My BEST hitchhiker is an OCTOPUS! - Page 4

RocketSeason · 08/09/2006, 02:35 PM

Wow. Please keep us up to date with what is going to happen from here.

I hope you can get your tank back up and going again real soon.

Good luck! I'm pulling for you!

techrach · 08/09/2006, 02:47 PM

OMG sorry to here

lfduty · 08/09/2006, 03:37 PM

That sucks it hapend to me 5mon's a go and this is all that lived i was out of town 3 days tho.

and this is the tank to day.

So stay with is it like a bike falloff and get back up and go good luck.

55semireef · 08/09/2006, 09:00 PM

This thread has amazed me. Two very rare things occured.

Finding an octopus in your tank

Tank crashing

OrionN · 08/09/2006, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 55semireef
This thread has amazed me. Two very rare things occured.

.......

Tank crashing

This is not rare at all.

55semireef · 08/10/2006, 05:36 PM

Haha...lets see the statistics on how often it happens then. If this wasn't a rare event...then we would be seeing a lot more threads stating "my tank crashed, now what?"

Its not just rare but ironic on how it all happened. Thats what I really meant.

melev · 08/11/2006, 03:14 AM

I'm sorry to hear what happened. It sounds like it wasn't something you could have predicted at all.

zombiedust · 08/11/2006, 08:45 AM

Mega sweet you lucky northerner !

55semireef · 08/11/2006, 05:13 PM

For some reason I predidcted it in the beginning. Somehow I knew something was going to go wrong. It was too good to be true.

anothermineral · 08/11/2006, 06:27 PM

Manny,

Sorry for your loss. When you're ready to start up again let me know and I'll send you a frag. I've always felt this hobby needs some type of "social security" system to help out in times such as these.

joe findell · 08/12/2006, 08:09 AM

Just a thought... For someone to take what many would call a risk and keep the octo instead of ridding the potential menace is commendable in itself. To plan the family vacation and take what sounds like great care and thought to maintain the system and have the results that happened here is just devastating. If everyone that posted on this site would do as anothermineral suggested and be willing to send a frag or 2 to restart this system, we could truly support our hobby and help rebuild this piece of the ocean. It would take some cordination and following this thread to make it work along with the willingness to set the system back up.

What do you guys think.

If this works out count me in!

"PAY IT FORWARD"

joe findell · 08/12/2006, 08:12 AM

I should have said posted on this thread. I dont think there is a home system big enough to handle a frag from everyone on this site.

SumpDiver · 08/12/2006, 09:48 PM

A sad, but well written story. Lesson learned, anything mechanical and automated, given enough time will surely fail.

TJcop · 08/13/2006, 09:27 PM

Wow...I was about to write a compliment on becoming the thread of the month...but then I saw the "crash". Geesh...what a bummer!

Sorry about the loss. Hopefully you're not out of the hobby.

Geesh, has a "thread of the month" ever been so depressing?

merseyman · 08/15/2006, 03:09 AM

... haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this was covered, but unless your tank has a virtually airtight lid, your octopus may end up outside your tank one day, unfortunately. There was an octopus at monterey bay aquarium that was discovered slipping out of his tank nightly and slipping into other tanks full of fish for a "late night snack" before returning to it's own tank. They're very intelligent.

rich_tilbury · 08/15/2006, 10:21 AM

The Octopus was brilliant and it is sobering to hear that the nightmare that haunts us all, that of a malfunction while on holiday, crashed what looked an amazing tank.

I hope that you manage to get the tank running quickly and that your hitchhiker luck continues.

A bittersweet thread, but well deserving of thread of the month.

speckled trout · 08/16/2006, 02:10 PM

55semireef ,

I was gone for two weeks this summer. During that time period my wife took care of my tanks. She was gone for 2 1/2 days out of the whole two weeks. Guess what happened? The fan went out on our central cooling unit and the temperature in the house rose to over 100.

I was in out of state so my wife got to do her first (and last) water change. She changed out 75g out of my 105g. I lost 5 species of lps and sps, 2 toadstools, tons of ricordia, 2 gorgonians and a flame angel. A black percula, 1 oscellaris, one maroon clown, all my zoos, a galaxia, a cup coral, a small patch of star polyps out of a huge isolated colony and a few ricordias are all that remains. Only one small green monti surived while two large orange montis bleached out immediately.

The summer before, when I was gone for approximately the same amount of time, the power went of and my return pump from my sump didn't kick back on. Neither did some of the pumps that circulated my water in the display tank. End result, 2 dead tangs, 3 clowns, 3 damsals, 1 firefish, 1 foxface, 2 angels, 2 wrasse, 5 cleaner shrimp, one flame shrimp, 1 sargent major. Again, the tank was only left unchecked for 2 consecutive days out of the whole time period. That time my all my corals survived with the exception of a large orange monti. Luckily, I had fragged it and had a small colony in one of my school tanks. I fragged it again and started it all over.

Long story short, I've experienced 2 major crashes in approx. 30 years of keeping tanks and they both happened when I was gone. Bottom line, it does happen.

Buddy Pine, I really feel for you. I know what it's like and it sucks unbelieveably. You face a huge amount of work ahead of you. I almost gave up on the whole mess when it happened the second time to me. I really came close to giving up the hobby. I was utterly depressed for several days as I sat out of state knowing my tank was a disaster. Thank God my wife was beyond patient and did what she could to save what she was able to. She had never used a refractometer or "played" with skimmers before this. Imagine trying to explain how to do this over a cell phone that kept dropping your calls! Dang Cingular! Fewest dropped calls my buttocks!

That was amost two months ago. I finally talked myself into going back to one of my regular lfs and purchased some new corals to "replace" some of the ones that I wasn't able to salvage just yesterday. I'm now glad I stuck with it and saved what I could. It would have been extremelly easy to just take it down and call it quits. Adding a couple of new corals back to the tank raised my enthusiasm quite a bit. In a few weeks I'll be getting frags of some of my corals that I had fragged and given away over the last couple of years. It feels pretty good to know that "part" of them survived and will once again be back in my tanks.

Good Luck and stick with it and let us know how it turns out.-Mike

OrionN · 08/16/2006, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 55semireef
For some reason I predidcted it in the beginning. Somehow I knew something was going to go wrong. It was too good to be true.

What a stange thing to say?

Buddy Pine,
Best of luck in get your tank restart.
BTW, donating local frags is great but send them overnight mail is just too costly and much of a hassel to make it worth while. When I was selling frag online, I have to take off an afternoon everytime I send a package. The money I got from the frag did not even cover the lost in income for the time off.

jay24k · 08/16/2006, 03:52 PM

55semireef,

That was pretty rude to say imo. It wasn't his fault because of the octopus. To me it seems like maybe you were a little envious and hoping something WOULD happen badly.

I'm in for sending frags. I'd like to see the tank back up and running. You only learn from your mistakes.

Buddy Pine · 08/16/2006, 08:15 PM

Much obliged everyone, for all your support which always leads me to positive direction. For the love my "Reef".... still feeling so numb...nodding... seven years of enjoyment with this tank almost everyday, now to come home and look at....

OrionN · 08/16/2006, 08:25 PM

Cheer up. Think of it like this:
The smelly stuff is out of the house. It is much easier now. Wait for the rock to recycle (in the yard I hope). Water, salt, and you are back in business. The hard work is over. I know because I clean up a huge mess before too. My tank was bigger than yours with a thicker sand bed. I have to climb into that smelly mess to scoop it out.
The fishes lost were sad but all the other animals did not have enough awareness to feel anything.

Let the fun of restocking begin and the satisfaction in seeing these tiny corals grows and grows. You know much more about your tank now and you will put in just the right animals this time.
Good luck.

pi · 08/17/2006, 10:58 AM

Damn! That middle pic is tough to look at.

zuzecawi · 08/17/2006, 02:13 PM

Buddy, I've read this top to bottom... and I can't convey my sympathy well enough for you. Good luck with the rebuild... don't give up.
M'kee

Ciarán · 08/17/2006, 06:42 PM

Wow, horrible man! And to think i got away with 14 days and no sitter. Some things just dont seem fair. I would gladly send you many frags, unfortunately i live in Ireland so that's probably out of the question, but yeah, anything i can do...

All the best
Ciaran.

Bas Arentz · 08/20/2006, 12:14 PM

very, very sad!!! will you start over?

08/09/2006, 02:35 PM	#76
RocketSeason Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Peoria, IL Posts: 601	Wow. Please keep us up to date with what is going to happen from here. I hope you can get your tank back up and going again real soon. Good luck! I'm pulling for you! __________________ There is no such thing as a "Nemo fish". PBITAWA Current Tank Info: 37 Gallon Oceanic Cube, Various softies, 95 lbs of LR, 6 gallon cryptic fuge. Planning my 75 gallon upgrade.

08/09/2006, 02:47 PM	#77
techrach Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Smyrna,Tennessee Posts: 138	OMG sorry to here __________________ 75 gal,coralife 2 X 250Watt Metal hylaid 95W X4 50/50, 2" Aragonite crushed coral, Red Sea Skimmer, 3 Maxi Jet 1200's running with upgrade kits And about 75 lbs of live rock. Current Tank Info: 75 gal

08/09/2006, 03:37 PM	#78
lfduty Premium Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: McLeod Montana Posts: 1,408	That sucks it hapend to me 5mon's a go and this is all that lived i was out of town 3 days tho. and this is the tank to day. So stay with is it like a bike falloff and get back up and go good luck. __________________ Thanks: Lfduty Research, each individual species you intend to own. This will ensure a lengthy life of your livestock. Current Tank Info: I have 150g mixreef 1-90 fishonley with a Oceanic trickle filter(M150) with a ehime6000 pump 40g breder zoa tank with 30g sump/fuge with mag7 pump 1-75g pipefish tank with 30g sump/fuge and 1-80g SH 1-40hex softy all run on a 250gal sump/50gfuge

08/11/2006, 08:45 AM	#83
zombiedust Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Denver Posts: 177	Mega sweet you lucky northerner ! __________________ Come to the Darkside!..We have cookies ! Current Tank Info: Tons of questions then I buy

08/11/2006, 06:27 PM	#85
anothermineral Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: NJ Posts: 232	Manny, Sorry for your loss. When you're ready to start up again let me know and I'll send you a frag. I've always felt this hobby needs some type of "social security" system to help out in times such as these. __________________ Live and Learn

08/09/2006, 09:00 PM	#79
55semireef Moved On Join Date: May 2006 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 5,322	This thread has amazed me. Two very rare things occured. Finding an octopus in your tank Tank crashing

08/10/2006, 05:36 PM	#81
55semireef Moved On Join Date: May 2006 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 5,322	Haha...lets see the statistics on how often it happens then. If this wasn't a rare event...then we would be seeing a lot more threads stating "my tank crashed, now what?" Its not just rare but ironic on how it all happened. Thats what I really meant.

08/11/2006, 03:14 AM	#82
melev Moved On Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Ft Worth, Tx Posts: 43,217	I'm sorry to hear what happened. It sounds like it wasn't something you could have predicted at all.

08/11/2006, 05:13 PM	#84
55semireef Moved On Join Date: May 2006 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 5,322	For some reason I predidcted it in the beginning. Somehow I knew something was going to go wrong. It was too good to be true.

08/12/2006, 08:09 AM	#86
joe findell Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 32	Just a thought... For someone to take what many would call a risk and keep the octo instead of ridding the potential menace is commendable in itself. To plan the family vacation and take what sounds like great care and thought to maintain the system and have the results that happened here is just devastating. If everyone that posted on this site would do as anothermineral suggested and be willing to send a frag or 2 to restart this system, we could truly support our hobby and help rebuild this piece of the ocean. It would take some cordination and following this thread to make it work along with the willingness to set the system back up. What do you guys think. If this works out count me in! "PAY IT FORWARD" __________________ "If you don't like risk..... get a goldfish"

08/12/2006, 08:12 AM	#87
joe findell Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 32	I should have said posted on this thread. I dont think there is a home system big enough to handle a frag from everyone on this site. __________________ "If you don't like risk..... get a goldfish"

08/12/2006, 09:48 PM	#88
SumpDiver Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Las Colinas Texas Posts: 73	A sad, but well written story. Lesson learned, anything mechanical and automated, given enough time will surely fail. __________________ Jacque got it wrong: The Silent World Ain't so Silent Current Tank Info: Empty in storage: 200 gal glass, 100 gal glass 50 gal glass: Start new tanks on 04-16-06 Cycling with Live rock & Live Black sand Purchasing CPR BAK PAK2 skimmers For small tanks, large tank setup permission from Mrs. Sump is pending.

08/13/2006, 09:27 PM	#89
TJcop Throws Money Into Water Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 796	Wow...I was about to write a compliment on becoming the thread of the month...but then I saw the "crash". Geesh...what a bummer! Sorry about the loss. Hopefully you're not out of the hobby. Geesh, has a "thread of the month" ever been so depressing? __________________ ~T.J.~ Current Tank Info: Starting over...again.

08/15/2006, 03:09 AM	#90
merseyman Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: san francisco Posts: 381	... haven't read the whole thread, so maybe this was covered, but unless your tank has a virtually airtight lid, your octopus may end up outside your tank one day, unfortunately. There was an octopus at monterey bay aquarium that was discovered slipping out of his tank nightly and slipping into other tanks full of fish for a "late night snack" before returning to it's own tank. They're very intelligent. __________________ ...there's not necessarily always tomorrow... Current Tank Info: 120g, 4-sided starphire, "island" overflow. Being built!

08/15/2006, 10:21 AM	#91
rich_tilbury Premium Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: London Posts: 63	The Octopus was brilliant and it is sobering to hear that the nightmare that haunts us all, that of a malfunction while on holiday, crashed what looked an amazing tank. I hope that you manage to get the tank running quickly and that your hitchhiker luck continues. A bittersweet thread, but well deserving of thread of the month.

08/16/2006, 02:10 PM	#92
speckled trout Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: South Texas Gulf Coast Posts: 696	55semireef , I was gone for two weeks this summer. During that time period my wife took care of my tanks. She was gone for 2 1/2 days out of the whole two weeks. Guess what happened? The fan went out on our central cooling unit and the temperature in the house rose to over 100. I was in out of state so my wife got to do her first (and last) water change. She changed out 75g out of my 105g. I lost 5 species of lps and sps, 2 toadstools, tons of ricordia, 2 gorgonians and a flame angel. A black percula, 1 oscellaris, one maroon clown, all my zoos, a galaxia, a cup coral, a small patch of star polyps out of a huge isolated colony and a few ricordias are all that remains. Only one small green monti surived while two large orange montis bleached out immediately. The summer before, when I was gone for approximately the same amount of time, the power went of and my return pump from my sump didn't kick back on. Neither did some of the pumps that circulated my water in the display tank. End result, 2 dead tangs, 3 clowns, 3 damsals, 1 firefish, 1 foxface, 2 angels, 2 wrasse, 5 cleaner shrimp, one flame shrimp, 1 sargent major. Again, the tank was only left unchecked for 2 consecutive days out of the whole time period. That time my all my corals survived with the exception of a large orange monti. Luckily, I had fragged it and had a small colony in one of my school tanks. I fragged it again and started it all over. Long story short, I've experienced 2 major crashes in approx. 30 years of keeping tanks and they both happened when I was gone. Bottom line, it does happen. Buddy Pine, I really feel for you. I know what it's like and it sucks unbelieveably. You face a huge amount of work ahead of you. I almost gave up on the whole mess when it happened the second time to me. I really came close to giving up the hobby. I was utterly depressed for several days as I sat out of state knowing my tank was a disaster. Thank God my wife was beyond patient and did what she could to save what she was able to. She had never used a refractometer or "played" with skimmers before this. Imagine trying to explain how to do this over a cell phone that kept dropping your calls! Dang Cingular! Fewest dropped calls my buttocks! That was amost two months ago. I finally talked myself into going back to one of my regular lfs and purchased some new corals to "replace" some of the ones that I wasn't able to salvage just yesterday. I'm now glad I stuck with it and saved what I could. It would have been extremelly easy to just take it down and call it quits. Adding a couple of new corals back to the tank raised my enthusiasm quite a bit. In a few weeks I'll be getting frags of some of my corals that I had fragged and given away over the last couple of years. It feels pretty good to know that "part" of them survived and will once again be back in my tanks. Good Luck and stick with it and let us know how it turns out.-Mike

08/16/2006, 03:52 PM	#94
jay24k Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Leesburg, Florida Posts: 6,546	55semireef, That was pretty rude to say imo. It wasn't his fault because of the octopus. To me it seems like maybe you were a little envious and hoping something WOULD happen badly. I'm in for sending frags. I'd like to see the tank back up and running. You only learn from your mistakes.

08/16/2006, 08:15 PM	#95
Buddy Pine Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: ON, Canada Posts: 62	Much obliged everyone, for all your support which always leads me to positive direction. For the love my "Reef".... still feeling so numb...nodding... seven years of enjoyment with this tank almost everyday, now to come home and look at....

08/16/2006, 08:25 PM	#96
OrionN Moved on Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: Coastal Texas Posts: 16,000	Cheer up. Think of it like this: The smelly stuff is out of the house. It is much easier now. Wait for the rock to recycle (in the yard I hope). Water, salt, and you are back in business. The hard work is over. I know because I clean up a huge mess before too. My tank was bigger than yours with a thicker sand bed. I have to climb into that smelly mess to scoop it out. The fishes lost were sad but all the other animals did not have enough awareness to feel anything. Let the fun of restocking begin and the satisfaction in seeing these tiny corals grows and grows. You know much more about your tank now and you will put in just the right animals this time. Good luck.

08/17/2006, 10:58 AM	#97
pi Premium Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sunny South (Columbia,SC) Posts: 1,699	Damn! That middle pic is tough to look at.

08/17/2006, 02:13 PM	#98
zuzecawi Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 472	Buddy, I've read this top to bottom... and I can't convey my sympathy well enough for you. Good luck with the rebuild... don't give up. M'kee

08/17/2006, 06:42 PM	#99
Ciarán Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Ireland Posts: 268	Wow, horrible man! And to think i got away with 14 days and no sitter. Some things just dont seem fair. I would gladly send you many frags, unfortunately i live in Ireland so that's probably out of the question, but yeah, anything i can do... All the best Ciaran. __________________ "You can take the man out of the bog, not the bog out of the man." Saying in Ireland basically meaning - Once a hick always a hick!! Current Tank Info: 20g anemone species tank with some zoos, LPS, SPS, Ocellaris and Flameback Angel - 275 gal empy due to study!

08/20/2006, 12:14 PM	#100
Bas Arentz Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: netherlands Posts: 15	very, very sad!!! will you start over? __________________ my latin is better dan my English.... Current Tank Info: 35 fish, 100+ corals