Reefing Disaster, have you ever had a disaster happen with your tank?

[Gumbies R Us]

We all hope that we will never have anything bad happen to our tanks, but sometimes disaster can strike out of nowhere. I am wondering if you have ever had a reefing disaster before, and if so, how did you overcome it. Photo Credit: @gws3

 

[Jekyl]

GSP..... Just say no.

 

[shakacuz]

does breaking up with your GF and having to break down your tank in a rush count? because if so....

 

[ca1ore]

I’m going to suggest an odd analogy (but it’s the way my brain works). Neighbor of mine worked for the FBI and he would always tell me that in the commission of a major crime the perp might have thought of almost everything to avoid getting caught, but would never be able to account for everything. Same for me and my tanks. Lots of sensors and redundancy, but …..

Jan 2009 while on vacation, the boiler in my house failed. House didn’t freeze, but ambient got into the mid 30s. Heaters on the tank were sized to keep the tank as much as 20 degrees above ambient, but not 40. Had a backup heater but, again, not enough to really matter. Tank temp was around 55 when I got home. All corals and most fish were dead. The only animal unfazed was my magnifica anemone; ironic as they are generally reputed to be quite sensitive.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

does breaking up with your GF and having to break down your tank in a rush count? because if so....

I hate that happened to you!

 

[Jimbo662]

Beginning of Feb...just before lights out on the tank a power flicker tripped GFCI outlet that my powerheads were plugged into. All other equipment came back on so I didn't think anything of it. Got home the next afternoon to a cloudy tank. File fish was the sole survivor and never showed any signs of distress. Lost about half my corals. Some of the survivors were irritated for weeks while a couple, just like the file fish never missed a beat. I had low flow going through the sump so I'm assuming it was lack of oxygen. The one positive is I'd been battling cyano for months. That evening I noticed that the sand had gone from the usual pink/purple color it had been to a light brown. Over the next 4 days I did 4 water changes. To this day not a sign of the cyano at all.

 

[anthonymckay]

Had a Red Sea tank with a seam failure, but caught it before it became a disaster. But... after I got my new waterbox 230.6 and moved everything into that, I had a power outage about 2 months after starting up the new tank that left power off all night and the tank temp dropped to ~60F. Lost some fish. My largest SPS colonies RTN'd over the next 24 hours, and the rest of the stuff that didn't die completely bleached out over the next few days. Took months for many of the SPS frags to recover.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I have had three disasters. First was my 29G back in 95. My wife left the slider open in the dead of winter (when we were not there) and killed everything (except one cleaner shrimp) in the tank. In 2009, my 75G started leaking. Had to do an upgrade on the fly (everything survived). In about 2012, something happened (not sure what) that killed almost everything in my 90G. I'm just getting back into the game. Reboot this winter.

 

[andy28115]

I was running a fluval 13.5. Somehow when I added my sand a big clump of undissolved salt got trapped under it. A month later salinity went through the roof out of nowhere. Lost a helfriechi firefish, two black ice clowns and, a Yasha goby and red pistol shrimp. I’m guessing the shrimp unearthed it when digging. All I saw was a little bit left over.

 

[legionofdoon]

Came home from vacation last year, opened the door and got hit with the stench of eggs, go to the tank and my return pump is off. Dead fuge dead coral and stressed out fish. My house sitter sitting on my couch not a care in the world. Never noticed it. Then notice my daughter's parakeets aren't making any noise in the other room. Found them dead with no food or water. The sitter was staying at our house the whole time.

 

[Northern Flicker]

Getting into reefing was a disaster for my monthly budget

 

[RocketEngineer]

Yup. DIY lights. Kept the system going for a while after that but it was never the same. Eventually broke it down and sold it.

 

[felda001]

I've only had one disaster over the years. It happened about 3-4 months ago. I was getting premixed salt water as I was getting my first tank after a long hiatus set up. 8 gallon nano that was getting to the end of cycling. No livestock yet. Bought 5 gallons of water and a Xenia frag. Instead of salt they gave me RO water. And I used the whole thing for a water change. The Xenia didn't make it and I restarted the cycle. I will say the store stepped up to make it right. They gave me a bottle of cycling bacteria, a starter pod culture, new water and, a couple of frags when the tank was ready to go again. I considered it a cheap lesson given that if that happened now it would destroy a lot more work.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Came home from vacation last year, opened the door and got hit with the stench of eggs, go to the tank and my return pump is off. Dead fuge dead coral and stressed out fish. My house sitter sitting on my couch not a care in the world. Never noticed it. Then notice my daughter's parakeets aren't making any noise in the other room. Found them dead with no food or water. The sitter was staying at our house the whole time.

Dude. Wow. I don't get angry very often (hardly at all anymore, as I won't let myself go there) but this would have been an exception to the rule.

 

[Alexraptor]

I'm one of those fortunate people that has access to his own fish-room.

Unfortunately for me, the radiator in the room failed one day and cooked the room up to 50 degree celsius, while the door was closed. Everything died in my reef, except my brain (which hung on for dear life) and my protopalys.

I don't have any photos of the immediate aftermath, but this one was taken a few months after. All the distinct branch-like structures on the rock was live montipora, I had A LOT of it... all dead. And in the corner is what was left of the brain, before it had a second bout of bleaching a few months later, before it finally started on the road to recovery.

Second disaster was back in 2020, when my 25g reef got overrun with cotton candy algae. Algaecide wouldn't kill it (i literally emptied the entire botle in the tank in desperation), I tried a sea hare which worked just fine until it was killed by predatory fulgida worms, in the end a 1.5-month blackout was my only recourse to eliminate every trace of it from the tank, including the most stubborn hold-outs. The aftermath was not a pretty sight:

 

[anthonymckay]

Came home from vacation last year, opened the door and got hit with the stench of eggs, go to the tank and my return pump is off. Dead fuge dead coral and stressed out fish. My house sitter sitting on my couch not a care in the world. Never noticed it. Then notice my daughter's parakeets aren't making any noise in the other room. Found them dead with no food or water. The sitter was staying at our house the whole time.

What did the house sitter have to say regarding the dead parakeets? How did they not notice any of this, especially the smell of the aquarium? What did they actually do the whole time?? what the heck

 

[legionofdoon]

Dude. Wow. I don't get angry very often (hardly at all anymore, as I won't let myself go there) but this would have been an exception to the rule.

Oh I was pretty ticked but I blamed myself because I knew deep down she wasn't trustworthy enough to watch the tank. The parakeets there was no excuse, my daughter's still won't talk to her.

 

[legionofdoon]

What did the house sitter have to say regarding the dead parakeets? How did they not notice any of this, especially the smell of the aquarium? What did they actually do the whole time?? what the heck

She literally said "I was wondering why they were so quiet". She tried making some excuse that they were fine the day before but there was absolutely no food in the cups nor water. I can't explain why she didn't notice the tank it was right in front of the couch. As for what she did, basically watched my TV and eat my food. She's an inlaw. My daughter's still won't talk to her. At least my dog was alive lol.

 

[acro.jordan]

Had someone with “experience” work on one of my systems over the weekend , while nobody was there, ended up showing up on Monday to a 1000gal system completely dry, all water drained all fish and corals dead.

The guy was there to do a simple water change, open one valve, let the water drain, close the valve. Then send freshly mixed water to the system

He managed to do all that… but never fully closed the drain valve. Smh

 

[Doctorgori]

• power outages
• kalk overdose,
• peroxide over dose
• , unexplained mass invert die off,
• unexplained mass fish die off,
• heater failure,
• another heater failure,
• light falling into tank
• ATO over run
• Main pump fail with UV sterilizer over heat/melt
• tank explosion (front glass failure)

I’ll come back as I think of more