Total Disaster

[Anonymous]

This afternoon I got home from a week vacation in Maine. We stayed a couple days longer than expected. What I saw when I returned is something you might have nightmares about.

There was a fire of some kind in the cabinet under the tank. It got hot enough that the tank (65) glass exploded, probably putting the fire out. Or maybe it was the CO2 escaping from the reactor tank, as the regulator etc was pretty much melted off. House sooty, 3 year old tank total loss.
Here's what it looked like: http://www.artgeekmachine.com/newreef/reefpage.html

 

[Reef55]

OMG

That is terrible

I hope you salvaged what you could and are going to set up another tank. Don't let it keep you away from the hobby

 

[jdeets]

Man, I feel for you. That's a terrible thing to come home to. I guess you should be thankful that the fire didn't do any more damage than that.

This reminds me of an experience I had with my old 115G tank. I came home one day and kept smelling a burning smell. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from and finally determined that it was coming from the tank. I opened the stand and discovered that the skimmer on the DAS tank had been going overtime, causing salt water to run down the power cord from the skimmer pump and into the power strip. The power strip was arcing inside and was black on the outside. When I unplugged everything and removed the power strip, salt water actually ran out of the power strip. I think I was very lucky that I discovered it before something more serious happened.

The new tank has power strips mounted up in the top of the cabinet and yes, everything is installed with drip loops now...

Sorry to hear of the events and hope everything goes smoothly as you clean up and recover from this tragedy.

 

[Lefty1]

Giant, huge piles of suck. I am so sorry to hear about this. Let us know what your next step is, so we can help if we can.

RR

 

[Anonymous]

Anybody know if livestock would be covered by homeowners insurance?

 

[princess]

Dan sorry to hear about your loss i know how you feel came home one day from work and opened the front door and smelled a burning smell opened the door of the room where my tank is 110 gallons all over the house when the tank broke it caught all of the powerstrips on fire and shorted out the pumps luckly the water pouring out of the tank also put out the fire

Well here is the worst part of the whole situation my insurance company refused to pay for anything i spoke to my agent before i even bought the tank and he said sure no problem it will be covered well guess what when it came time for the insurance company to pay it took me 4 months to get the money for the equipment and damage to the house wich totalled over $15,000 but the insurance company would not pay for any lost livestock only the damaged equipment.

THE IMPORTANT PART in a way you were lucky there was a fire that is the only reason the insurance company paid my claim i had a attorney review the policy and give me some advice if there was not a fire it would not have been covered unless a tree fell on it or a car hit the tank or something crazy like that happened. stay on the phone to the insurance company and dont take no for a answer review your policy and see what criteria they have for this claim to be paid the fire is what made them have to pay my claim even though they knew there was a fire they did not bring that to my attention they just tried to refuse the claim if i would have accepted thier settlement i would have gotten nothing for my tank if you have any questions i will try to help you out as much as possible i know how horrible of a experience this is. Well on a positive note i have my tank back up again and didnt let this set back keep me out of the hobby

 

[DK]

Dan, you have my deepest sympathy. I hope you can get things going again.
If you ever determine what happened, please share it with the rest of us. The thought of my house burning down due to the reef tanks would not be good for my marriage.

 

[fishpoo]

i always followed your posts and loved your tank, sorry to see such beautiful animals go. It could have been alot worse, glad no one got hurt. This is a reminder to us all to check those connections and make sure there's a drip loop.

 

[fishfarmer]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Lucky no one got hurt or your house catch fire. Hopefully you can pull through this and set up another tank and stay on board.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks everybody. At first I thought that the sump had run dry and a pump had started the fire, but it seems that my make-up water was still ok, and the sump level was fine. It looks like it started in one of the powerstrips. They were all above the sump level, so I'm not sure what happened yet.

I had actually already purchased a 150 and was going to start transferring everything after our vacation...

Circuit breaker never flipped; there was no gfi, altho there will be one on the next tank.

 

[slojmn1]

Dan, So sorry to hear of you loss. I am thankful, as you must be as well, that your house did not get more damaged. Good luck with your insurance company. Glad to hear you plan on using the GFI circuit. Mine has already helped to avert a similar disaster. I had a hose in the cabinet come off the barbed ending and shoot water straight into my powerstrips which are mounted high on the wall of my stand above everything. The GFCI tripped the whole system which shut off the pump that was supplying the water to the line that came undone. No muss no fuss.

 

[SPC]

Dan, sorry to hear about this.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, Dan.

 

[ReefMon]

Dan,

Words cannot express how you must feel, all of us here are truly sorry to hear that this happened to you.

FWIW, on Saturday I woke up to the smell of brining wires. Went down to check on the tanks and stepped into 30 gals of saltwater on the floor. Seems someone (ME) didn't tighten the flanges on the skimmer the night before and the skimmer overflowed right over a powerstrip, and the breaker never tripped!


I think I'll be calling my insurance company tomorrow to see if I can up our coverage to include the tanks.

Glenn R

 

[marc antony]

Sorry to hear of your loss. I had a similar problem 3 weeks ago. It seems that one of my powerheads flipped in the middle of the night and spit out about 40 gallons of salt water onto the floor. Luckily it was on the opposite side from all of my electrical wiring so the only loss was my lighting ballast and 2 VHO lights(all of the livestock viewed it as low tide I guess). My insurance agent came out and that day cut me a check for 3000.00 to cover new carpet and for an new ceiling in the garage which is underneath the room I have my tank in.

 

[MelanieF]

Dan, so sorry to hear of your loss. I can't even imagine how that must have felt. As far as the insurance, they may cover the tank damage as that should be covered under your personal property limit, however, the livestock probably won't be covered as insurance companies rarely cover any pets unless they bite someone and you are liable for damages. As I used to work in insurance I know that they may tell you no. Find out what your deductible is and then determine if it will be worth it to you to make a claim. FYI, anytime you claim from insurance it counts against you until they either cancel you or raise your rates. I know it sucks but trust me, they have good reasons. Feel free to email me with any insurance questions you may have. I don't work for those /*&#s anymore so I will be completely honest w/ you.

 

[ging]

Im so sad for you Dan

With time it will pass and hopefully your next tank will inspire you to create another work of art that you had before.

 

[bowfront]

Dan,
I can't tell you how much this increases my parinoia. Every year my wife and I take about a 10 day vacation in the fall. Although I have auto topoffs and this and that I have never been content with leaving the tank alone even with people watching it. My experience with marine aquariums (about 30 years) tells me that there is any number of things that can wrong while you are away. Fire is definitely the worst posibilty. Be thankfull that your house didn't burn down.
My regrets. BTW, you have been a good contributer to this and other boards. Good luck with the mess......bowfront

 

[pathos]

Dan,
I'm so sorry to hear that. Somehow there's got to be a silver lining in all of this. Godspeed in getting things back to normal.

 

[Anonymous]

Dan, I'm so sorry for your loss

Let me know when you have the 150 going and I'll send you some critters and live sand.

Guy