A keepers reef senses

ficklefins · Jan 24, 2008

How often do you come home and smell something in the air and know right away that something is wrong in your tank before you even approach your tank. Have you ever put your finger into your tank and knew that your heater wasn't working correctly. Worst case scenario you open the door to your house and smell death or hear a noise you are not familiar with.

This happens way too often to me and it makes me feel like I have a Spidey Sense when something is wrong. So what alerts you guys that something is wrong before you approach the tank?

edwing206 · Jan 24, 2008

Whenever I hear a low rumbling noise I know my sump is low on water. But that's about it.

Hypertek99 · Jan 24, 2008

Haha same here i can hear my tank. Can't really smell since i never hadn't anything go wrong and my tank is only a 29gal.

Azurel · Jan 24, 2008

I was just about to doze off when I smelt a hot burning kinda smell and at first thought I left the oven on.....I checked and the oven wasn't on and something told me it was behind the tank. I look behind the tank and my Icecap VHO ballast was shorting out after 8 years. No sooner did I start unplugging things it caught fire so I unplugged everything I could find. I had a bucket of water with about a gallon or so left in it and just dumped it over the back of the stand......It put the fire out, this is after a week and a half of power outages this summer. I am sure the electrical spikes caused it to short.....I had just gotten power back 4 days before that and made it through the 4 days without power and had no losses......Once I only had the MH I lost about 25% of my livestock, of course it could have been they were going south when it happened. I just think it was to much for them and the stress started a minor die off.....I know it was about to much for me them 2 weeks.

I spend to much time on the tank and just know when something isn;t right...

gooch · Jan 24, 2008

When I hear dead silence I get scared.

Cavitating pumps and squishy carpe are another scare. One night just before we moved from our apartment to the house a hose fell of my return pump for my 180. I got to the door and heard the cavitating from outside. NOOOOOOO. Sure enough squishy carpets two days before I moved. Drywall so wet the waterline was two feet up from the floor. And this was the middle of winter so no openig everything up to help dry things out.

But on a positive when we moved out I got 100% of my security deposit back. That was nice.

revhtree · Jan 24, 2008

LOL! Awesome thread!

I have heard, smelled different things, but I agree your sense's are sharp when it comes to your tank. I can pic out slight changes in the humming of a pump and see that its not right or need to be clean.

J. Montgomery · Jan 24, 2008

I can detect problems through the sounds (or lack there of) coming from my tank.

ficklefins · Jan 25, 2008

There is a whole series of senses I got through before getting to my fish room. I normally smell something wrong, then as I approach the stairs I listen for anything going wrong, and lastly when I reach into the tank I can feel if the temp is off or not.

When everything seems to be going well my eyes are the best reef keeping tool I have. From missing fish to deflated corals my eyes are the most common sense I use for my tank.

gflat65 · Jan 26, 2008

I haven't done so much through smell (been lucky so far on electrical items/wiring), but sound is the main sense I use other than visuals. Working in plants with various machines, I get attuned to the pitch and depth of the sounds. If something makes even the slightest pitch change, it's like an alarm. Usually that means something is wrong or about to be wrong. With all of the equipment in my living room, we keep the door to the bedroom closed down most of the way at night, but soudns still come through. The ATO will wake me up just turning the pumps on or off. The skimmers can change operation a little and change pitch, which always gets me a quick jerk out of bed, usually around 3:00AM. I hate when a newly cleaned skimmer decides it's time to do a water change on the tank. The problem being more the fresh water going in than the water change, of course...