Reef 911: Tank Emergencies and Who Do You Call?

[CasaReefer]

How could you possibly know that!? You must be a fountain of useless information. And to answer your question, I've never met any of them. My wife would kill me.

Cause I Googled it... Might wanna come see ya sometime and was wondering what there was to do ....

 

[Auquanut]

Cause I Googled it... Might wanna come see ya sometime and was wondering what there was to do ....

Come on down! But yeah... The pageant is pretty much it.

 

[K7BMG]

Yes I chose R2R but in reality its everything Ihave at my disposal at that moment.
From my LFS ( I have a good one with solid advice)
From the internet be it R2R, google or other reef related sites.

 

[K7BMG]

Me, Myself, and I and Reef2Reef!!! We work as a team... LOL

Last emergency was me waking up to a tank that I could barely make out the rock work.. Wife got mad at me and dumped 2 years worth of New Life spectrum pellets in the tank. The living room smelled of ammonia. Bacterial bloom from h*ll ... She had no idea what damage she had done.
I was very angry to say the least. On top of that my 65 gallon Ro/DI reservoir only had 10 gallons left in it. And we all know how long it takes to make water. Added enough prime to neutralize the ammonia first thing. And then I rushed to Walmart and bought 50 gallons of RO water. Not the RO/DI I usually use, but better than nothing.. Looked like I was planning for a nuclear apocalypse. I got some very strange looks as I filled my basket with every gallon jug they had. People were staring as I was checking out. The cashier didn't know what to think.. Rushed back home, made up 60 gallons of fresh SW. Mixed it about an hour until clear. Not ideal, but didn't have a choice. Temp matched and Specific gravity. Siphoned out every bit of food I could see. Performed a 100% WC and added 2 big bottles of Bio Spira. Enough to treat 140 gallons I believe. Ammonia tested 4ppm Prior to the water change. Of course this was total ammonia. NH3 + NH4.
I found a nifty little calculator online to figure out how much free ammonia I likely had.
Within 24 hours the Bio Spira was able to process all of it. I love Bio Spira!! I lost my Royal Gramma , but all other livestock, survived amazingly... This is what the tank looked like. And this is how it usually looks.

All I can say is wow.
That is so wrong on so many levels. But lets leave it at that, no need to overtake the thread.

 

[Borg]

I find crying in a fetal position really helps the situation .

 

[Dj City]

Biggest emergency I've ever had...

Complete Tank Blowout!

I was having dinner and the seams gave out on a 55gal tank. There was NO WARNING. one moment I had a beautiful aquarium and the next moment I had 55 gallons of water, sand and fish all over my living room floor and very soon after, my basement floor.
Living room and basement were carpeted.
As far as the tank and it's inhabitants... Total Loss.

I called Serv Pro.

As for the poll, It really needs the option to cast a multi vote.
I would vote Me myself and I along with R2R

 

[Reefin2much]

I suck it up and deal with it. For what i consider an emergency you dont have time to post, call, or even look stuff up. I own a Maintenance company that offers 24 hr emergency services. I have a modular expandable tank system ready to go and can load 100 gal of mixed water in my truck in 15 min. And i have had to do so twice. One was a 300g reef with broken front glass. I managed to save over half of the customers livestock and consider that pretty good for a 1am call and 25 min drive.