Worst reefing disasters

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.

Did the wife get any pics of you freaking out??

If so where are they??

Glad to hear everything so far is good, keep us up to date.

No pics ;)

I stayed pretty calm. Pretty much triaging the situation and making sure that I got thing safely under the water. I alomost have it filled all the way back up. I figure in about an hour it should be ready to go. The Alpha 300 I have cominng today will have lots to skim that is for sure.

Mike, glad to hear a is well. Let me know if you need some barrels for water storage.
By the way using tapatalk from work on my iPhone right now!

Glad to hear everything made it through this ordeal. It's never a good thing to walk into your home and smell the fishy water.:(

Rob that would be fantastic. I would like 3 if you have them.

Bob I have checked the corals there were out of water and other than some color loss they are extening their polyps.


The tank is running now!!! Thank god for a fast RO unit. MAkes me want to install a secondary now!!!

Running the Ozone intot he H&S right now!!!! The skimmer is certainly working hard. The Alpha 300 I hope will make even shorter work of this.

It could have been worse, glad all is well and on its way back. I would only add to see what caused your lights to go out(good they did, but no shorts) and were your heaters submerged thru the ordeal?

chuck

I think it was a low voltage power supply that got wet and tripped the breaker. Everything is working well. I have some cable channel that I am going to install to keep everything covered and as high as possible.

:yay::hang_in_there:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike

I think it was a low voltage power supply that got wet and tripped the breaker. Everything is working well. I have some cable channel that I am going to install to keep everything covered and as high as possible.

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Sounds good Ill Pm u after work for details!

That would be great!

Glad to here everything is going well.

Phew! Close call Mike, glad to hear it's not all bad!

On the bright side... tell the wife, "I meant to do that... had to clean the carpet anyhow!" :D

Good to hear everything is doing ok!!

Glad to hear everything is shaking out ok. Is it too early to start giving you nicknames like MC Low Tide? Splash? or Floodmaster G?;)

Lucky that things worked out for you. I am thinking myself about buying like a water alarm to alert me or anyone at home about a leak. Still in the planning stages.

ANdy I like Foodmaster G :D

I might lose a few things but it is too early to tell. The majority of the tank is doing ok considering what just happened. Thanks for all teh support here too. It has been a rough 24 hours. SOme how I did lose a yellow tang :(. I think he got caught under a rock when I was flipping everyting to get the corals under water.

glad to hear everything worked out... amazing how hardy corals can be in some cases. nice that everything is perking up...

I have had a couple of those calls before luckily you were close to home... I had one when I was 1000 miles away and had to talk my wife through the process... not a fun phone call to handle.

WOW, glad to hear everything seems to be ok.

I agree, when I walk into a crazy situation like you did, I don't freak...I just get right to work. The more you worry / freak, the less time you have to fix things.

I also agree - sucks this happened, but it only stays sucky if you don't learn from it.

A lesson learned by you & for the rest of us. Thanks for sharing, good to know these kinds of things are possible.

Glad to hear all is well. Lessons for all. Sorry you had to be the teacher...

Well someone had to do it :)

I am going to lose a few things (lost my pearlberry and my pink lemonade is just hanging on) to this but it could have been a heck of a lot worse. The basement carpet is clean and does not stink so that is a plus.