Weekly Discussion - Think Happy Thoughts

[Anonymous]

Weekly Discussion - Think Happy Thoughts

What is the worst disaster that ever happened to your reef tank? Everything died? Catastrophic tank failure? PETA invade your house? Why did it happen and what did you do to make sure it didn't happen again?

About the RDO Weekly Discussion:
This discussion is meant to get at your experience and to share information that is in your head, so don't necessarily treat it as information gathering. State your opinion and, if available, use material, anecdotal or otherwise, that will back up your opinion.
Past weekly discussions will be archived in the archives.
If you have topics that you think would be helpful for the RDO community to discuss, please send me a pm or start your own thread! :mrgreen:

 

[discocarp]

I had a glass heater crack. I lost everything in my 125g mixed reef. At first, about (guesstimate here) 40% of everything was dead on the spot. The resulting fierce recycle annihilated everything that was left. I might have been able to save some stuff, but at the time I had to work 90+ hour weeks and just couldn't manage saving the tank on top of it.

It was 2 years after that before I could bring myself to setup another reef (dec 2003). I'm getting back into it now, and I remember why I loved this hobby so much.

What could I have done? The heater was not on a GFCI. I had most of the tank on a GFCI but ran out of outlets so I just plugged it in thinking I'd add it as soon as I got to it. Big mistake. I only use titanium heaters now. I also keep a lot more RODI on hand now for an emergency. If I had done the massive, frequent, water changes before, I might have saved some of my reef.

So, my advice from my experience:

1) ALWAYS use a GFCI.
2) Never use a glass heater.
3) Keep large amounts of RODI around for an emergency.

Peter

 

[Anonymous]

Broken center brace on my 72....wasted day switching 75-100 lbs or rock and tons of coral over to a new tank :roll: It made me seriously reconsider this entire hobby and I almost became one of those people that gets out before their first year is up.


Now my tank looks better than ever though and I'm getting new corals every week...new lights this week....maybe a clam. So I made up with my tank and I love it again....until the next disaster! :evil:

 

[fishfanatic2]

Humongous ick outbreak that killed all fish except one. Waited two months, tried again, everything died, except one. now I am trying again after 6 months, lets hope this works.

I have more-injected soap into my tank from a cleaning scrunge;it was dedicated for aquarium use so I dont know how it got there. Bubbles were shooting out the top o the skimmer every 30 seconds, one column reahced a foot high.

I f this is a disaster, my tank is battling cyano and hair because of my POS filter/skimmer which I just got rid of-hope its not to late.

Sigh. Where's my depression medication?





(Just kidding) 8O

 

[Anonymous]

heat wave wiped me out.
when i checked the water temp it was above 96F.
...this after i had already thrown some ice in and began mixing fresh water.

what a bad night that was.

 

[Anonymous]

[pause]Louey knocks on wood[/pause]

Louey

 

[reefann]

Never lost all inhabitants at once yet, thank god. My near disaster was letting my hand slip into the socet of my 400watt halide. Glad my elbow was 2" high of the water.
Could have fried my fish and heart
_________________
Mercedes Benz 500

 

[Anonymous]

roommate didn't add top off water while I was on vacation. Lost my mantis, about 12 frags, a leather, and a couple of snails.

I bought a litermeter soon after.

B

 

[klask]

I hade a black sea cucumber that died (after about a year), all fishes (except one Am. occellaris) died within two hours even though I came home, saw all fishes alive but noticed that something was wrong, added an extra skimmer and more carbon. The peak was over same night. All invertebrates survived.

/Klas

 

[Anonymous]

My 50 gallon sprung a major leak. I was lucky that I had another tank up ready for the inhabitants. I got a replacement for the 50.

 

[EmilyB]

I have had a million floods, but no loss of life thank God. I guess the closest disaster was a 33g that "burst". Had to turn all the power off and couldn't find a flashlight for a fair bit... got them all retrieved tho. 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm a Californian, so the browout that occurred a couple years ago was a real PITA. The power to the tank was out for about 12 hours or so.

 

[Mogo]

I stuffed some filter floss in my external overflow to trap some suspended solids after scraping algae off the glass. I forgot to take it out after the usual couple hours, and then went out for New Years eve. After getting home very late (or early the next morning) I heard my pump making a strange sound. The tank was overflowing because the filter floss had completely clogged. The pump was pumping RO water into the tank from the auto top-off in the sump. Probably 75 gal of water on my floor at least. It took me until noon New Years Day to clean up the mess and make a whole new batch of saltwater. Then I finally got to bed and missed all the football games. No inhabitants as the tank was new and cycling. Just a whackload of hungover grief.

 

[Anonymous]

One of my bulbs went out on one end of my compact. I don't have the money to replace it right now. However I noticed my Bigeye loves it this way and so do some of my other critters. I am looking into lighting just one side of my 100 gallon with a MH pendant.