idiot landlord induced power outage!

[sharkdude]

do I have a story to tell you....

my landlord has been trying to evict my neighbor and yesterday he meant to turn her power off. well, he turned my power off instead! I estimate it was off for about 5-6 hours; most of my fish are dead but the soft corals seem relatively ok. My landlord said he was sorry, it was a mistake, and he will pay for my losses.
Poor consolation for losing fish I have had over three years!
I may initiate a formal complaint with city or county housing just to cover myself if he balks at the bill I give him. I estimate at least $100 loss of fish but I will probably pad the bill to compensate for pain and suffering! The store I ended up buying emergency water change water from said they would have no problem making up a bogus price sheet for me.

I swear I just wanted to pummel my idiot landlord!!!

my wife was traumatized and could not sleep. she loved those fish as much as I did.

my landlord knew about my tank; he has been in my apt a few times before. I have renters insurance that would cover damage should the tank leak. So I feel I have a solid legal footing to initiate a formal complaint but I want to give him a chnace to make things right from a gentleman's perspective first.


Thanks Doug for offering your assistance.

Chris (aka sharkdude)
http://community.webshots.com/user/sharkdude_1

 

[Seize-Er]

wow that really sucks
your landlord can't shut the power off to encourage someone to leave, that is illegal. You can definately sue over this if he doesnt pay up. There may even be criminal charges/fines for what he did on top of that. good luck

keith

 

[oohnoo]

Sorry to hear about your loses. But....
He said he was sorry and offered to pay for them. Leave all well along. You do want to renew your lease next year right!

 

[HARRISON]

Honesty is a pretty good policy... He made a mistake and is willing to pay. You have the right to get nasty if that doesn't work out. Otherwise he is doing his part. Prices should be accurate. You can show the added amount for the care you have provided for the fish.

Good luck, sorry about your loses.
Harrison

 

[sharkdude]

thanks for the condolences.

Harrison, you bring up a good point, the blood, sweat and tears not to mention $ I ivested in those fish over the past few years should count for something.

 

[sharkdude]

ok. I've cooled off a bit, but I'm still mad.

what do you all think would be fair 'replacement' value for the following fatalities:

4 inch yellow tang (3 years)
1.5 inch blue tang (3 months)
4 inch longnosed hawkfish (3 years)
adult cleaner shrimp (2 years)
4 inch royal gramma (6 months)

I think most of the corals will recover, they looked ok this morning.

 

[obie]

I'm really sorry to hear about your fish. That sucks. Your loss has me concerned. If the power was off for 5-6 hours and you lost most of your fish, that is scary. What kills them so quickly? My concern is that here in Seattle, power outages due to winter weather are frequent - usually short, but sometimes long. Are there steps you can take to protect during a power outage?

obie

 

[HARRISON]

I have to say I am a little concerned about the time frame as well. Five hours doesn't seem like it would be long enough to kill all those fish unless there was some other factor in there like heat or something. would be interesting to see what others think of this. Time frames and such...

 

[JohnD]

Sharkdude,

You answered your own question about prices -what would it cost you at the LFS to replace them? I could give you east coast prices, but they are probably not relevant by you.

For argument's sake, let's say the replacement cost is $100. I think most folks would think it is reasonable to add say 10% for make-up water, salt, gas for the trip to the LFS... You get my point. Hundreds of dollars for pain and suffering, IMHO, is a little over the top.

The landlord was wrong and he offered to pay. Take him up on his offer and restock slowly your tank.

No flame intended, but now may be a good time to check out battery back-ups.

HTH and best wishes on your restocking of the tank.

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: JohnD ]

 

[Ben1]

I was recently on a vacation and my mother blew my fuse vacuuming, I told her the fuse was maxed out with the sps tank but she insisted. Well electric went out and she went home not to turn the power back on for 2 days! All my corals lived but I lost a large CB Butterfly and one of my mated A. Melenopus clowns. Boy was I pissed but on the other hand for 10$ at www.thatpetplace.com you can buy a air pump that is battery operated and you plug it into your power source. It detects the power outage and turns on. For 10$ its my fault for not having installed this. I would look into it if I were you.

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: Ben ]

 

[Diane]

This last spring we had a very bad storm roll through our town...100+ winds. In the end the local goverment declaired our town in a state of emergency and all of the town was without power. Well to make a long story short we were without power for almost 72 hrs. I have a 55g tank and I do admit that I have my tank stocked more than I should. And I didn't loose anything. I don't even have a battery operated pump. So my question would be how could someone loose so many fish in such a short period of time. No offence intended...I just want to make sure that this never happens to me.
Diane

 

[Lefty1]

Hi,

Sorry about the loss. That is lame and I think you have gotten some good advice on how to deal with it. Keep your cool.

Sharkdude and Diane, do you have DSB's.

If you have a DSB and your power goes out, you will probobly be in trouble. From what I understand, the DSB sucks up oxygen pretty quick, and since your fish need more oxygen than your corals, boom. I had this happen to me and lost my fish in 6 hours. I one of my PH's hooked MVT wavemaker hooked up to a UPS. I will run for at least 5 hours if the power goes out. I also have one of those Penn Plax battery pumps hooked up to the UPS. It runs only if there is no power, so if the UPS gets used up, it starts. This is a scary thing, and one of the reasons some people put their DSB in their sump; if the power goes out, the DSB wont use up the oxygen in the main tank.

HTH and HIAR (hope I am right)

RR

 

[SPC]

Diane, what is your fish load exactly?
Steve

 

[Diane]

I have a pair of naso tangs, mandarin, cinnamon clown, ghost eel, 2 clearner wrasses and 2 small starfish. Along with cleaner snails.
Diane