Was it really a "Tank Crash" and how did it happen? What does that mean?

[siggy]

I always thought that a true crash was a Biological event, a VOODOO occurrence or a chain of occurrences that upset the natural norm and cannot be corrected unless your a Marine biologist.
A broken heater will cook your fish, a kalk flood will poison your fish, so is Crash just a generalization?

Thats a bummer @Hemmdog

 

[ReefGeezer]

My old 75 came close several years ago. I was using a swing arm hydrometer... nuff said. I caught my mistake by accident. I ran into a to a "too good to pass up" deal on a refractometer. When I took my new toy home and tried it out, it read 1.017! I didn't have any sensitive stuff at the time so I dodged a bullet. The corals I have today certainly would have bleached.

 

[brandon429]

hey this is a neat discussion. I'm seeing a dividing line develop somewhere along these lines:

types of crashes that involve physical disturbance and overwhelming current filtration bac such that an ammonia event occurs, and then crashes that are colonial organism loss not involving ammonia/disturbance issues


it really takes something significant to cause the physical disturbance type crash or recycle


so a pretty tank of sps that goes all white has crashed, but may not ever spike to show ammonia if it was pathogenic etiology RTN/STN

transferring that tank incorrectly between homes will cause the same outcome, but for different reasons. We know how to absolutely stop 50% of the crashes that occur in reefing.

 

[Breadman03]

I always thought that a true crash was a Biological event, a VOODOO occurrence or a chain of occurrences that upset the natural norm and cannot be corrected unless your a Marine biologist.
A broken heater will cook your fish, a kalk flood will poison your fish, so is Crash just a generalization?

Thats a bummer @Hemmdog

If your brakes fail, or a tire blows out, or you didn't see a car in your mirror, was is a crash?

I'd say that just like a car, the more experienced and prepared a person is, the more quickly they can identify and respond to an emergency and reduce the amount of damage that occurs.

 

[WVNed]

I always thought that a true crash was a Biological event, a VOODOO occurrence or a chain of occurrences that upset the natural norm and cannot be corrected unless your a Marine biologist.
A broken heater will cook your fish, a kalk flood will poison your fish, so is Crash just a generalization?

Thats a bummer @Hemmdog

In my experience something happens that kills some stuff but you don't notice, are at work or asleep. Like the copper from a wire your puppy chewed and energized your sump. Then the dead stuff starts making ammonia and it cascades quickly. The water goes white and smells. If you catch it you can save some of the hardier stuff buy putting it into new water as fast as you can. I have never had everything die yet. I have always managed to save a few things through luck and not getting there too late..

If you have something like this happen my advice is to dechlorinate tap water and make some NSW as fast as you can and do a 100% water change. Test for ammonia and be ready to do more of them. Forget about stability, the water in the tank is poisonous and you have to get it out to minimize the damage. You also have to find what caused it and remedy it at the same time.

 

[Hermie]

the worst I've had is a dying sinularia nuking my QT tank

 

[siggy]

I'd say that just like a car, the more experienced and prepared a person is, the more quickly they can identify and respond to an emergency and reduce the amount of damage that occurs.

If you have something like this happen my advice is to dechlorinate tap water and make some NSW as fast as you can and do a 100% water change. Test for ammonia and be ready to do more of them. Forget about stability, the water in the tank is poisonous and you have to get it out to minimize the damage. You also have to find what caused it and remedy it at the same time.

ypes of crashes that involve physical disturbance and overwhelming current filtration bac such that an ammonia event occurs, and then crashes that are colonial organism loss not involving ammonia/disturbance issues

That is my take. Man made screw ups are just that and can lead to a biological indecent, but a true crash is a build up of organics or toxins that plume due to environmental conditions (voodoo)...sort of the perfect storm thing. Of course Fresh Salt Water in another enclosure will mitigate the original treat but the original tank is now trashed and would have to start over.
I screw up more than most and I own it, to say my tank crashed it to place blame elsware. This is of course MHO

 

[DarthSimon]

Great thread!! In my 13 years of reefing, I have had a few times were I had a disease wipe out almost all of my fish. Was god awful. Lost many prized fish that I had for years.

 

[brandon429]

I just wanted to jinx the thread, and say everyone is fairly agreeing its like we're in a pub and mainly in agreement

 

[Hemmdog]

I just wanted to jinx the thread, and say everyone is fairly agreeing its like we're in a pub and mainly in agreement

It’s nice. We should do this more often.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I measure a tank crash in $$$$

If you have an established tank and next day have to spend hundreds to thousands to recover, that would be a crash.

 

[RobMcC]

Sadly, my tank crashed just this week. I live right on the Northern California coast and it is pretty much 60F all year round. I’ve lived here for 3.5 years and it has only been above 75F on one day and only above 70F on a handful of days. I went to the east coast for work for 3 days this week and of course the Cali coast reached 90F each of those days! Came back to a bleached tank yesterday

Lost many very nice acros, trachys and scolys I’d had for years.... gutted.

About to post in a sub forum for advice on how to size a cooling fan for a 250G tank... I’ll probably never need it for years but can’t take the chance.

 

[MombasaLionfish]

IMO a tank crash is where there is water leaking out of the tank weather the seal broke on your ten gallon and fish are lying on the sandbed in little puddles or a rock came tumbling down breaking your 90 gallon sending shattered glass and water all over your carpet. I have introduced ich into my system twice and lost several fish due to that but I did not consider it a tank crash.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Loss and crash Do differ and are based on cause as well as ability to recover and not recover.
Both are often confused but have to be dealt with timely to provide any chance of recovery.

 

[MnFish1]

Sadly, my tank crashed just this week. I live right on the Northern California coast and it is pretty much 60F all year round. I’ve lived here for 3.5 years and it has only been above 75F on one day and only above 70F on a handful of days. I went to the east coast for work for 3 days this week and of course the Cali coast reached 90F each of those days! Came back to a bleached tank yesterday

Lost many very nice acros, trachys and scolys I’d had for years.... gutted.

About to post in a sub forum for advice on how to size a cooling fan for a 250G tank... I’ll probably never need it for years but can’t take the chance.

sugguestion - air conditioning - not a cooler for your tank

 

[whitesand]

Okay so my tank was crashed. Not by itself. Bath beads to a toddler = same shiny objects in tank. Lets not forget about the rustry dirty hot wheels car son threw in. Not making light. Funny now, 26 years ago not funny. Nervous breakdown kind. Thousand of dollars in corals and fish and time and love. Lordy lordy, no one goes near my tank, screw the cover, mine locked in room. Funny story we tell now around son not freaking fun time then. ENJOY.

 

[becks]

I lost alot of my fav SPS colonoies I had grown from frags when a stainless steal nut in my jecod return pump rusted, causing RTN, the LPS were fine etc. As a result, I will never, ever, ever, ever, use anything from jecod.

 

[MnFish1]

@revhtree - I created a 'poll' similar to this discussion - about common statements made in the hobby. Like 'I had a tank crash' - there are numerous other things that are widely put out there - if you think its ok - here is my poll. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a-somewhat-long-myth-busters-poll.614860/. If you think it should be moved - feel free

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I am having some kind of mini crash right now. 70% of my sps are stning, browning or have just stalled out. I have lost 3 frags including my Walt Disney to stn. Not sure what is causing these issues except maybe over a month ago my ATO dumped 5g of rodi into my sump and lowered salinity to 1.022.

 

[Neo Jeo]

I had a Sea Hair ink in my tank. Most fish died in a few hours and then corals.

I did water changes and carbon but no fix.