Who here has had a tank crash?

DarthOcellaris · 03-11-2008, 03:50 PM

Just curious. If you've ever had a crash, for any reason, tell about it. Tell us what could have been done to prevent it if possible.

I'll start. Years ago when I first got into the hobby, I woke up to a phone call from my mother telling me that the water was too hot ( my tank was setup at her house at the time ). The heater was frozen in the 'on' position and got the tank up to about 110 degrees. Nothing survived. I didn't have any way to prevent this then but now, I have a controller that SHOULD act as a safety shutoff in the same event.

luvmylo · 03-11-2008, 03:51 PM

well, most have read my post from today=(

DarthOcellaris · 03-11-2008, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvmylo

well, most have read my post from today=(

ya..

That's one thing that made me think of this thread actually. That stinks about yours man

luvmylo · 03-11-2008, 03:54 PM

ahhhh life goes on. I'll prolly end up taking up bills offer for the frags.

OIIIIIO · 03-11-2008, 04:00 PM

I had the opposite happen. My wife's @$#% cat pulled the heater plug out and the tank got down to 56 degrees. Most survived but I had a lot of die off that required me to change the water a lot over a two week period. About 3 months after that, I had a phosphate issue that may have been related. I had to move the livestock to a new BB tank. I think the sand got full of phos and almost brought that tank down.

frankandmaura · 03-11-2008, 04:05 PM

I had the big flood (not necessarily a crash), but drained the tank to the bottom (within a few inches) while I was not home...sigh...of course. A hose came lose on a return, for some reason it was not clamped properly and basically pumped all the water on the floor (about 120 to 140 gallons)

I just gave up for a few months...and let others have all of my stuff until I was ready to try again.

My lesson was to hard plumb as much as I could and try to make everything more safe for the future...nothing is hanging off the back of the tank anymore and there are no stray hoses from the sump to the tank, and for gods sake I got rid of that POS cannister filter

Jnicho · 03-11-2008, 04:11 PM

My only tank crash was years ago...back glass cracked and all the water drained out overnight...good thing the apartment below was unoccupied...we moved very soon after that!

Fly Guy · 03-11-2008, 04:17 PM

I wouldnt actually call what happened to me a "crash"

Did I take something trivial for granted while on vacation that resulted in losing 90% of all stock from over 300 gallons of loaded reefs? Yes

Moral to my story is if you are having a non-reefkeeper check up on things if gone for an extened period of time.......dont assume even the simplest and most basic details. They dont get it and its your job to make sure the basics are understood

Jnicho · 03-11-2008, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

I wouldnt actually call what happened to me a "crash"

Did I take something trivial for granted while on vacation that resulted in losing 90% of all stock from over 300 gallons of loaded reefs? Yes

Moral to my story is if you are having a non-reefkeeper check up on things if gone for an extened period of time.......dont assume even the simplest and most basic details. They dont get it and its your job to make sure the basics are understood

Yup...if they come look at your tank full of corals and say "cool plants" be afraid, very afraid!

Fly Guy · 03-11-2008, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jnicho

Yup...if they come look at your tank full of corals and say "cool plants" be afraid, very afraid!

I heard a reefer the other day who had quite a few corals in his tank refer to his zoanthids as "plants"

Siberman · 03-11-2008, 04:57 PM

(I know I'm gonna catch it from the bb crowd but here goes.)

I had a 20 high chock full of zoos, palys, red shrooms (some up to 5" diameter). I mean fuuuuuuull. All the rock, sand and side glass were covered. I decided to move this tank last July. I took all the rock and inverts out but left the 5" sand bed in. After situating the tank in the bedroom I had a brain fart and decided to pluck a large base rock out of the sand bed and then proceeded to re-fill the tank.

I awoke the next morning to pieces of two large brittle stars and several dead hermits and snails. I immediately started water changes but the damage was done. Have you ever seen a tank literally melt before your eyes?

YLChik · 03-11-2008, 05:21 PM

these are sad

i have cracked tanks - but they were not yet running- well not full of living things yet... no crashes yet PTL!

mg · 03-11-2008, 05:21 PM

My wonderful experience end of 2006
http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/...light=disaster

crvz · 03-11-2008, 05:22 PM

I have never had an overnight type crash, but I have had a sand bed go bad on me. That was the pits. Ask Hop how that's going for him.

depitch · 03-11-2008, 05:30 PM

Mine happened about 2 years ago when I tried to treat ick outbreak in tank.

The Ick treatment solution dropped my pH down to 7.7 and all my corals, cleaner shrimps and most of my snails died.

I did have a bad diatom bloom about 6 months ago when I upgraded lighting from PC to T5's, but that was from the crappy DI water I was using. Since then I bought an RO/DI unit and had not problems since.

Doug