As an update, my loss was 100%. The corals were just too stressed and weak from osmotic shock to recover and within 3 days I had nothing to show for 3 years of collecting than a 2 gallon pail of bleached white skeletons. While a loss and setback of this magnitude would cause many to throw in the towel, or take a break I'm a sucker for punishment.I love the hobby. I was about 3/4 of the way thru the set up of my new display and I continue to move forward. I still have my sights set on SPS domonant with select LPS.
We continue to learn. We will always make mistakes,we will continue to have oversights and we will always lose more than we win. If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is that the worst thing any reefer can experience it is complacency. I knew, that little voice in the back of my mind told me that the 55g ATO reservoir was too big, and in the back of my mind was the "it won't happen to me, this is only temporary". Listen to that little voice. It isn't wrong very often. We walk the razor edge daily in our little oceans and complete and total loss is only one misstep away.

Gary,

Thank you for sharing your experience with fellow reefers.
So awesome to hear that you'll continue on.
I'm new to this hobby, so it's inspiring to read about everyone's experiences.
Good luck with your new build and I look forward to seeing photos!

Cheers,
Olivia

Sad to hear about your worst fears coming true.

Good luck with the rebuild my friend.

Anthony

I hear you. I also went thru a crash that costed me $$$$. I may have gotta some pieces from you last year. I also don't mind fragging and sending some your way when you are ready.

Your perseverance is admirable. :)

100% loss is very painful, the worst I've experience is 50% and it hurts. Tank and plumbing design is utmost important to avoid such disaster. On my most recent tank I eliminated the sump and made a larger over flow to accommodate all gears, it's the best design change I've done in over 20 years of reefing. Without the extra plumbing, reduced noise and lower maintenance, it's given a me a huge piece of mind. The only thing that could possibly go wrong now is my Tunze osmolator but in my 15 yr experience with the product it's rock solid.
Consider sump-less system my friends.

Oh even sumpless has its issues, I had my 50 gallon partially empty into my living room because the return for my canister filter moved (somehow, maybe the cat, who knows) and was shooting water out of the tank. I got home and there was salt and water everywhere, ruined furniture, the floor, lost coral, heater was exposed, a couple of fish died, you know...

Lets face it, we have big boxes of water in our homes, things can go wrong, things will go wrong...

I hear ya, the more equipment we can contain and housed with the water box the better off we'll be. Less peripheral and more internal setup to avoid as much water transport from one place to another is key. That's why I made an over-sized overflow to place everything in there, skimmer, reactor, heater, etc. Only down side to it is the extra space it occupies behind the tank.

Sorry to hear about the losses, Gary. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I have lots of coral, as you know, and would be happy to give you a bunch to get your new tank filled out.

Kelly

For reference my ATO pail is 5g on a ~330g system lol. It fills twice a day, but only 5g at a time.

Sorry to hear about your catastrophe! Bigger and better, learn from your mistakes and all that jazz. Best of luck!