.
I'm so sorry man.

 

[jhebi]

Originally Posted by GeckoPSU
OMG, you just went through my worst nightmare. I've wondered what I would do if that situation happend to me, and I think I'd have to quit the hobby. I just don't have the funds (or the patients) to start over.
I'm so sorry man.
That's what I was thinking. Just not have a tank at work, but than I realize, I love this dammmmmmm hobbyyyyy