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wickedsnowman
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Topic: worst day of my life Posted: February 01 2011 at 8:43pm |
02/01/2011 a date which will live in infamy! Well at least in my house it will.... Let me tell you guys about the day I just had. It all started at 630 this morning I woke up cause I couldnt sleep. I walked past the tank and thought to myself I finally have a good looking reef! I have spent probably around $1000- $1200 in live stock... mostly corals I had beautiful acros, rare zoas, an awesome amount of LPS, some chalice and some a really dope scollys. Well that was until today at least  Around 930 my wife woke up and walked past the tank and noticed the moonlight LEDs were blinking. So she checked it out and it was submerged under water. I had put a strip of LEDs on the bottom of our canopy so we could see all the cool things at night. Well the water level in the tank rose about 2 inches and submerged the strip. Guess what it electrocuted everything... For god know how long it was happening it was zapping everything in the damn water. She rushed downstairs and grabbed me I came up turned on the halides and almost all of my precious corals are dead. Most everything was expelling their slime and had lost all their color.  Well I immediately grabbed the 5 gallons of saltwater I had and did a water change. Then started making more. Then when I turned my pumps back on I could not get my overflow to siphon correctly and ended up flooding my living room.  The crazy thing about all this is my fish are fine. Most of my inverts look OK with the exception of the sand sifting star is dead I think he hasnt moved all day and I cant find my tiger tail cucumber that scares the crap out of me by itself. But really I guess I dont have much left to lose anyway. Oh and my coco worm could not take it anymore and took a dive out of his tube to a certain death. I determined the culprit to be a damn aqualifter pump that I use to maintain a siphon on my overflow. It took a crap and wasnt sucking up anything.. I wish I never would have done an overflow and would have just drilled my stupid tank. I had to drive down to the Aqariaum to get another one cause no LFS around my area carries them. After I got home I did another water change and I plan on doing a few more tomorrow but now I am not sure what to do next. Do I just wait it out and hope for the corals to come back? Should I pull everything that has lost its color out? Im really not sure.... Needless to say I thinking about getting out  I love this hobby and how sweet an awesome reef looks but this day has really changed my perspective. I mean I have done everything that I thought was right. I set up a refug with macro, made a remote DSB, I got an awesome protein skimmer and watch my water params like a hawk. Still it didnt prevent my tank from crashing and all my hard work went right down the drain in a few hours. It really sucks....
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tileman
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 9:06pm |
Wow, so sorry to hear this. It's always in the back of your mind how horrible it would be. Almost everyone has a flood some time during their time in this hobby. But most aren't a combination of flooding and electricution. I run an aqualifter on my overflow and have had a couple of close calls but never major. I do always keep a spare and I have a filter in front of the pump so that small bladder doesn't clog. Did you happen to have the prefilter inline before your pump? If not, you should think about adding it. Again, I'm really sorry to hear about this.
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 9:37pm |
That does suck. If it makes you feel better.... I've had lots of disasters over the years. We all have. It's incredibly frustrating and the reason that over 50% of hobbyist leave the hobby within 2 years. If it wasn't for friends and relationships and great times.... we'd all have left this hobby by now.
Adam ps- have flooded my living room before
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Corey Price
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:03pm |
Yes, disasters happen. I'm sorry to hear about your loss.
Flooding from RO top-off malfunctions are bad as well, but power outages when you're away are devastating. I've experienced both.
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jmw
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:06pm |
I hate my laptop! I walk the same line also, probably same as everyone else. Sorry to hear this. I just installed an auto topoff unit I'm paranoid 24/7, also added an external media reactor, paranoid 48/14!? Wish you luck.
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wickedsnowman
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:18pm |
Yeah I know this type of stuff happens from time to time. Most people I have talked to have some type of horror story. I just thought I had the thought of everything but this was really unexpected to me I never thought if the aqualifter went out it would raise the water level. It didnt lose its siphon just rose the water to the top of the tank it was literally a half inch from over flowing. The flood happened after I tried to turn everything back on and then it wouldnt start a siphon I didnt realize that until there was water pouring everywhere. Your right Adam I have made some great friends in this hobby and I probably will feel better about the situation tomorrow. Actually it will probably be a few weeks  Right now though Im extremely sad and frustrated. To answer your question Brad no I didnt have a prefilter I wasnt even aware of such a thing for the aqualifter. I bought this overflow set up used and it didnt have anything like that attached. Where would I purchase the filter at?
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tileman
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:35pm |
I'll try to find the link where you can buy a couple. I've been running my pump for close to 2 years now, just change the filter every 6 weeks.
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tileman
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:44pm |
Aqua Lifter Filter, CD-18881 $3.19
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ptronsp
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:44pm |
I am so sorry that is terrible! I can only imagine your frustration. Hope things get better. Pam
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PDoug
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 10:55pm |
Sorry to hear about this it sucks when disaster strikes . I hope you don't throw in the towel though . Getting back up is always an option as well
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SGH360
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 11:08pm |
That is just bad luck. Its great that all of your fish survived. Lesson learned have LED higher in canopies, and i thought loosing fishes from time to time was bad. Seeing almost everything gone makes you wonder what thing could have been prevented from causing this type of accidents. Do you have any pics? just curious
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FirePig
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 11:18pm |
The Aquarium carries it. It's on the same shelf as the pump itself.
Btw, this is my first post here. Been reading the forums for the last 8 months or so, but have yet to contribute to the dialog. Figured I'd pipe in here as I had to buy a new aqua lifter pump this week, and saw the filters there next to it. Sorry about your loss Wicked, and hope you decide to stick with it.
Edited by FirePig - February 01 2011 at 11:21pm
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wickedsnowman
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Posted: February 01 2011 at 11:19pm |
I dont have any pics right now maybe I will put up some before and after pics tomorrow. That is going to be super depressing though. Yeah I would have put them higher in the canopy but they looked good right there lol. I never thought about that happening and I am the type of person that thinks and thinks before I do anything. I mean I have heard of peoples overflows losing the siphon but I just figured Mine would be ok. Giving it doesnt take much to keep it going once its started. I assumed the pump was almost like fail safe. Lesson learned for sure. Im really not sure why the surge protector that is was plugged into didnt trip. Thinking about that make me realize it could have been alot worse It could have started a fire or something.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 9:44am |
I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. Thanks for sharing so that others can learn from your experience. It would be a shame for you to let this push you out of the hobby. The loss of coral is not as much as you think. Much of it can come back. I've been able to avoid major losses by the way I set up my tanks. Here is what I would do to eat the major pollution that is happening. Rather than mess with water changes, place a big bunch of Chaeto in the display and turn on the lights longer. If you would like to call me we can talk about other things. I'd be happy to come visit if you like. I can bring the very large bunch of Cheato with me.
Edited by Mark Peterson - February 02 2011 at 9:59am
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Adam Blundell
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 10:25am |
By the way, it may not seem like it now but if this is the worst day of your life.... you have a frickin' fabulous life. Many many many people out there would gladly trade their problems for this.
Adam
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Crazy Tarzan
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 11:36am |
Don't pull the corals out quite yet. I crashed my tank the other day and lost tons of acro frags--but most my lps came back, and even some frags I thought were dead and gone have started to recover--though it's been almost a month now and they are just starting to be recognizable again.
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Was that in there yesterday? Casper--WY windier than ?
Down to a 20, soon to double or nothing
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Sculpin
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 11:40am |
I had something similar to that happen with my parents tank that I take care of except I was in Las Vegas at the time. Luckily we didn't lose everything, just a few awesome coral.
That sounds like hell though and I feel for ya. You'll get through it though and be a little wiser because of this whole experience.
Micah
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Connie
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 2:02pm |
There is good news, most will give you frags to get you back on your way to a beautful reef. When your in Salt Lake let me know and I will gladly give you some...
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I have flying monkeys and I'm not afraid to use them.
180 gallon money pit that I love.....
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Laird
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 2:41pm |
Sorry man
Get set back up and come over and I'll give you a bunch of frags for free. Give me a call if you need any help setting it back up if you decide to.
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Indefinite hiatus from sw aquariums.
Once I have my glorious return I'll set back up the following. 50 Gallon rimless cube. 180 Gallons mixed reef paradise
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wickedsnowman
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Posted: February 02 2011 at 3:29pm |
Thank you everyone for your help and support. I might have to take some of you up on the offer.  Mark I did what you suggested I put two big balls of chaeto in my display. Will this do something different than already having it in my refug? Also I did another 15% water change some things are bleaching out now but there is a few things that actually look a little better. One thing that is happening though is my snails are starting to drop like flies. I have already pulled a bunch of dead guys out but everytime I look at the tank I see another one
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