Mike
10-07-2009, 12:45 PM
LAst night I got a call from my wife saying when she went down to the basement it smelled really fishy and the carpet was wet. She then said that about 2/3 of my aquarium was empty!!! As you can imagine I hurried home to assess the damage. When I walked into the basement I knew it would now be good!
SO I sloshed across the wet carpet into the room where the tank is to find that as she said about 2/3 of the tank was empty! All I could think is it blew a seam!! As I inspected it I found the cause quickly!!! A hose on a closed loop had blown off and emptied the tank down to the intake. On one hand I was relieved but still upset!
Some ofthe corals were above the water line so they were quicly put under the remianing water. A heater was install el pronto. I took all the water I had on hand and started making salt water!! By 4a.m I had the tank full enough to restart the primary loop. so I was able to get a bit of sleep. At 7am I transfered another 35 gallons from the R/O holding tank to the mixing barrel, added salt and went to bed!!
The good thing is some things have lost some color but so far no casualties! I think that one thing in my favor was the fact that something must have tripped the GFI where most of the lights are plugged in. That kept the corals from baking under halides while they were above the water line. I also got lucky that my wife was home and called me.
Things that will be changed: HArd plumbing that closed loop!!! Adding water stroage capacity!! I will have at least 150 gallons of R/o on hand now because of this.
I did have 5 buckets of brightwell salt on hand and that was a major plus! Needless to say this is a practice I will continue!!!
I have the carpet almost dried out but I am going to take the extractor I rented (it also cleans carpet) and clean it well before I take it back. I also reneted an idustial carpet drier to dry things out. HAve teh dehumidifier running also ;)
It sucks but I am not letting it get me down :D. A mistake is never a bad thing if you learn something from it and I learned a lot.
SO I sloshed across the wet carpet into the room where the tank is to find that as she said about 2/3 of the tank was empty! All I could think is it blew a seam!! As I inspected it I found the cause quickly!!! A hose on a closed loop had blown off and emptied the tank down to the intake. On one hand I was relieved but still upset!
Some ofthe corals were above the water line so they were quicly put under the remianing water. A heater was install el pronto. I took all the water I had on hand and started making salt water!! By 4a.m I had the tank full enough to restart the primary loop. so I was able to get a bit of sleep. At 7am I transfered another 35 gallons from the R/O holding tank to the mixing barrel, added salt and went to bed!!
The good thing is some things have lost some color but so far no casualties! I think that one thing in my favor was the fact that something must have tripped the GFI where most of the lights are plugged in. That kept the corals from baking under halides while they were above the water line. I also got lucky that my wife was home and called me.
Things that will be changed: HArd plumbing that closed loop!!! Adding water stroage capacity!! I will have at least 150 gallons of R/o on hand now because of this.
I did have 5 buckets of brightwell salt on hand and that was a major plus! Needless to say this is a practice I will continue!!!
I have the carpet almost dried out but I am going to take the extractor I rented (it also cleans carpet) and clean it well before I take it back. I also reneted an idustial carpet drier to dry things out. HAve teh dehumidifier running also ;)
It sucks but I am not letting it get me down :D. A mistake is never a bad thing if you learn something from it and I learned a lot.