When was your last crash?

[Devonjevon]

I know this is a grim subject but I actually had a dream last night that my ex girlfriend poured bleach in my sump. Got me thinking. When was the last time your tank crashed? And why?

I been reefing since 2006 I have had 3 tank crashes
1st was in 2006 when my ATO line fell underwater and siphoned out 2/3 of my water while I was at work
2nd in 2007 when I started using ozone and the ORP went to 590 over night. And killed absolutely every living thing in the tank. The rocks even bleached white.
Final one was in 2008 when I got the bright idea that if you can dip corals before you introduce into your main display. Maybe I can use the same medicine and dip these 2 huge 15 pound pieces of live rock in coral dip give it a quick 2 min rinse off and put it directly in my tank. Hey I wouldnt get aefw or nothing.. Well yeah no good.

Any other experiences?
We all can learn from each other.

 

[Troylee]

The last 2 months I have exp a crash.. Cause unknown besides a penny in my top off jugs..:(

 

[ToXIc]

i'm waiting on my 1st... :sad:

hopefully my husbandry is good enough to avoid one


OT: you probably had a bad breakup if you dreamed your ex pouring bleach or she's just psycho?

 

[firsttime]

I experienced a semi crash if you would. I lost all my sps a year ago, it was because of a bad Alk test kit. LPS and Z and P were ok.

 

[cdness]

I have not had a system crash yet in my time reefing... knock on wood...

I have had losses when moving tanks, but I don't think those count as crashes...

Many of the equipment related crashes are preventable. Unfortunately I don't know of any way to prevent an ex-girlfriend from pouring bleach in the sump or someone putting a penny in the tank or top off... I guess the ex could be prevented by changing the locks ;)

 

[Salty Dog]

three years ago I added another 100g sump to my system that was up for 1.5 yrs, I have a 250g display loaded with SPS all grown out, After we plumbed it in we had all the vallves off , I had 100 g of mixed salt water that I pumped into my new 100g sump, Then I opened the valves and the system was operational, I then go up stairs to see my display and every sps corals was sliming bad, the next day they were all dead, the fish lived but coral no. Not sure why this happened but it was devistating. Since then Ive been preety stable, with my share of little issues.

 

[swannyson7]

I actually had an ex pour a gallon of bleach in my 55 back in 2004, but I haven't had a major crash since then. I've had a few large-scale fish mortalities due to power outtages, but no significant bleaching or recession problems with coral. Prior to 2004, I had one major crash when I added a pH buffer to increase pH and measured incorrectly.

 

[CJO]

My only crash was when I first set up the tank and had an "expert" from my LFS show me how to do everything. He unfortunately set the CO2 wrong on the calcium reactor and I came home to an aquarium full of gasping fish and a pH of 6.8. I was fortunate not to lose anything. Worst $80 I've spent!

CJ

 

[Dowtish]

I actually had an ex pour a gallon of bleach in my 55 back in 2004, but I haven't had a major crash since then. I've had a few large-scale fish mortalities due to power outtages, but no significant bleaching or recession problems with coral. Prior to 2004, I had one major crash when I added a pH buffer to increase pH and measured incorrectly.

Wow....

 

[swannyson7]

Yeah, she was pretty sadistic....

 

[Dowtish]

That is messed up on so many levels.

 

[swannyson7]

I was headed overseas with the Army about a month later, but I was still heartbroken. I wanted to pay it forward to all of the local reefers who had helped me out and instead I lost everything. I came home from work to an overpowering smell of low tide, a cloudy tank, and an empty bottle of clorox on top of the light fixture.

 

[wingman1234]

wow thats always been my nightmare to have some one slowly poison my tank. but thats just plain wrong. I'm sorry to hear that.
I've had several crashes the first was a sudden addition of red bugs and aefw that devastated alot of what i had in like two weeks. another big crash came when the calcium reactor drip valve fell off by the time i got home the alkalinity was 24 i didn't bother checking the ph. the one thing that would be useful is when moving your tank. if you have a deep sand bed start removing some before a month before you move put it in small plastic containers like sandwich size and put sand in them and but the time you move put the lids on and you will have a portable deep sand bed that won't shift around that much in the moving process.

 

[bige]

My dreams consist of me building go carts with my ex-land lord.....

I had a heater explode. Killed everything but the fish. Took 6 months for coral and invertes to live in the water again. The heater was replaced and I caught it moments before it exploded. I knew the warning signs this time.

 

[BeerNut]

Tank crashed about 2 months ago when I used Flatworm -x to get rid of some red planeria. Not blaming the product at all because it did kill the flatworms. Killed all my fish and most of my corals.

 

[Dowtish]

So the toxins that the worms put off while dying is what did it.

 

[BeerNut]

So the toxins that the worms put off while dying is what did it.

Yep. Was prepared to syphon out the bodies with water and everything else. The only thing I didn't do was run carbon. The toxins affected my tank instantly.

 

[firefightered]

My first and "only" full crash is when I thought it would be a great idea to set up a tank here at the fire house. Had eveything looking and growing nice. The bug guy came in while I was not on shift and got toooo close to the tank. A Damsel was the only thing that survived. The 2nd partial crash was after the April 27th tornados hit here in Alabama. I was not directly affected but I was out for 2 weeks doing search, rescue, and giving aid to those who were affected. Unfortunatly I was not able to care for my tank durring this time and lost several corals. Still trying to bet things back to where everything is happy again. By the way... The tank is in my oun house now.

 

[shred5]

I have been in the reef hobby since the early days of the hobby with multiple tanks at a time and never have experienced a full crash. (Knock on wood)

I have had 3 very small partial crashes and only since I started sps’s.

First time was a bad batch of coral life salt. The salt had no calcium in it or it would not dissolve. Actually this led to a few sps’s rtn’ing, actually I would not even call this a partial crash. Lost two or three corals I think but it was a 40 gallon.

Second partial crash I had a mag 7 start fire in my sump. I was sitting in my living room and all of a sudden the lights started dimming and I heard this loud arcing sound coming from my fish room. I go into the room and there are sparks and smoke shooting out of my sump.. This poured a bunch of black stuff into my tank. This did not actually crash the tank at this point but weakend it. . At this time the 40 gallon tank emptied into a large refugium with mangroves and all kinds of algae growing in it (was actually cooler than the tank) and then the refugium emptied into the sump and this pump sat in the sump. Well I had a new pump over nighted to me which ended up getting lost, go figure. So I called them up again and that was the last pump they had. By the time I got one the tank was still ok. But I did something really stupid, I got the new pump installed and immediately fired it up. Water temps were not the same in the fuge/sump as my tank and I lost a few corals where the return from my sump was. Again, I only lost only a few sps.

The third partial was a few months ago on my 30 gallon all on one tank… I was gone for about 10 days and came home to a few of my sps’s bleached. Only thing I can figure is there was a long power outage and the temps changed to much. I was worried when I left because there were big storms forecasted that week. Anyway at this point now I put the rest of the corals in another temporary tank and decided to redo the all in one..

Dave

 

[turbo21]

My worst crash was years ago on my 390 gal fowlr.

I had bought a local lfs show tank when they went out of business. It was locally made.


My wife called me when i was at work to let me know the tank was empty and all the fish were dead. The slicone seam at the rear back wall let loose and all the water and sand poured out at once. I rushed home and found my stars and stripes puffer was still gasping as well as my port jackson . We got them in some water and rushed out and bought a 220, but unfouratnetly they died a few days later.
i still cry about my fish list i had

18" stars and stripes puffer
16"vlamingi tang
20 port jackson shark
12" blue face angel
10" niger trigger
10" porcupine puffer
6" humu humu trigger
10" green bird wrasse
9" hippo tang
8" blue throat trigger


I still try to talk my wife into getting anohter big fowlr tank

bob