Help Please!!!!

feickmb12 · Jul 18, 2019

I came home tonight late from work hoping to relax, but heard a crash while putting my stuff away. When I got to my dining room I was greeted by the sight no one wants to see.

My lights had fallen in to my tank knocking the lid in with it. All I could see was my lights flickering in the tank until it shut off all power of the tank and caused the breaker box to switch off. All I could smell was burning electronics and saltwater was everywhere.

After hastily pulling everything out of the tank and turning the switch back on all pumps and other electrical filters turned right back on. (Thank the lord)
My lights however are completely fried and are completely water logged, also my protein skimmer is going crazy trying to skim out all the plaster that fell out of the wall and in to the tank and bubbled over in to the sump.

I will try drying my lights out, but to go days without lights I don't think my corals will react well to not having light for days. I took the sump light I use while I work on my tank and put it on top for the time being but obviously that is not enough.

Does any one know where I should start in repairing this? Money is tight right now since I'm a young teacher and I put any extra money I have back in to my classroom or tank. Is there a way to get either the lights fixed or get reef lights for a 50 gallon for cheap?

My walls are old and apparently the studs are not as sturdy as they were in the early 1920's, so hanging lights will no longer be an option.

What kind of water change should I do? I don't think I should do sweeping water changes as I don't want to shock the water system anymore than it already is, but I am definitely looking for advice on that.

Luckily only one, maybe two, corals was landed on and both are euphlyllia so they just retracted and will hopefully regrow in time.

I am just happy I was home when this happened.

Any help would be extremely welcomed at this point.

feickmb12 · Jul 18, 2019

If it's any help this is a photo of the tank from a couple days ago.

NorCal Reefer · Jul 18, 2019

Sorry to hear about this but luckily you were home. If it was me, I would do a series of large water changes over the next couple of days and add carbon to help remove any impurities.

feickmb12 · Jul 18, 2019

I have a carbon bag in the sump already and a filter sheet in the pre-sump, but I will start doing water changes 5 gallons ever couple of hours as my RODI system can pump it out.

feickmb12 · Jul 18, 2019

Update:
I plugged the one light that did not fall in the water but was shocked by the chain set up and it works!!!!!!!!! So I have at least half the lighting I had before.

They should probably get a look over though and more time to dry out in case of water damage.

ZaneTer · Jul 18, 2019

I think the cheapest option is to get a T5 setup from the hardware store and get two bulbs from your LFS. That should be more than enough light plus it shouldn’t cost you more than $100

Tamberav · Jul 18, 2019

feickmb12 said:
Update:
I plugged the one light that did not fall in the water but was shocked by the chain set up and it works!!!!!!!!! So I have at least half the lighting I had before.

They should probably get a look over though and more time to dry out in case of water damage.

Uhh corrosion is going to be a huge problem...they can't simply 'dry out'.

You need to open them up and wipe out all that salt with some alcohol or distilled. It can't wait either.

It honestly might be a fire hazard. What lights are they?

feickmb12 · Jul 18, 2019

Thank you for the heads up. I completely forgot about the salt element on the electronics.

They are expensive custom lights that my father ordered a couple years ago. They do not have a brand on them but when I opened them up only one had any water in it. The other only had a few salt marks on the light cover as it did not drop in to the water.

I spent a half hour cleaning out the one that fell into the water. The only thing that did not get cleaned out was the fan blades. I took canned air and blew any water out of the underneath. And then took apart all connections that are not shrink wrapped, or sealed together and rinsed them off with RO water. I will plug it in over the weekend, outside and as far away from the house as I can be, to see if that worked.

I really appreciate the heads up, because that could have made this an even bigger loss.

Yes I will be cleaning out the one with all the dust on top. They have been up for awhile so the dust is caked on the top and the fan blades.

feickmb12 · Jul 20, 2019

So over the last few days my roommate and I patched the wall, repainted it, bought and built a shelf, painted it, hung it with way bigger screws, and rehung the lights underneath. The lights were looked over and had no water damage on this set so all was good to go.

Thank you for the help for those of you that reached out.

Time to redecorate and find stuff that looks good above.