Sharing a small disaster story, and hoping others can chime in on some ideas to minimize further losses as my insurance claim is still on going. So far insurance has been good to work with.
So heres the story. Work takes me away from home frequently. Last year for 9 months, this year for 3. The previous year, everything went great and there were not any significant issues. For the most part, I've automated as much as I can with the tank and for anything else, luckily my wife, though not into the hobby, has helped take care of the tank down to refilling and mixing saltwater for the automatic water change system all while managing a job and 2 kids. There has been a language barrier between us with aquarium things, for example she calls float values "bouy's" which has been a learning curve for me when ever I'm on a call trouble shooting issues that pop up but we manage.
Details of my tank can be found in my build thread, but in short its a Red Sea Reefer 750xl. I moved the sump to the basement, and have an additional 20gallon and 90 gallon plumbed into the system. Most of it is automated, monitored remotely through the Apex dashboard, and usually I see issues before my wife does. Except this time...
Unfortunately, this time I was away we had a big issue. It all started with that nasty algae byropsis, as it snuck in somehow. I think it was hiding out in the frag tank or refugium - I've battled it in the past and killed it off, yet this time it attacked back while I was on the other side of the world, took hold in my display tank and grew out of control. This escalated quickly because it invited its friend the hair algae , growing in massive clumps which then started to break off constantly due to the MP40s random wave cycles (side note, another word my wife taught me, "moss", used in a sentence "why are there moss balls floating in the tank" ) , with big pieces clogging the overflow grates, requiring it to be manually removed. About a week ago, and 1 week before I came home from my trip, I woke up on the otherside of the world to texts from the wife saying the tank flooded. Enough algae broke off overnight, clogged the drain, causing the tank to over flow onto the living room floors, then flood down into the basement. As the sump drained, the auto top off system kept this flood going all through the night. My wife found some water on the upstairs floor and initially wanted to blame the fish for splashing, only to later find a small flood in the basement. Despite the live power cord going across the water, no one was zapped.
Since the tank is level and water was found all around it, my best guess is water overflowed on all sides of the tank. Dried salt residue helps confirm this hypothesis. Water hit the upstairs electrical pretty bad, frying everything and tripped the breaker. All electronics controlling the lights upstairs got fried, including 4 G4 pro's, 3 mp40's, gyre, 2 battery backups, power strips etc. Once we turned the breaker back on, anything that was still getting power started to smell like burning plastic, nothing powered back on. Not a good sign so off they all went. Pretty lucky nothing sparked into a fire. At this point, towels were not going to fix this mess, and the insurance company was called.
Water drains funny though, typically following the path of least resistance, as while these electronics all upstairs got soaked, in the basement fish room, the ones mounted to a wall directly below the upstairs electronics were dry, no issues. My floors must be slightly slanted as it all flowed to the other side of the tank and into the basement, pouring onto a cabinet I had moved away and elevated off the floor, with a Reefbot and Trident - both which are now in water tester heaven. For what was under the tank, it didnt take much to fry things. Most came in through the opening in the back hitting the outlet on the wall and splashing onto to things. I think I'll look into an outdoor dry box to cover it up. Likely wont solve things reoccuring, but could help keep things drier a bit longer.
With the algae take over, most of the SPS got choked out and bleached already, sad to see go after 3+ years of growth, some which moved from another tank. The fish are fine, many of the other corals seem to be ok even without lights, and one week of no light has kept the algae under control. Now that I'm back home I'll get some backup lights on the tank until insurance gets things settled and I can replace the damaged electronics. Like kind or quality means that since G4's are no longer made I'll have to find a replacement, likely G6's. While an upgrade seems great, I'd rather just have come home to a healthy tank with everything working, not spend time repairing and reprograming everything.
The insurance company has been easy to work with so far. The water mitigation team dried the floors out, and they were able to work around the tank and did not have to move it. I had them take moisture readings on the stand as I was worried it might have gotten water logged. Pretty sure the red sea reefer stands are some sort of fiber board. No issues seem to be there with the stand. No moisture present, stand looks fine, tanks still level which means the floor and or stand didn't warp. Dry out process was interesting. Looks like something out of a sci fi movie.
The biggest issue is this week we will have a floor inspector come through, and I fear if the floors may have to be re sanded and refinished. Since the floor damage went into a few different rooms, and the wood floor is continuous throughout with no breaks (well, the only break is right in the middle of where the damage was done), this ultimately might require everything to be redone. No small task and this could end up requiring the tank to get taken down.
Has anyone dealt with something like this, and what did you do to minimize loss of tank inhabitants? If the tanks getting moved, everything will have to come out. Insurance companies usually pay to move and store personal belongings and additional living expenses. Too bad there are no fish hotels like there are for dogs and cats. I will be searching for an aquarium company to come in and help with this one. If you know any in the Chicago area, would greatly appreciate the recommendation.
Not sure what else I can design into the system to help prevent this from happening again. Possibly some sort of overflow sensors on the floor that go off like a fire alarm? Also, Is there a solenoid I can put into my RODI system that if overflow sensors go off it disables the auto top off system?
Thanks for reading about my loss, appreciate comments and recommendations.
So heres the story. Work takes me away from home frequently. Last year for 9 months, this year for 3. The previous year, everything went great and there were not any significant issues. For the most part, I've automated as much as I can with the tank and for anything else, luckily my wife, though not into the hobby, has helped take care of the tank down to refilling and mixing saltwater for the automatic water change system all while managing a job and 2 kids. There has been a language barrier between us with aquarium things, for example she calls float values "bouy's" which has been a learning curve for me when ever I'm on a call trouble shooting issues that pop up but we manage.
Details of my tank can be found in my build thread, but in short its a Red Sea Reefer 750xl. I moved the sump to the basement, and have an additional 20gallon and 90 gallon plumbed into the system. Most of it is automated, monitored remotely through the Apex dashboard, and usually I see issues before my wife does. Except this time...
Unfortunately, this time I was away we had a big issue. It all started with that nasty algae byropsis, as it snuck in somehow. I think it was hiding out in the frag tank or refugium - I've battled it in the past and killed it off, yet this time it attacked back while I was on the other side of the world, took hold in my display tank and grew out of control. This escalated quickly because it invited its friend the hair algae , growing in massive clumps which then started to break off constantly due to the MP40s random wave cycles (side note, another word my wife taught me, "moss", used in a sentence "why are there moss balls floating in the tank" ) , with big pieces clogging the overflow grates, requiring it to be manually removed. About a week ago, and 1 week before I came home from my trip, I woke up on the otherside of the world to texts from the wife saying the tank flooded. Enough algae broke off overnight, clogged the drain, causing the tank to over flow onto the living room floors, then flood down into the basement. As the sump drained, the auto top off system kept this flood going all through the night. My wife found some water on the upstairs floor and initially wanted to blame the fish for splashing, only to later find a small flood in the basement. Despite the live power cord going across the water, no one was zapped.
Since the tank is level and water was found all around it, my best guess is water overflowed on all sides of the tank. Dried salt residue helps confirm this hypothesis. Water hit the upstairs electrical pretty bad, frying everything and tripped the breaker. All electronics controlling the lights upstairs got fried, including 4 G4 pro's, 3 mp40's, gyre, 2 battery backups, power strips etc. Once we turned the breaker back on, anything that was still getting power started to smell like burning plastic, nothing powered back on. Not a good sign so off they all went. Pretty lucky nothing sparked into a fire. At this point, towels were not going to fix this mess, and the insurance company was called.
Water drains funny though, typically following the path of least resistance, as while these electronics all upstairs got soaked, in the basement fish room, the ones mounted to a wall directly below the upstairs electronics were dry, no issues. My floors must be slightly slanted as it all flowed to the other side of the tank and into the basement, pouring onto a cabinet I had moved away and elevated off the floor, with a Reefbot and Trident - both which are now in water tester heaven. For what was under the tank, it didnt take much to fry things. Most came in through the opening in the back hitting the outlet on the wall and splashing onto to things. I think I'll look into an outdoor dry box to cover it up. Likely wont solve things reoccuring, but could help keep things drier a bit longer.
With the algae take over, most of the SPS got choked out and bleached already, sad to see go after 3+ years of growth, some which moved from another tank. The fish are fine, many of the other corals seem to be ok even without lights, and one week of no light has kept the algae under control. Now that I'm back home I'll get some backup lights on the tank until insurance gets things settled and I can replace the damaged electronics. Like kind or quality means that since G4's are no longer made I'll have to find a replacement, likely G6's. While an upgrade seems great, I'd rather just have come home to a healthy tank with everything working, not spend time repairing and reprograming everything.
The insurance company has been easy to work with so far. The water mitigation team dried the floors out, and they were able to work around the tank and did not have to move it. I had them take moisture readings on the stand as I was worried it might have gotten water logged. Pretty sure the red sea reefer stands are some sort of fiber board. No issues seem to be there with the stand. No moisture present, stand looks fine, tanks still level which means the floor and or stand didn't warp. Dry out process was interesting. Looks like something out of a sci fi movie.
The biggest issue is this week we will have a floor inspector come through, and I fear if the floors may have to be re sanded and refinished. Since the floor damage went into a few different rooms, and the wood floor is continuous throughout with no breaks (well, the only break is right in the middle of where the damage was done), this ultimately might require everything to be redone. No small task and this could end up requiring the tank to get taken down.
Has anyone dealt with something like this, and what did you do to minimize loss of tank inhabitants? If the tanks getting moved, everything will have to come out. Insurance companies usually pay to move and store personal belongings and additional living expenses. Too bad there are no fish hotels like there are for dogs and cats. I will be searching for an aquarium company to come in and help with this one. If you know any in the Chicago area, would greatly appreciate the recommendation.
Not sure what else I can design into the system to help prevent this from happening again. Possibly some sort of overflow sensors on the floor that go off like a fire alarm? Also, Is there a solenoid I can put into my RODI system that if overflow sensors go off it disables the auto top off system?
Thanks for reading about my loss, appreciate comments and recommendations.
