Nick C. - Entry #4
60 gallon mixed reef tank running for 6 years. Multi head gold torch, multi head dragon soul, orange octo, purple octo, pc rainbow colony, pink lemonade colony, yoda, red dragon stag, multiple gonni, zoa colonies many more. Livestock 2 pintail wrasse, 2 mandarin goby, 2 thunder clown, 3 Tierra anthias.
Time without power: Monday 6am- Thursday 9pm. No water: Tuesday- Friday
I woke up Monday morning to no noise. I soon realized that there was no power in the house. Thinking it would be a couple hours at most, I spent most of the day entertaining the kid without any wifi which is a struggle in itself. Hours pass and after the backup batteries died, and night came the first night it really starts to set in that we would be without power during sub zero temperatures. I lived in Chicago 22 years and not once had something like this ever occurred during winter. The gov, ercot, etc was really going to abandon people in the cold with no electricity, no warmth, no water no preparation! I have a young family, a pregnant wife, and 3 year old. We could not stay idly by just hoping it would come on. Fortunately my in laws had power so we jumped into action packed up whatever clothes and toys we could in the dark and drove in the snow and ice. After dropping them off and ensuring they were situated I decided to return to the house to try and salvage the tank through the night. 6 years ago I bought a generator for this very purpose, I went to 5 gas stations which either had no power or no gas but through waiting in long lines I was able to secure a couple gallons. So now in the cold dark garage I filled up the generator and went to start. Of course theirs a leak in the gas line, with nothing but a a cell phone light I trouble shooted but no success. Temps were dropping inside the house fast it was only 40 degrees in the house. I filled up hot water in zip lock bags and stirred the tank every couple hours through the night. Finally day came, with little to no casualties even polyp extension I couldn’t believe it. I left the house to check on the family. Surely power would come back. Of course it didn’t, night came again this time was even worse since the house was so cold to begin with. To top that there was also no water in the house at this point I just had to abandon the tank and it broke my heart. Coming home that next day you can tell things were starting to go the water was pure white slime, and all the fish had died. I tried to do a water change with some left over water but it was too late I did everything I could. By Friday everything was long gone I came back to the house and it smelled worse than any fish market. I emptied all the water removed all the rock and sand back to where it all started.
I really love this hobby and have been keeping fish since a small child when my grandfather would take me to pet stores to get gold fish. Our house now is very small but we hope to upgrade houses and in doing so also upgrade the tank. That was always the plan but I didn’t realize I would have to start all the way from the beginning. I’ve met a lot of people in the industry who have becoming some of my closest friends. I’m hopeful one day to be back better than ever and to get a CADE tank would be a real honor.
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