So who else's tank got trashed during hurricane Ian?

[DeputyDog95]

I have my tank at my office, for a number of different reasons. One of which is it's in a heavily commercial area on a main road and rarely loses power, and when it goes, it's minutes at the worst.

Well, I had a completely different experience during this storm. The power went out at the office on Weds at 530p (that's when the Apex disconnected) and didn't come back on until 9a on Thurs. As much as I wanted to go there and try to run some pumps off an inverter, it was just too dangerous to travel during this storm at night.

I was there first thing on Thurs morning and some of my fish were at the surface, gasping. I lost two yellow tangs (that I've had for around 10 years), a purple tang (2 years), 2 springereye damsels, a cleaner shrimp, two sally lightfoot crabs, untold snails and small hermits. There's probably more I haven't even realized are gone yet as the tank was heavily stocked.

Insult to injury, about 24 hours later, most of the SPS have started sluffing tissue up top and RTN bleaching on the bases. So the whole tank is basically ruined and this is pretty much a do over now. A majority of the coral is dead or dying. Thousands in frags and mini colonies. Of course the cheapies like my large green slimer colony didn't miss a beat and is acting like nothing happened.

Beyond depressing.... All this time and money, up in smoke.

Now I'm just doing daily 15% water changes to get the ORP back up, and have seen a marginal improvement. Going to test for ammonia today, and so long as there is no ammonia present, I might add some fish back in right away to keep my bioload and feeding routine up. Up to this point, I had it dialed in perfectly for my targeted nutrient levels.

We have a large nat gas generator at home and I have an appointment on Weds to get an estimate on having one installed at the office. Too little too late in this case, but at least I won't have to deal with this again (knock on wood).

Anybody else going through this with me?

 

[CoralB]

Sorry to hear about your losses , we went 13 hours without power but I had battery backup on one mp40 pump and two battery powered air pumps which I ran one airstone in the sump under my bio material and the other in the main tank under the rock . When power restored I did a 15% water change and added reefbrite live rock inhance and the next day everything looked great . So far no losses . I’m doing another water change tonight . I’ve never used the live rock enhance before and I’m not saying this is why I faired well but in my opinion it’s better than microbactor clean or 7 as I can see the difference overnight . My sand and rock is so much cleaner . I don’t want this to be a commercial but I wanted to add good bacteria to offset any possible ammonia or nitrate spike when the take mixed in the water from the sump in case I had and bacteria die off . Maybe a good bacteria added to your system could help and possibly some live zooxanthellae to help your sps recover . Hope your able to salvage some of your livestock. Like your thought we are definitely going to look into having a generator installed for whole house . Again Sorry for your loss .

 

[DeputyDog95]

Glad to hear you faired better than I did.

I wish I had been closer to the tank to take the same measures you did. Losses are still piling up unfortunately,,, I pulled out 7 or 8 more SPS pieces yesterday. They weren't fully gone, but with more than 50% tissue loss, I'm sure they were well on their way. Judging by the smell when I took them out, that was probably the right thing to do as they were likely continuing to pollute the water as they decayed.

I've done three 15% water changes so far (1 a day) and am heading there now to do a 4th.

My expectations are pretty low at this point. I never even though to add some beneficial bacteria. I'm not familiar with the product you're using, but I do have some MB7 on the shelf and I'll add some today as good measure. I did go by my LFS yesterday and picked up a Salifert ammonia kit. It's reading zero, so there's that.

So depressing...

All things considered, it could be much worse with regards to overall damage. Our house is still intact with trees down and no power still, but compared to what folks are dealing with 45 mins south of me, relatively inconsequential. Having that natural gas generator running 24/7 to power key components in a small section of our home has made the the lack of electricity tolerable. We went without power for almost two weeks after Irma and purchased the unit immediately after. Good investment for sure. I feel like a dope for not having done this at my office as well, but these units are $$$. I'll be getting the estimate on Weds for the office and will just have to bite the bullet and purchase one.

 

[CoralB]

Glad to hear you faired better than I did.

I wish I had been closer to the tank to take the same measures you did. Losses are still piling up unfortunately,,, I pulled out 7 or 8 more SPS pieces yesterday. They weren't fully gone, but with more than 50% tissue loss, I'm sure they were well on their way. Judging by the smell when I took them out, that was probably the right thing to do as they were likely continuing to pollute the water as they decayed.

I've done three 15% water changes so far (1 a day) and am heading there now to do a 4th.

My expectations are pretty low at this point. I never even though to add some beneficial bacteria. I'm not familiar with the product you're using, but I do have some MB7 on the shelf and I'll add some today as good measure. I did go by my LFS yesterday and picked up a Salifert ammonia kit. It's reading zero, so there's that.

So depressing...

All things considered, it could be much worse with regards to overall damage. Our house is still intact with trees down and no power still, but compared to what folks are dealing with 45 mins south of me, relatively inconsequential. Having that natural gas generator running 24/7 to power key components in a small section of our home has made the the lack of electricity tolerable. We went without power for almost two weeks after Irma and purchased the unit immediately after. Good investment for sure. I feel like a dope for not having done this at my office as well, but these units are $$$. I'll be getting the estimate on Weds for the office and will just have to bite the bullet and purchase one.

Yes it is good to be alive and well and same with family . That being said we’re you not able to frag and cut back into good tissue and dip on your sps ? Also mb7 is good as well .

 

[DeputyDog95]

No, they were all acros and basically lit right up after the outage. Total "bail out" RTN event.

Pulled more dead acros out yesterday and I'm seeing new bail out spots on other acros. However, it appears to be slowing some (knock on wood) so I'm hopeful what's left will eventually recover.

Initially there was no Alk or Ca consumption for two days, which is to be expected. Now I can't even keep up with it and have the Trident testing 12x a day with automatic dosing to try and maintain the pre hurricane parameters (8.5 dkh and 450 Ca). I've about got the Ca almost stabilized with it creeping up to 430, but the Alk won't go above 7.6 dkh. And that's after four 15% water changes using RS blue blue bucket which has an Alk of 8.5 dkh at 35ppt.

So the corals seem to be "coming back online", which is a good sign.

 

[JGT]

I have my tank at my office, for a number of different reasons. One of which is it's in a heavily commercial area on a main road and rarely loses power, and when it goes, it's minutes at the worst.

Well, I had a completely different experience during this storm. The power went out at the office on Weds at 530p (that's when the Apex disconnected) and didn't come back on until 9a on Thurs. As much as I wanted to go there and try to run some pumps off an inverter, it was just too dangerous to travel during this storm at night.

I was there first thing on Thurs morning and some of my fish were at the surface, gasping. I lost two yellow tangs (that I've had for around 10 years), a purple tang (2 years), 2 springereye damsels, a cleaner shrimp, two sally lightfoot crabs, untold snails and small hermits. There's probably more I haven't even realized are gone yet as the tank was heavily stocked.

Insult to injury, about 24 hours later, most of the SPS have started sluffing tissue up top and RTN bleaching on the bases. So the whole tank is basically ruined and this is pretty much a do over now. A majority of the coral is dead or dying. Thousands in frags and mini colonies. Of course the cheapies like my large green slimer colony didn't miss a beat and is acting like nothing happened.

Beyond depressing.... All this time and money, up in smoke.

Now I'm just doing daily 15% water changes to get the ORP back up, and have seen a marginal improvement. Going to test for ammonia today, and so long as there is no ammonia present, I might add some fish back in right away to keep my bioload and feeding routine up. Up to this point, I had it dialed in perfectly for my targeted nutrient levels.

We have a large nat gas generator at home and I have an appointment on Weds to get an estimate on having one installed at the office. Too little too late in this case, but at least I won't have to deal with this again (knock on wood).

Anybody else going through this with me?

Sorry to hear about your losses. Surprised that within 16 hours so many things died. Thinking it must have been the temp and lack of any flow/oxygenation?

 

[DeputyDog95]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Surprised that within 16 hours so many things died. Thinking it must have been the temp and lack of any flow/oxygenation?

As far as I can tell as the Apex disconnected, temp was not an issue as it was not nearly as hot as it usually is. I have to believe it was the lack of flow and oxygen, which was further exacerbated by the decaying animals.

 

[corallo]

I have a similar experience. I still don’t have power and my house got heavily damaged. I lost my tank completely. I can’t even go home and clean the mess. The sad thing is that I got back to this hobby as a coping mechanism because of my dad passing away 2 years ago. I was reefing with him for more than a decade until I move to another country. Now I feel lost and I don’t know how to pull myself together. Definitely the worst period of my life.
Best of luck on the recovery of your tank.

 

[DeputyDog95]

I have a similar experience. I still don’t have power and my house got heavily damaged. I lost my tank completely. I can’t even go home and clean the mess. The sad thing is that I got back to this hobby as a coping mechanism because of my dad passing away 2 years ago. I was reefing with him for more than a decade until I move to another country. Now I feel lost and I don’t know how to pull myself together. Definitely the worst period of my life.
Best of luck on the recovery of your tank.

Sorry to hear that. We were fortunate to not have lost our home or cars. The tank was my biggest loss.

Hopefully you can start chipping away at getting back to normal soon. Tough road ahead for everyone 50 miles south of us. This was a brutal storm!

 

[N.Sreefer]

Not Ian but Fiona led to nearly a week without power and destroyed half my place so some people further north can definitely relate to those with Ian damage down south!

 

[DeputyDog95]

Not Ian but Fiona led to nearly a week without power and destroyed half my place so some people further north can definitely relate to those with Ian damage down south!

Sorry to hear that! Hopefully you can start building back soon!