Learn from our mistakes

[masterswimmer]

Chris, great post, great information and great friends >>> Dave, Ronen, Rich and yourself.

It sounds like there were a lot of circumstances that contributed to the failure. Any one of which could have been disasterous on its own. Combine them and it sounded as if there was no other alternative but to crash.

I hope everything went well today and his tank is up and running smoothly now.

Russ

 

[alrha]

Kudos to the 4 of you that went to help out!

 

[DEEPWATER]

Aaron23 ,I put your link of your thread here ,,,
http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11016


For PPL thinking Zoanthids are just pretty little flowers.Pretty with a puch of toxins .read this post before fragging or cutting your zoos

 

[Tonyscoots84]

smart move ronen.... be careful fraggin zoa's....

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Study and and check the operation of your equipment constantly.

A lot of poorly designed commercial products out there, like overflow without teeth, intake cover falls off during operation just when you left the house, siphon tube that accumulates air.........

Setup a tank with proper ratio of habitants and natural components so that the tank can stay longer even if some EQ failure occurs.

 

[DEEPWATER]

:bump: .lets get this started again ,great info in this tread

 

[TimberTDI]

Don't let your mom and teenage sisters use any type of hair products, especially in mass amounts, anywhere near your tank.

sorry, Tony, but I did learn a lesson albeit at your expense.:lol_large

 

[qy7400]

Great thread.

QT all livestock, clean salt creep (it does burn corals) and check equipment before use. I found out the hard way some heaters can not go vertical.

 

[DEEPWATER]

Dont send corals to Turkey :lol2:

 

[MightyMike]

spend your first couple hundred bucks (and your first year) on books

 

[alrha]

dont decide to plumb your tank in the middle of the night when all harware stores are closed, and there is nobody awake to even come over and help you...
...especially if you've never done any plumbing before...

 

[DEEPWATER]

dont decide to plumb your tank in the middle of the night when all harware stores are closed, and there is nobody awake to even come over and help you...
...especially if you've never done any plumbing before...

:lol2:

 

[meschaefer]

Debateable. I DO NOT use GFCI outlets. It is against electrical code to install a GFCI outlet on any life support appliances.

Then again it is against code to not use a GFI on an outlet within X feet of a water source, for good reason. The reason you can't use a GFI on a life support device is that there is always the possibility of it tripping, and turning of the life support device. In a fish/reef tank, the GFI is the life support device, preventing you from electrocuting yourself on your tank inhabitants.

I don?t think it is debatable, but rather basic electrical safety when mixing water and electricity. As GFI have been known to eventually go bad or trip for no apparent reason, I would recommend using at least two GFIs, and splitting your pumps, power heads and heater between the two. That way, if one trips, you will still have water circulation and heat until you can reset the switch.

For those that do not know, a GFI or GFCI (Ground fault interrupt / ground fault circuit interrupt) protects against stray electrical current. Electricity runs through a circuit from Hot to Neutral, usually out of the outlet (hot), into a device, out the device and back into the outlet (neutral). If there is a difference in current between the hot and neutral plug., i.e. when electrical current is deviated from the circuit, either through your tank or through you, the GFI trips turning off the current.

GFI are very easily wired into existing outlets, and cost about $10 a piece.

 

[TimberTDI]

The GFI will NOT protect you under the following conditions(just a
sample):
-Contacting both the 'line' and 'neutral' conductors.
-Contacting the output of a ballast or transformer (since they
isolate)

copied from http://www.thekrib.com/TankHardware/gfci.html
Steven

 

[masterswimmer]

Matt, based on your assesment, you can now see why it IS debateable. I don't and won't use it on my tanks. Hence the debate :biggrin:

BTW, I don't fault anyone else for using them. As a matter of fact I recommend it to others. I've just seen way too many GFCI's trip for no reason (faulty) to chance using them.

swimmer

 

[alrha]

watching your system die due to a triped GFCI may just lead to a heart attack anyway, so its really a matter of choosing between cardiac arrest and electrocution.
The good news is at the funeral they'll be able to honestly say "he just died for his tank..."

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Mix ANY chemicals thuroughly(of course, outside your tank) before putting them into your tank. Concentrated chemicals burn and usually the healthiest fish will eat them and die. Make sure to pour them at fast moving water slowly.

 

[GQ22]

acclimate your fish properly , ever since i began introducing all my fish in the dark, i have not had any losses. really helps if you have an aggressive fish like a damsel. i normally do for one light cycle.

 

[TimberTDI]

Do you just turn the lights off in the middle of the photo period? Also when you say that you normally do for one light cycle, do you mean keep the lights off for a day?

I ask because I just added a Singapore Angel and he was getting a little abused by the all the fish.

 

[GQ22]

i try to get my fish before my halides come on, so i would just turn off my actinics. if i get my fish after my halides, i would turn off the halides first, and then a half hour later turn off my actinics, so as to ease my corals into darkness. i also use my living room light fixture in this process. i dont think turning off your lights in one shot is a good thing.

If the fish is already in the tank, i dont think it will do any good. i think the darkness just gives the fish time to acclimate in peace without bullies, and i think is just good generally for new fish as this is less shock.