Crashed My Tank, where do I go next?

[kenno31]

So over the Holiday period I messed up going away for 10 days without preparing my tank properly, this has resulted in 99% of my reefer 250 being dead when I returned!
I’m not at a loss at the where to go next! My heads telling me to strip it down and get rid of it, but my heart is telling into keeping a reef tank as I watch it more than the TV.
I’m hoping for some inspiration, ideas and maybe just a confidence boost too help me decided on a rebuild and how to go about it.
I’ve a Red sea reefer 250, previously a mixed reef tank with a few soft corals, some amazing tourches that I loved and a few SPS that were growing great.
I’m opened to ideas, also 100% doing a rescape so that’s another thing
Heads gone

 

[Tamberav]

Take it as a learning experience, do better so it can't happen again, this may mean controller, cameras, fish tank sitter, battery backups, whatever is needed. Then get a fresh start and a new scape and plan.

 

[CHSUB]

So over the Holiday period I messed up going away for 10 days without preparing my tank properly

From your post, seems like you expected or didn’t care if a disaster happened? Maybe sell it off and watch reef videos on you tube.

 

[kenno31]

From your post, seems like you expected or didn’t care if a disaster happened? Maybe sell it off and watch reef videos on you tube.

Many thanks for your amazing help! Just what I needed!

 

[crazyfishmom]

Can we get a tank shot? Might help us help inspire you if you can provide us with what you have to work with?

 

[CHSUB]

Many thanks for your amazing help! Just what I needed!

Not really worried about your feelings, care more about the helpless dead animals in your care.

 

[Uncle99]

I see it as a chance for a new setup and it will recover quickly.

I’ve had that. It’s an awful feeling. Not much you can do or say, it happens frequently. But that reefing I guess. So I saved the rock and restarted.
6 months later, back in business with a new scape and new friends.

If you tear it down, your back to zero. Remember how much of a pain the ugly stages were?

Good luck with whatever you chose!

 

[gkprevite]

If your going to continue on this has to be a major lesson. What prevented you form preparing the tank properly? 10 days is doable, what exactly went wrong? A maintenance company could have done a service somewhere in the middle of the vaycay. Was it a feeding issue? Did you run out of top up water? Did you need dosing that wasn’t getting done? Do you plan on traveling more? The answers to these questions will help either prepare better or decide if you want to do this still.

 

[Faurek]

You learn from it and adapt, a tank can be very entertaining a peaceful, now what you need to know is how often a situation like this will happen and do you have funds to automate the tank. If you can automate the tank you could even go full SPS(given that you aquire the experience for it), if not, grab a bunch of leather and an auto feeder and that's all you will need for travels.

 

[TX_REEF]

It's your decision if you want to restart or not. If you decide you want to go forward, you MUST invest in automated systems for when you are away from home. It's a shame that you killed your tank, but the most important thing is that you learn from it and not make the same mistakes.

I recently took a 3-week vacation and left my tanks unattended, and my relatively simple automations took care of everything. I'm happy to walk through this with you if you decide to go that route.