Close call stories!? How, when, and could it help someone else??

[Rhetoric]

This evening I came home to a dead return pump!! I replaced it on the 2 year anniversary because it was getting noisy. That makes this pump 1.5 yrs old.

Sicce 1.0 (20 gallon nano tank)

Equipment failure always feels like a close call... but I cant stop thinking about how we are camping for 3 days over the 4th AND leave for Belieze the following weekend for a week.

Glad to report it was caught in time and no deaths to report!

Anyone else with close call stories?

Picture of my little 20gallon for fun.

 

[Rhetoric]

Wow Rhet! What a close call! I'm glad everything worked out and you caught it!

This is a brilliant post and reminds me of the time when my heater broke in my saltwater mixing container.

There was black "heater" powder at the bottom, and I noticed it halfway through the water change... scared me bad!

Good news I ran a bunch of Carbon and nothing happened!

P.s. I love that little Nano, so much color and densely packed coral! AMAZING!

 

[mfinn]

When I was plumbing my new 240 and got all the pvc done. I filled the tank with freshwater to run a 24 + hour run, to test flow, how quiet everything was ( number 1 on the list), power outage drill, etc.
Got everything going, things sounded good, so I left to do a cheeseburger run ( wife was at work).
I came back and the first thing I noticed was a water drip at the end of my closed loop manifold.
So I got a bucket, turned off all the pumps and found I had not glued the cap on the pvc.
Could have put alot of water on the floor. Got lucky the Reeflo Dart/Snapper pump water pressure didn't push the cap off in the 25 minutes I was gone.

 

[X-37B]

Yesterday my Tunze skimmer stopped working. The pump had seized and the impeller was
shreaded. I was dripping kalk just above the pump. I have since moved it.
It destroyed the barrel of the pump too.
Glad I was home.

 

[EricR]

Livestock close call during tank transfer:
- could never get blenny out of a live rock hole so had to move the rock (twice) with the blenny in it.
- Blenny went for a jump when rock went into new tank but hit the rim and fell back in -- all good and did fine, plus not sure how that could've been avoided.

Water all over the place close calls, I could probably think of a bunch...

Acrylic plank across the top/back of my tank around HOB equipment:
- pull it off to clean it every so often.
- ATO fill tube that's clamped to it --> just toss it behind the tank.
- I'm embarrassed to admit how many times I've left the fill tube hanging behind the tank, turned on the ATO, and walked away.
*at least know enough now to stick it in the ATO container instead

Brute trash can for RODI:
- completely empty it and clean it out maybe once a year (probably less).
- always somehow leave the ball valve open and end up with some water in the garage the first time I run my RODI unit.
*finally taped a big note on the bin because I gave up trying to just not be stupid the next time

 

[Rhetoric]

When I was plumbing my new 240 and got all the pvc done. I filled the tank with freshwater to run a 24 + hour run, to test flow, how quiet everything was ( number 1 on the list), power outage drill, etc.
Got everything going, things sounded good, so I left to do a cheeseburger run ( wife was at work).
I came back and the first thing I noticed was a water drip at the end of my closed loop manifold.
So I got a bucket, turned off all the pumps and found I had not glued the cap on the pvc.
Could have put alot of water on the floor. Got lucky the Reeflo Dart/Snapper pump water pressure didn't push the cap off in the 25 minutes I was gone.

That's a lot of water! 240 gallon... yikes!

 

[Project1004]

You know the thing about this hobby is that there are sooooooo many things that goes wrong that nothing matters… it’s just part of the hobby…. Close calls are always coming. LOL

 

[Privateye]

Back when I did aquarium maintenance I once discovered my client face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. A landscaper and I were able to get her cleaned-up and stable. I called one of her friends to come watch over her after that. I still had to clean the tank....

 

[KrisReef]

Back when I did aquarium maintenance I once discovered my client face-down, unconscious, in a pool of blood. A landscaper and I were able to get her cleaned-up and stable. I called one of her friends to come watch over her after that. I still had to clean the tank....

Did she pay on time after that?

I repiped our second home years ago, and when I put the pressure on the pipes to test them they wouldn't hold pressure, but slowly leaked. I couldn't find the problem but my son heard the air seeping from the fitting I had forgotten to sweat.

It's the little things that fail that start the cascade that topples Rome.

 

[christinna77]

I had a really close call with my skunk tilefish, Sushi.

He jumped and somehow got wedged in the gap between my Noopsyche light bracket and the tank back wall, completely out of the water but still under the lid. I only found him because I heard a splash before falling asleep and decided to check, and found his tail just sticking out of there.

I had to unscrew the bracket and lower it into the tank before Sushi finally dropped back in.

You can see it in this video, this is the exact gap where he got stuck (I 3D printed an insert for it the next day):



Here's my original post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-i-almost-lost-my-tilefish-because-of-my-light-mount.1121348/

 

[KrisReef]

I had a really close call with my skunk tilefish, Sushi.

He jumped and somehow got wedged in the gap between my Noopsyche light bracket and the tank back wall, completely out of the water but still under the lid. I only found him because I heard a splash before falling asleep and decided to check, and found his tail just sticking out of there.

I had to unscrew the bracket and lower it into the tank before Sushi finally dropped back in.

You can see it in this video, this is the exact gap where he got stuck (I 3D printed an insert for it the next day):



Here's my original post: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-i-almost-lost-my-tilefish-because-of-my-light-mount.1121348/

Is that a Sushi exclusion bracket in the video?
Sorry if you explained this with sound? I never use the sound, too many bad sound experiences in past random posts, so I operate in silent mode as a rule.

 

[Privateye]

Did she pay on time after that?

That's a great question lol. It was my final week at that job. So I had to tell her that was the last time I would see her, but I'm not sure how well it registered at the time. She probably paid my boss on time, and she sent me a really nice message afterwards. We stayed in contact for a few months and things started going much better for her. That was nearly 15 years ago though.

 

[christinna77]

Is that a Sushi exclusion bracket in the video?
Sorry if you explained this with sound? I never use the sound, too many bad sound experiences in past random posts, so I operate in silent mode as a rule.

Yeah! The video is showing the 3D printed insert I wedged in the next day, so he wouldn't be able to get stuck there again.

 

[Rhetoric]

Yesterday my Tunze skimmer stopped working. The pump had seized and the impeller was
shreaded. I was dripping kalk just above the pump. I have since moved it.
It destroyed the barrel of the pump too.
Glad I was home

Bad day for equipment! Another glad I was home moment!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I have almost flooded my bathroom, leaving my RODI running. After that incident, I set a reminder on my phone to turn the RODI off after a certain amount of time.

 

[X-37B]

I almost forgot this one.
Live and learn and I know better.
When I added a second skimmer to my current 150 1 year ago I bumped the return line and thought nothing of it.
I woke up the next day with 20g's on the floor and counting.
The hose came off.
I DID NOT have a titainium clamp on the return. If I was not home it would not have turned out well.
Lost about 25g's but the system was fine.
All return lines have clamps now and I hope yours do too.

 

[kizzy89]

I had a heater malfunction that dropped the temp to 68° on a cold winter day (the other half left the window cracked and forgot about it) it would've been way colder had i not had a second smaller heater in the tank. I'm a firm believer in 2 heater systems, hopefully this helps someone else. I did lose torch coral from it but it could have been way worse.

 

[Rhetoric]

I have almost flooded my bathroom, leaving my RODI running. After that incident, I set a reminder on my phone to turn the RODI off after a certain amount of time.

The I left my RODI on is a initiation into reef keeping. Timers or floats.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

The I left my RODI on is a initiation into reef keeping. Timers or floats.

Yep! I did it when I was still somewhat new to the hobby, went and ran a couple of errands, and came back to a small puddle on my bathroom floor. Luckily, it didn't do any damage.