Sad day

[rcmike]

At the end of last week we had a few days off so at the last minute my wife and I decided to take the kids to Panama City on a little vacation. We didn't decide to go until the day before we left. My clowns hadn't layer for a few weeks and all of the babies were big enough to eat hatchery diet. I ordered 3 eheim feeders overnight and set up two on the clownfish system. I set them to feed the two top 40 breeders which housed a pair of Picasso clowns and a snowflake/fancy ocellaris pair. What they didn't eat would overflow into the fry tanks and the lightning maroon tank. My wife had a Dr's appointment in Franklin and we were leaving for Florida after that. We did the get the feeders until about 30 minutes before we had to leave. I quickly set everything up and tested it and had to fiddle with the amounts but thought I had it working well. We went on the trip and had a great time. We rode go carts, played on the beach and in the hotel pool, went gulf world and even took a helicopter tour. We got home about 5:30 and my son ran down to check on the fish. He came up crying and said they were all dead. I quickly ran down and confirmed that every last one of them was dead. The fry I had been raising for months and the ones I had hoped to breed eventually. I had been planning to set up tanks for the potential breeders separately but haven't had the time. I think the feeders just over fed and polluted the water. I know I should have at least hado someone come over and check on things. I spent the last couple of hours siphoning out all the dead fish and I refilled the system with fresh water and some bleach. It really stunk and there were gnats flying around. Sorry for the very bad rambling. I haven't even read what I typed. Just kind of venting, I am still sort of in shock. I'm not sure if I want to try raising them again. I'll make that decision later.

 

[Neon Jungle]

Thats horrible :(

 

[aaron23]

That really sucks and it's a hard lesson learned. I try to never change something in the routine the week before I leave somewhere. Everything needs to run flawlessly without interruption so things are less likely to go wrong

 

[filbie70]

Sorry to hear. I don't know others in the club but would recommend building a relationship with someone you can trust your home and tank with. We went to Italy earlier this month and I had someone tank sit to fill the ATO. But, without experience, I lost a few frags that were turned over and my Moorish Idols had stopped feeding,..lost them both. Not as catastrophic as your fry, but for true piece of mind, you need someone with a little experience is my only point. I felt guilty getting Idols to begin with. They were awesome fish.

 

[Xclusive Reef]

This is horrible sorry for your loss. I also don't have anyone that can tank sit when I go away. You sure it was over feeding or not something else? Heaters? Did you happen to test the water to see what went wrong?

 

[rcmike]

Yeah, I know I shouldn't have changed things. Basically we got this one chance and it would be a while until everyone was able to go. I knew better. I've been keeping reef tanks for over 20 years.

The problem is pretty much nobody in our reef club is near me. The closest ones are nearly an hour away. I could have gotten someone else I know but I didn't really have time to instruct anyone once we had decided to go. I really wish we had planned ahead. If I do try raising them again I will definitely teach someone to take care of things. Something unexpected could come up also. In hindsight, I probably would have been better off if I just didn't feed theme for a few days.

 

[rcmike]

This is horrible sorry for your loss. I also don't have anyone that can tank sit when I go away. You sure it was over feeding or not something else? Heaters? Did you happen to test the water to see what went wrong?

I thought about heaters but the temp was fine. I am going to check everything out later. I did notice one of the cheap circulation pumps I had in one of the 40s want working. I will check it over good. I once had a pump that had its housing crack and leaked out nasty oil in the tank. The fish were all decomposing so the water was really nasty. I'm sure the ammonia was off the charts. I did have ano anemone in one tank and it is fine. Also the snails and pods were still alive. Not sure exactly if it was the feeders or not.

 

[NeptuneGarden]

No controller system ? Something like an Apex or Reefer Keeper would have sent your text and email alerts ....

Crashes suck. Feel for ya. Happens to everyone eventually.
Just pick up the pieces and carry forward !

 

[Shaun Sweeney]

Scary stuff and a reminder not to change anything within a few days of leaving the tanks. I finally trained a person from scratch and she looks in on the tanks daily when I'm away. That and then Apex makes for some peace of mind. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Salty1962]

Sorry to hear but you'll be able to do it again from the experience you gained from the first time:)

 

[6272862829]

Wow man sorry to hear this and even more with the kids getting emotional about it.[emoji20][emoji20][emoji20][emoji20][emoji20]

 

[Duke4Life]

What a bummer to come home 2. Sorry 2 hear this.

 

[MCooper]

Very very sorry to read that this happened to you!

 

[fishdoc11]

Man that stinks Michael:(

 

[rcmike]

Thanks everyone. I'm sure I'll try it again whenever the clowns I have in the reef tank start breeding again. They were laying every couple of weeks but have stopped for some reason. I also still have a frostbite pair that will hopefully lay soon. I had started to loose interest in my tanks before I started raising the clowns. I was always exited to see how much the tiny ones had grown since the day before and to see how the colors were developing on the older ones. I still have the 37 or 38 from the first batches that I moved into the 75 at least. I will do it again but I will change a few things.

BTW, I'm sure it was a combination of lack of maintenence, inadequate biological filtration, and grossly overfeeding that caused the crash. I had been busy the week before and hadn't vacuumed out the detritus in the tanks for a while. I also only had a few pieces of live rock in the system. I had been meaning to add some other forms of bio filtration but wasn't sure how I wanted to do it.

 

[novajohn01]

Hate to hear this Mike,hope the kids are ok bout it

 

[commonstranger]

You've been doing this too long to give up now. Get your second wind and begin again. I wish you the best !!!

 

[rcmike]

Thanks guys,
For some odd reason my clownfish have stopped breeding but I will try again when they decide to spawn again. I also picked up 3 lightning maroons from the Divers Den black Friday sale.
Yesterday I noticed one of my bangaii Cardinals had eggs so I guess I'll start with those.