Call the Aquauthorities! Have you ever experienced a tank emergency?

[AlyciaMarie]

The dreaded emergency tag...We hate to see it coming, but how cool is it to have a community that rallies around when things start going way downhill? But my question is: Have you ever been in that situation? Deadly disease breakouts, extreme and toxic nutrient levels, unexplained fish and coral deaths—there are many reasons to raise the alarm when it comes to the well-being of our reefs...

Have you ever experienced a tank emergency? Share your story in the comments!

 

[ReefOC]

I had velvet and the urgent help from others was not only amazing, it taught me to be less impulsive and QT my fish properly.

 

[steveschuerger]

Biggest emergency I had was when I was moving from my 30 into a 60. Had set up a couple tubs with flow and heaters. Unfortunately didn’t realize one of the heaters had a voltage leak and zapped a bunch of coral and nems. Fish and other inverts were fine, posssibly due to the fact it was pretty low voltage. Still wasn’t a pleasant experience.

 

[Tommy B]

One time I rearranged the rock scape which included removing some for about 20 minutes so I would have more room to work. Stirred up the sandbed as well. Rookie mistake, It caused an ammonia spike and ended up in a couple large water changes. No livestock deaths though, so I am thankful.

 

[hebdizzle]

Basement sump (Aqueon 60g breeder) sprung a leak on Christmas Eve. Drained the sump, return pump ran dry. Because of the holidays it took a couple weeks to order a new sump (went with acrylic trigger system). I’m always thanking my lucky stars that I had the remote / basement sump. A similar issue with 40 gallons of saltwater on the living room hardwood floor would have been so much more difficult to deal with

 

[fishyjoes]

I had a "false emergency" a week after I set up my tank.
I saw a crack at the bulkhead so I went out and got a new tank (only 20 gallons so not so expensive) and started draining the tank to transfer everything over and discovered the "crack" was just a strand of black silicon!

I swear it looked like a crack and it even felt like a crack with my finger nail.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

at the time, I thought it was an "emergency." Power was out for 4 hours and I had no bubbler, generator, nothing. Now I have a 1000 watt backup battery hooked up to my return pump as well as my mp40. Then, I bought a Honda EU 2200i invertor generator as a backup. As you can see, I like being prepared.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I had a power outage for a week last year, and my basement flooded, which is where all my tanks are. Luckily no casualties from it other than ruined flooring because I have a generator. The generator gfci to the sump pump tripped and that’s how things got wet. Luckily all my tank electronics are up off the ground and on boards.

Also, I am losing all my zoas now.

All part of reefing.

 

[traumamed]

Velvet, once. I had fifteen total fish at the time, including six tangs, and only lost one - a Scopas. I had them all out and in a chloroquine-dosed hospital tank within a few hours of noticing it. Fourteen fish, including five tangs, managed to coexist peacefully in a 75 gallon hospital tank for two months while the DT went fallow.

Hurricane Irma. Here's proof of an unhealthy reef addiction lol. I was in southwest FL, and we were looking at a direct hit. 12+ foot storm surge was predicted at my house. I put my wife and kid on a plane to my in-laws on the other side of the country, and I stayed behind, determined to save our 220 gal tank if I could. I rode the worst of it out at a friend's house several miles inland. When it became clear the predicted storm surge wasn't going to materialize, I got in my truck, at night, with hurricane-force winds still going, drove over downed power lines, trees, through flooded streets, and over an unlit bridge that I had no way to know was undamaged to get back to my house. Stupid.

I still didn't make it back in time to save everything. Power had been out probably 10-12 hours on the tank, and major badness had set in. Half the fish were dead, and the ones that weren't were barely hanging on. These are all the same fish that survived the velvet outbreak two years prior, mind you. The soft corals and LPS looked unnaturally flopped open.

I got a generator going and managed to save seven of the 14 fish, including two of the tangs and the first saltwater fishes I ever bought, an ocellaris pair. The coral mostly survived, unbelievably. Tank was never the same though. There were frequent algae blooms, random episodes of RTN, and I just couldn't get the tank back in balance, no matter what I did. That ultimately led to my first exit/break from the hobby.

 

[traumamed]

The generator gfci to the sump pump tripped and that’s how things got wet.

Wow, that is bad luck. It's never cool when the backup of your backup fails. Sorry, that sucks.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Velvet, once. I had fifteen total fish at the time, including six tangs, and only lost one - a Scopas. I had them all out and in a chloroquine-dosed hospital tank within a few hours of noticing it. Fourteen fish, including five tangs, managed to coexist peacefully in a 75 gallon hospital tank for two months while the DT went fallow.

Hurricane Irma. Here's proof of an unhealthy reef addiction lol. I was in southwest FL, and we were looking at a direct hit. 12+ foot storm surge was predicted at my house. I put my wife and kid on a plane to my in-laws on the other side of the country, and I stayed behind, determined to save our 220 gal tank if I could. I rode the worst of it out at a friend's house several miles inland. When it became clear the predicted storm surge wasn't going to materialize, I got in my truck, at night, with hurricane-force winds still going, drove over downed power lines, trees, through flooded streets, and over an unlit bridge that I had no way to know was undamaged to get back to my house. Stupid.

I still didn't make it back in time to save everything. Power had been out probably 10-12 hours on the tank, and major badness had set in. Half the fish were dead, and the ones that weren't were barely hanging on. These are all the same fish that survived the velvet outbreak two years prior, mind you. The soft corals and LPS looked unnaturally flopped open.

I got a generator going and managed to save seven of the 14 fish, including two of the tangs and the first saltwater fishes I ever bought, an ocellaris pair. The coral mostly survived, unbelievably. Tank was never the same though. There were frequent algae blooms, random episodes of RTN, and I just couldn't get the tank back in balance, no matter what I did. That ultimately led to my first exit/break from the hobby.

Similar experience for me. Hurricane Sandy directly hit NJ and caused my exit from the hobby. Not as wild as your story but quite sad. It turned me away from the hobby for a very long time.

 

[Bxr126]

I had a dosing pump empty the entire contents of a dosing reservoir into my tank. In less than an hour 1500ml of BRS alk was pumped into my 120 gallon mixed reef. All the fish were panicking, while trying to see me through the milky water that probably did not have much oxygen content. I instantly reverted to damage control mode and after 2 hours of what basically equated to a pretty awesome CrossFit workout, I was able to save the entire tank. The emotional roller coaster was not fun and the specific steps I had to take would make any reefer cringe.

 

[CryptoNautical]

It was an emergency of my own doing. When I first started reefing, I did a water change on a 16gal without double checking my salinity. Ended up dropping the tank down to 1.020. Luckily, I noticed pretty quickly due to the coral being rightfully ticked off, and rapidly made the adjustments to rectify the issue. I have yet to make the same mistake twice. Please learn from my mistake and double or even triple check when changing water chemistry.

 

[Rob3D2018]

My own emergency due to be coming lazy with tank maintenance.
One day my Red Sea Max S 650 started leaking water while I was at work. Wife noticed it and texted me.

I was stressed thinking the seals gave up. Tank is under 3 years.

What made it leak was that the weir section got a build-up of organic junk therefore making the water level in the tank rise a bit to the point that the wavemakers were producing the leak.

Was an easy fix by using a brush to clear the detritus over the weir section. Good maintenance reminder.

 

[jgabbsxx]

I came home from the gym one day to my floor being soaked and realized my tank lost over a 3rd of its water. One of my filter pads dislodged itself causing the water to overflow and go everywhere. I now always triple check that my filter pads are where they are supposed to be.

 

[PharmrJohn]

My old 90g (my last tank, 12 years back) started dying. Fish and corals. Tried fixing it on my own without help. Yeah, that didn't work. Got so frustrated, I rehomed what I could and bowed out of the hobby. Something must have gotten in there that shouldn't be, but never figured it out what.

 

[deome]

Way to drive engagement with such an irresistible poll topic.

Good lord, yes. Last May I discovered the hard way that one should never connect two glass tanks with hard plumbing. I added a 40g breeder to my tank system for a frag tank/refugium, decided to connect it directly to my 40g sump. Got away with drilling the hole for the bulkhead directly into the 40g sump's return chamber (new tank drains into sump return) while everything was running, but when I tried to use hard plumbing to connect the 40g sump bulkhead to the 40g frag tank drain bulkhead, I put too much pressure on the sump bulkhead while trying to screw a union connection, and cracked the glass in my sump. Had to break down the whole 40g sump, cut out all the acrylic panels, buy a new 40g sump, drill a new hole for the bulkhead, and silicone the sump panels back into the new 40g sump tank. After all that, I still went through with connecting the new frag tank to the sump, but this time I used flexible tubing. Would have used silicon tubing but I'm poor, and I'm not replacing anything so long as everything is working. See photo for my DIY hack job.

Please learn from my mistake--use flexible tubing if you're connecting glass tanks with bulkheads, and do everything you can to avoid putting even the smallest pressure on bulkheads.

I've since moved to attaching hard plumbing to the stand/rack/frame, then attaching drains/return lines to hard plumbing with flexible tubing. After May's tank emergency, I built a whole new return line system with dual check valves (required for using 2 pumps feeding 1 return line) and barbed connectors.

Most recent tank emergency: return pump failed after a power outage. Like I said, I'm a poor reefer right now, no money for a new pump. But I do have a ton of little Sicce pumps, plus a Sicce utility pump I normally use for fresh salt water but it also makes a handy backup return in emergencies. I still don't have a new return pump, but my 150g system is running sorta okay because I built those dual check valve connections with barbed fitting ports; the two pumps together provide maybe 600 g/hr to my system, and that's enough to keep things running.

Next time I have money, these pumps will be replaced with two proper return pumps running synchronously.

Other tank emergencies: about every 6-9 months, on average, my Apex controller will go full Amber Heard and refuse to connect to internet for no reason whatsoever. I use controller-required titanium heaters in the sump, so every time a controller breaks it's an emergency (room temperature in my house normally in the 60s F, can get down to 50 F). The store-bought heaters with thermostats just aren't powerful enough to keep my 150g system stable.

I have two apex controllers and every time one breaks, I have to hook everything up to the backup controller and re-program everything in Apex Fusion while I wait for a replacement controller for the broken one. This has happened twice since Aug 1, so my next big expense will be a GHL or Hydros controller system to replace my garbage Apex equipment (instead of buying more coral, which is all I really care about). I would love some kind of standalone controller that doesn't need an internet connection, but that seems to be too big an ask these days.

I could list other tank screwups, but none of them really rise to the level of "emergency."

 

[PharmrJohn]

Way to drive engagement with such an irresistible poll topic.

Good lord, yes. Last May I discovered the hard way that one should never connect two glass tanks with hard plumbing. I added a 40g breeder to my tank system for a frag tank/refugium, decided to connect it directly to my 40g sump. Got away with drilling the hole for the bulkhead directly into the 40g sump's return chamber (new tank drains into sump return) while everything was running, but when I tried to use hard plumbing to connect the 40g sump bulkhead to the 40g frag tank drain bulkhead, I put too much pressure on the sump bulkhead while trying to screw a union connection, and cracked the glass in my sump. Had to break down the whole 40g sump, cut out all the acrylic panels, buy a new 40g sump, drill a new hole for the bulkhead, and silicone the sump panels back into the new 40g sump tank. After all that, I still went through with connecting the new frag tank to the sump, but this time I used flexible tubing. Would have used silicon tubing but I'm poor, and I'm not replacing anything so long as everything is working. See photo for my DIY hack job.

Please learn from my mistake--use flexible tubing if you're connecting glass tanks with bulkheads, and do everything you can to avoid putting even the smallest pressure on bulkheads.

I've since moved to attaching hard plumbing to the stand/rack/frame, then attaching drains/return lines to hard plumbing with flexible tubing. After May's tank emergency, I built a whole new return line system with dual check valves (required for using 2 pumps feeding 1 return line) and barbed connectors.

Most recent tank emergency: return pump failed after a power outage. Like I said, I'm a poor reefer right now, no money for a new pump. But I do have a ton of little Sicce pumps, plus a Sicce utility pump I normally use for fresh salt water but it also makes a handy backup return in emergencies. I still don't have a new return pump, but my 150g system is running sorta okay because I built those dual check valve connections with barbed fitting ports; the two pumps together provide maybe 600 g/hr to my system, and that's enough to keep things running.

Next time I have money, these pumps will be replaced with two proper return pumps running synchronously.

Other tank emergencies: about every 6-9 months, on average, my Apex controller will go full Amber Heard and refuse to connect to internet for no reason whatsoever. I use controller-required titanium heaters in the sump, so every time a controller breaks it's an emergency (room temperature in my house normally in the 60s F, can get down to 50 F). The store-bought heaters with thermostats just aren't powerful enough to keep my 150g system stable.

I have two apex controllers and every time one breaks, I have to hook everything up to the backup controller and re-program everything in Apex Fusion while I wait for a replacement controller for the broken one. This has happened twice since Aug 1, so my next big expense will be a GHL or Hydros controller system to replace my garbage Apex equipment (instead of buying more coral, which is all I really care about). I would love some kind of standalone controller that doesn't need an internet connection, but that seems to be too big an ask these days.

I could list other tank screwups, but none of them really rise to the level of "emergency."

THAT is very good to know. Thanks Dude.

 

[jabberwock]

Catastrophic glass failure. Bottom glass cracked. Thank fully I was home when it happened.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Velvet, once. I had fifteen total fish at the time, including six tangs, and only lost one - a Scopas. I had them all out and in a chloroquine-dosed hospital tank within a few hours of noticing it. Fourteen fish, including five tangs, managed to coexist peacefully in a 75 gallon hospital tank for two months while the DT went fallow.

Hurricane Irma. Here's proof of an unhealthy reef addiction lol. I was in southwest FL, and we were looking at a direct hit. 12+ foot storm surge was predicted at my house. I put my wife and kid on a plane to my in-laws on the other side of the country, and I stayed behind, determined to save our 220 gal tank if I could. I rode the worst of it out at a friend's house several miles inland. When it became clear the predicted storm surge wasn't going to materialize, I got in my truck, at night, with hurricane-force winds still going, drove over downed power lines, trees, through flooded streets, and over an unlit bridge that I had no way to know was undamaged to get back to my house. Stupid.

I still didn't make it back in time to save everything. Power had been out probably 10-12 hours on the tank, and major badness had set in. Half the fish were dead, and the ones that weren't were barely hanging on. These are all the same fish that survived the velvet outbreak two years prior, mind you. The soft corals and LPS looked unnaturally flopped open.

I got a generator going and managed to save seven of the 14 fish, including two of the tangs and the first saltwater fishes I ever bought, an ocellaris pair. The coral mostly survived, unbelievably. Tank was never the same though. There were frequent algae blooms, random episodes of RTN, and I just couldn't get the tank back in balance, no matter what I did. That ultimately led to my first exit/break from the hobby.

Your story of foolishly driving into a storm brought back memories of trying to get to my friend's house while he was out of town. BIG storm. Overflowing river. The town was flooding and he had a KILLER album collection (this was 1990). I went through two barricades and managed to get my vehicle to the top of the hill, above the town. I was about to go down the hill when someone flagged me down. As it turned out, I was too late. The town was underwater (cars on the street were completely covered). Houses were built up but some, not enough. He had one inch of water in his house at the worst of it. The record collection was 0.5 inches above water. Yay!!!! But there was a lot of cleanup, lol!