Lost Everything

[Yazannreef]

My wife is encouraging me to rebuild at least the 90g tank. She liked looking at it, and we were well known by our friends and their kids as the fish people, so their kids were excited to come over and look at everything. I might rebuild just to keep that up.

There you go! That is a great motivation to start back up and make a great looking tank. Now everyone get to enjoy the new look. Keep us posted on how everything goes with your new build and do not hesitate to ask any questions as R2R community has always been very helpful and supportive.

 

[SHINYSuccubus]

Six days without power from the recent snow in Virginia, and I didn't have a generator (I do now...). Everything in my biocube, 45g cube, and 90g tanks is dead. I kept things going for the first few days, and didn't lose any fish until the fourth day. After that it was too far gone. I bought a generator that day, and tried transferring some stuff to a smaller tank that I've been running off a generator, but the only things likely to survive are a few snails, a duncan, an acan, and one rock flower.

Thousands of dollars of fish and coral lost because I was unprepared. I hadn't had a power outage in five years because our lines are buried underground, but this storm blew out the transformer that served just three houses on our street, so we were super low priority to get back online. I have the generator now, but not sure whether I want to rebuild... I'm not sure what I'm hoping to accomplish with this post, I just felt like writing it.

oh, i’m so sorry for your losses. maybe after some time passes you will be ready to start over, i’d hate for you to waste a generator.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Six days without power from the recent snow in Virginia, and I didn't have a generator (I do now...). Everything in my biocube, 45g cube, and 90g tanks is dead. I kept things going for the first few days, and didn't lose any fish until the fourth day. After that it was too far gone. I bought a generator that day, and tried transferring some stuff to a smaller tank that I've been running off a generator, but the only things likely to survive are a few snails, a duncan, an acan, and one rock flower.

Thousands of dollars of fish and coral lost because I was unprepared. I hadn't had a power outage in five years because our lines are buried underground, but this storm blew out the transformer that served just three houses on our street, so we were super low priority to get back online. I have the generator now, but not sure whether I want to rebuild... I'm not sure what I'm hoping to accomplish with this post, I just felt like writing it.

How are the survivors making out in the smaller tank? Inquiring minds here wanna here some good news. Duncan's pretty resilient.... hopefully still hanging on, and bouncing back....

 

[czoolander]

Some major manufacturer needs to get on this and create a serious long term battery life support system (something more substantial than the little ecotech one)

Tesla ? Elon .......... WHERE YOU AT ? get this done for the people haha

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Sry. That sucks. I feel your pain. I lost my reef to super storm Sandy.

 

[Lyss]

I’m so sorry to read this! It’s an awful thing to have to go through, after we all put so much time and energy (and money) into building and keeping our reefs.

I agree w/the folks who said don’t sell anything rn — I would sit on it for now and give yourself some time to grieve (honestly I think that’s prob the right word though it sounds extreme) before making a decision on where to head next.

When I was studying business and marketing we went through some classes on strategy, and one lesson was focused on knowing when to quit — as in when quitting is strategically the best direction forward. The livestock loss can be thought of as a sunk cost, so basing your decision for the future on the current loss isn’t really rational, so my thinking is that waiting a bit until you have some time to work through the emotional aspect will get you to a better place where you can truly evaluate if quitting is best for you, or get the inspiration to rebuild.

Edit: I should probably clarify that recognizing sunk costs is meant to give us the clarity to let go, b/c it’s human nature that once we’re invested in something, we’re likely to follow through on it — even if following through is a bad decision.

At the same time I think when experiencing a fresh loss like this we’re in an emotional place and it’s hard to find inspiration or connect with the happiness and benefits we got from participating in the hobby.

Giving yourself a little time to work through the sadness and frustration can stop you from making a bad decision either way.

 

[outhouse]

I had medical issues and my tank crashed, luckily I got better, I almost quite reefing, saved what I could and moved on.

Had a lobo over 40 years old, instead of a large softball sized coral, I know have 4 individual heads. But the rest lived

 

[Rakie]

I have the generator now, but not sure whether I want to rebuild...

Looking at things objectively -- The majority of the cost isn't the livestock. You'll want to keep with it, and rebuild. You'll make much wiser decisions and probably plan out an amazing tank.

Even if it doesn't feel good, people are very good at rebuilding. I'd bet your tank setup will knock your socks off.