Power outage while out of town.

[SlasherZ]

I'm out of town and Just found out the power has been out for two days at home and my friend that is feeding my fish told me that everything was dead when they showed up. I don't have anyone to complain to so I'm crying on here. I had 15 tanks in my house between my sw and fw stuff...

Super feelsbadman I don't even know where to go from here. A tank crashing happens sometimes... But all of my tanks blowing up? It's awful, my tanks were my everything and now...

 

[VintageReefer]

How did a 2 day power outage cause so much loss? Was he there on day 1 and things were alive and then on day 2 they were all dead?

 

[SlasherZ]

How did a 2 day power outage cause so much loss? Was he there on day 1 and things were alive and then on day 2 they were all dead?

He sent a video to me of some of the tanks. Pretty much all larger fish are Dead, suffocated I presume. A select few smaller fish and Inverts are still alive, albeit gasping for air. I asked him to please grab my battery powered air pumps along with a text telling him where the air stones and tubing are and how to use it all and he hasn't gotten back to me. Message hasn't even been read. Maybe his phone is dead, maybe he's asleep. He's trustworthy but not a fish person, so I guess he didn't realize the power being out was such a bad thing and therefore didn't mention it.

It's been 12 hours since asking him to get the pumps out and it's yet to be read. Have contacted the few other people I could ask for help and no one's phone is on. I'm assuming by the time I get home in two days everything else will be dead.

 

[braaap]

Yikes. 15 tanks and no whole home power backup? That’s wild. Sorry to hear that all happened. But with massive amounts of tanks like that you’ve got to have a fool proof backup. Battery powered pumps would never cut it.

 

[SlasherZ]

Yikes. 15 tanks and no whole home power backup? That’s wild. Sorry to hear that all happened. But with massive amounts of tanks like that you’ve got to have a fool proof backup. Battery powered pumps would never cut it.

Having lived in the same home through several hurricanes and large storms and never losing power for more than 2 hours due to being on the same step down as the neighboring hospital, the pumps had always been more than enough but yeah, you're right.

100% my fault, I shouldn't have taken on so many without providing properly and taking the necessary precautions. I feel horrible.

 

[VintageReefer]

Having lived in the same home through several hurricanes and large storms and never losing power for more than 2 hours due to being on the same step down as the neighboring hospital, the pumps had always been more than enough but yeah, you're right.

100% my fault, I shouldn't have taken on so many without providing properly and taking the necessary precautions. I feel horrible.

I sympathize and am sorry for your losses. Years ago I had a 5 day outage and no backup system of any kind. It was 50 degrees outside. Ambient in my house was upper 50’s by day 3 or 4

I had…
75g sps reef
46g mixed reef
14g nano cube reef
32g biocube reef
36g freshwater planted
5g betta

It was heartbreaking. Never had a outage more than a hour before that. Never had a hurricane in my entire life

 

[VintageReefer]

Oh and my wife and dogs and cats. Somehow I always forget them.

 

[KStatefan]

Having lived in the same home through several hurricanes and large storms and never losing power for more than 2 hours due to being on the same step down as the neighboring hospital, the pumps had always been more than enough but yeah, you're right.

100% my fault, I shouldn't have taken on so many without providing properly and taking the necessary precautions. I feel horrible.

That sucks

Thanks for posting this though hopefully this will tip the scales for someone else to get a backup power solution.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I'm out of town and Just found out the power has been out for two days at home and my friend that is feeding my fish told me that everything was dead when they showed up. I don't have anyone to complain to so I'm crying on here. I had 15 tanks in my house between my sw and fw stuff...

Super feelsbadman I don't even know where to go from here. A tank crashing happens sometimes... But all of my tanks blowing up? It's awful, my tanks were my everything and now...

So sorry for your loss! I only have a 90 gallon mixed reef but this is exactly why I am very seriously considering a whole home generator.

 

[ryanjohn1]

That’s the big suck. So sorry.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

He sent a video to me of some of the tanks. Pretty much all larger fish are Dead, suffocated I presume. A select few smaller fish and Inverts are still alive, albeit gasping for air. I asked him to please grab my battery powered air pumps along with a text telling him where the air stones and tubing are and how to use it all and he hasn't gotten back to me. Message hasn't even been read. Maybe his phone is dead, maybe he's asleep. He's trustworthy but not a fish person, so I guess he didn't realize the power being out was such a bad thing and therefore didn't mention it.

It's been 12 hours since asking him to get the pumps out and it's yet to be read. Have contacted the few other people I could ask for help and no one's phone is on. I'm assuming by the time I get home in two days everything else will be dead.

huge solar storm last night and cell phone disruption/brown outs. probably also asleep still.
sorry for your loss.

 

[RaymondL]

So sorry to hear this I know this is a difficult situation to accept, but realize that what has happened is done and you have tried to ensure the health of the remaining ecosystems, so that's all you can do.

You can use this situation to learn and adapt for the next time, so you won't have to face this again. It's a difficult lesson indeed, and sometimes it has to hurt first so that it won't happen again.

 

[ff2807]

Having lived in the same home through several hurricanes and large storms and never losing power for more than 2 hours due to being on the same step down as the neighboring hospital, the pumps had always been more than enough but yeah, you're right.

100% my fault, I shouldn't have taken on so many without providing properly and taking the necessary precautions. I feel horrible.

Not your fault this hobby has a lot of heartache !!!

 

[GARRIGA]

Living in south Florida and having experienced a couple of outages part of the reason I've waited so long to put up a big tank. It's also why I'm trying to design an efficient tank that can be run on minimal power requiring the smallest backup possible devoted just to the tank. We can always go stay in a hotel since home tempos will get too high. Backup needs to be large enough to run a single pump to maintain filtration and a chiller set around 82 or 84. Food for thought.

 

[Tamberav]

ouch... sorry... I am guessing you must not have a controller or camera on your tanks. That is what I use to monitor mine. If power is out, the apex app will alert me it lost connection.

 

[CKW]

Having lived in the same home through several hurricanes and large storms and never losing power for more than 2 hours due to being on the same step down as the neighboring hospital, the pumps had always been more than enough but yeah, you're right.

100% my fault, I shouldn't have taken on so many without providing properly and taking the necessary precautions. I feel horrible.

A lesson learned…. I hope.