Friend damaged coral

I was away for one night away from my house spending the night at a hotel for a wedding, he was letting out our dogs so I asked him if he could feed my fish, I told him there is a return pump in the top right hand corner of the tank that you hold the cube in front of until it goes into the water. He said ok and I figured he listened to me. Well the next day I thanked him on my way home and he said no problem and that he had to plug the pump back in and I was like I didnt unplug my return and I realized he plugged back in one of my powerheads that is way to strong for my tank that I left unplugged for a reason! I asked him if he turned it off he said no so I drove home as fast as I could fearing that it became unattached from the wall and was blowing sand across the tank, o yea the plugs come undone and are not safe. Anyways I came home and my fears were true you could actually see glass in the bottom of my tank, coral had sand on top of them, I had to find coral that had been blown off the rocks, And worse yet the middle of my chalice coral died from having sand residing in the middle of it along with a head of my torch coral! This is a perfect example of dont let anyone who has no know how of saltwater and its care touch or put there hands in your little piece of heaven because they could be satan in disguise!

 

that is terrible. I really dont trust anyone with my tank.. Maybe a fellow reefer, but even then everyone has their own ideas about how to run a tank. Mine just happens to be the best way ;D

 

you should go to his house and beat his children see how he likes that lol

 

wow – sorry to hear. Let’s not beat the guys children,…its not his fault.

Couple things come to mind – first, remove that pump. Second don’t dissolve the cubes directly into your tank – they are often times loaded with phosphates and nitrates. Dissolve them a strainer and then give them a good rinse prior to feeding your tank.

If that pump is buried in the live rock put a label on the plug that says “never plug in”. I have two long ago buried power heads that I can’t get to without cracking hard coral – I cut the plugs years back.

I hope your corals survive ! please keep up posted.

Another question – who will be taking care of your tank for your Florida trip ? Better start writing down dummy directions – especially with top off water !!

 

While I agree not to beat his children, it is his fault. As any sort of intelligent person, why would you plug something in that was unplugged when you got there? It could have been broken, dangerous or be unplugged for the reason that happened. If you can't follow simple directions, that is your fault. Now, I do agree with your advice. I would have taken that powerhead off the tank. If it's that bad for your tank, there's no reason for it to be on your tank. I have many wires and plugs and it can be very easy to mistakenly plug or unplug something that you didn't mean to.

 

I can see your point, I guess I would need more information – like the friends experience level. He was told the pump is in the top right corner, was he specifically told it was “already running” ? Or was the topic open to interpretation. My knee jerk went immediately to the line “I was away for a night” – one night and you ask someone to touch your tank ?? errrrr….wrong, that makes it your own fault.

 

sorry to hear IME i know exactly what its like leaving your tank for someone to take care of that really doesnt know much about aquariums. I always have two options, leave it with the boyfriends father who often forgets to do things, or leave it with our friend who means well but wouldnt know what to do or how to describe it if something were to go wrong. i hate leaving my tank at home... wish it could go with me

 

You can if you wanted to. just do what they did

 

Ouch...

 

I don't think you can blame him. He may have thought he was doing you a favor and plugging in a forgotten item. He could have thought he may have somehow unplugged it and plugged it back in. To claim that any intelligent person would not plug something that was already unplugged, plug it in in this case is unreasonable. Most people remove items that are not plugged in from the room and or tank. With that in mind, why wouldn't he think he was doing his friend a favor?

You can't blame him for this. I am sure he thought he was just helping you out. Just have someone else feed your tank from now on or don't worry about feeding the fish for a day or two.

Also have plugs and cords labeled for when people take care of your tank.