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

[smitten with ocean life]

a heater malfunction for me... it was awful. cooked the tank. came out in the morning and went to check on everyone first thing. (as usual) lost hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. but what was worse was that all of us were so attached to the creatures that died. felt like throwing in the towel. but was encouraged to keep going

 

[disaster999]

10+year old tank developed a slow leak. Ordered a new tank and will take a few days to deliver. I drained my tank to prevent it from leaking any further and moved everything in a holding tub thinking they will survive a few days. I setup a pump and chiller for water movement and keeping it cool, but i guess me handing my corals and them being so close together inside the tub created chemical warefare and everything was ticked off. By the time the new tank arrive and me finally able to get my new tank setup, all my fish and half of my corals were dead.

After my tank had time to recover and Ive started to add fish back into my tank, the tank one day just crashed with no warning. The only survivors were my my clam, torch, hammer, toadstool and all my fish survive. There were various other nuisance algae and growth in my tank which I wasnt to happy about so I decided to start over from scratch with new rocks. Tank is looking a lot better now.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Long but simple:

We lived in a second floor apartment (very hold duplex in Pittsburgh).

I purchased a 75. I built a (heavy) stand. It took 3 (big) people to get it up the long narrow steps. The warden said "It will fall through the floor!, No way, my name is on the lease". We had a big fight. She may have cried. The tank sat dry for two years.

We bought a house. Looking at the basement and old paneling and poorly framed closets... I said, that an in-wall aquarium would be "cool". She said "it would be".

She went to work, I demolished two closets, cut the carpet back and cut a hole in the office wall for a pocket door to the "fish room" that I started framing.

She returned home from work. She cried, and said "the ink is not even dry on the first mortgage check yet what have you done to our house".

I said "But you said... " She cried more.

I went to a local reef club meeting and decided to join.

I went to two meetings and volunteered to help a long standing member move their 500, 300 and other tanks to a new home.

Moving day came. I was excited. I did some maintenance as I waited to leave the house to be on time. The warden (well I didn't call her that back then) kissed me goodbye and went to run errands.

I went to the tank move and met all kind of people from the club. There were 20 or so people there. Somewhere about 4 hours in...

My cell phone rings.

"Hello, what's up sweetie"

"There is water all over the basement floor"

"Huh?"

"DID I ***&#&*&#* stutter???? THERE IS $^#))$# WATER ALL OVER THE &#$#($## !!!!!!!"

This mind you was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear... those flip phones sure had good speakers!

"Huh? where is it coming from"

"YOUR ##$#$#$# AQUARIUM.... WHAT DO I DO???"

It was like a record skipped at the disco... silence other than the domestic dispute unfolding on the dance floor.

In a muffled voice, so as not be further embarrassed

"How much water sweetheart??"

"MY &&%%^&& SOCKS ARE SOAKED... STOP ASKING DUMB QUESTIONS AND TELL ME WHAT TO DO"

"Okay.. .well umm I guess just pull the plug"

"WHAT &^%$%%^& PLUG?"

"Umm just pull all of them I guess"

I hear a lot of swearing... I mean a lot and then

"THAT MADE IT WORSE. A LOT WORSE... "

Before I could respond, one of the club members said "Just head home and take care if it"

With a very red face, I ran to the car and drove the 1/2 mile back to my home. I found that I forgot to shut off the 150GPD RO/DI unit and and flooded my basement. When she pulled the plug the backflow from the display dumped another 10 gallons of water on the floor...

Anyway. I cleaned up the mess the best I could and headed back, tail between legs to face my new club friends. I was mortified, but only long enough to hear story after story about floods, angry spouses, insurance claims, etc. This of course did not make the warden any less angry.

I was told that if there was ever another flood that the tank would have to go.

That incident and struggles getting several different standpipes to stay quiet and stable are what led to me designing the Silent and Fail-Safe overflow.

I would be telling a fib if I said that was the only time in the last 20+ years that I have forgot about the RO/DI though...

 

[braaap]

After a very long day at work two weeks ago I dropped an entire container of food in my tank. 20 gal drop off. Nuked. Lost my blue spot jawfish and tons of coral. Even immediately sucking as much as I could out it was too late. Almost instantly things started blowing heads and sliming. It was wild.

But now I get a reset. Still have lots of my best stuff. And also lost lots of high end stuff. Lessons learned. In 20+ years it’s my first ever crash and it was 100% my fault.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thats quite a story man, this is a depressing thread!

 

[steveschuerger]

Does losing 11 corals in a week and half with 9 of them torches count. That just happened this past late April

 

[littlefoxx]

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

Still recovering from a cucumber nuke…

 

[Naekuh]

ICH... killed all my fish, and the Powder Blue responsible, after the PB been fighting it on and off for 3 yrs.


This is how i learned you MUST FALLOW after ICH, or just shut down your system now, and save the heart ache to come, unless your Paul B.

 

[Dburr1014]

All in all, I think I've been lucky.
Yes, I have lost a few pieces of coral here and there, but I never had a complete wipe out of a tank in my 30+ years.
KNOCK ON WOOD!

I imagine it would be pretty hard to get back going after that event.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Still recovering from a cucumber nuke…

I still can't believe that happened to you!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

a heater malfunction for me... it was awful. cooked the tank. came out in the morning and went to check on everyone first thing. (as usual) lost hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. but what was worse was that all of us were so attached to the creatures that died. felt like throwing in the towel. but was encouraged to keep going

One of my biggest fears has always been that my heater will go out when I am out of town.

 

[littlefoxx]

I still can't believe that happened to you!

Yeah I couldnt either. Also cant figure out how he got in the sump… must have timed it for the three days I didnt have filter socks and was waiting for them to come in.

 

[anthonymckay]

One of my biggest fears has always been that my heater will go out when I am out of town.

I've had enough heater issues over the years that I've learned 1. Use a controller that can CUT power to the heater if it gets stuck on and the temp gets above a certain threshold (don't just rely on the heaters built in thermostat). 2. Have redundant heaters. The likelihood of both dying at the same time is pretty minimal. 3. Always have at least one extra backup heater on hand.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I've had enough heater issues over the years that I've learned 1. Use a controller that can CUT power to the heater if it gets stuck on and the temp gets above a certain threshold (don't just rely on the heaters built in thermostat). 2. Have redundant heaters. The likelihood of both dying at the same time is pretty minimal. 3. Always have at least one extra backup heater on hand.

I will keep those suggestions in mind! Thank you!

 

[LPS Bum]

Years ago I had Velvet wipe out every single fish in my 240 FOWLR. I lost 16 fish, many of which had been with me for years, and thousands of dollars.

Currently, I'm fighting some sort of mystery STN in my reef. I've lost 3 corals and counting (including a prized Acanthophyllia) and I have no idea why. All my parameters have remained the same, and I haven't changed lighting, flow, dosing, or added anything.

This hobby can be cruel sometimes.

 

[westendreefer]

We had a 150 reef setup with ATO. Guess what happen when we went on vacation. That’s right it stuck open for 7 days. We got home and our house smelled like dead fish
It was bad enough to get out of hobby for 10 years.

 

[NewbieC123]

I am going through it right now. My starry had cloudy eyes, then died. Then I lost my royal gamma the next day. Noticed what looked like ich or velvet on my clown. Moved everything to QT. I have lost 10
fish in the last 5 days. I have 2 left and they are not looking great.

 

[SueAubu]

I may be in the middle of one, now.... 1 less fish in the tank each day.... Before you say someone is eating them, the big guy is the one looking worst, right now. No spots. No velvet. No other symptoms except one blenny's skin was peeling at the end. Freshwater dip, no flukes. Rescued tank. Literally transplanted, same water and all, been great for 2 weeks. Bam! Maybe I fed them too well....

 

[SueAubu]

a heater malfunction for me... it was awful. cooked the tank. came out in the morning and went to check on everyone first thing. (as usual) lost hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. but what was worse was that all of us were so attached to the creatures that died. felt like throwing in the towel. but was encouraged to keep going

I feel ya with that one! Was moving and put all the fish in buckets with heaters overnight. I didn't readjust the heater from a 120g tank to 5g bucket. Fish stew in the AM. I hate myself for that one...

 

[SueAubu]

thats quite a story man, this is a depressing thread!

But nice to know I'm not alone in my:
Repeated flooding (almost daily experience, in this house)
Unexplained loss of fish
Hairy algae takeover
Leaking seams
Freak loss of coral

Misery loves company and I sure do love you guys!!