- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
The reef gremlins seem to be angry these past few days as I know of several longtime reefers with serious system issues. Today was my turn. After avoiding Sandy and the recent Pratt fire, I was greeted this morning by a text from one of my co-workers that the reef looked cloudy white. This is never a good thing and it is an even worse thing when you are 5 hours away in Vermont on a family vacation. Diagnosing quickly over the phone, it was pretty obvious that the chiller had failed in the on position and the tank was very cold. I wasn't sure how cold because the chiller had the temp readout I use built into it and it was reading nonsense.
I had no choice but to call in the troops starting with my heroic student helpers Will and Taylor Jane. They started plugging in heaters and floating boiling water in containers to begin to bring the temperature up. Next I called old reliable Richie K. who hurried over to take charge of the situation. I can't count how many times he has risen to the rescue for MR members. He brought Nottick along with him and they were joined by James a bit later on.
All of them were there all day long and into the evening performing large water changes, carbon changes and removing seriously compromised livestock. It turns out the tank had dropped into the low 60's, but as best as I can figure it wasn't there for more than 10-15 hrs. Low temp is better than high temp, so I am cautiously optimistic.
Surprisingly, not much has crapped out --yet, and we are hopeful a total wipeout has been averted. The morning will tell a lot and the coming days will be delicate for sure. I return tomorrow evening and hopefully will have less than tragic news to report.
I really can't thank Richie, Nottick, James and my Pratt Reef club kids enough. Without them, this surely would have been a total disaster.
I had no choice but to call in the troops starting with my heroic student helpers Will and Taylor Jane. They started plugging in heaters and floating boiling water in containers to begin to bring the temperature up. Next I called old reliable Richie K. who hurried over to take charge of the situation. I can't count how many times he has risen to the rescue for MR members. He brought Nottick along with him and they were joined by James a bit later on.
All of them were there all day long and into the evening performing large water changes, carbon changes and removing seriously compromised livestock. It turns out the tank had dropped into the low 60's, but as best as I can figure it wasn't there for more than 10-15 hrs. Low temp is better than high temp, so I am cautiously optimistic.
Surprisingly, not much has crapped out --yet, and we are hopeful a total wipeout has been averted. The morning will tell a lot and the coming days will be delicate for sure. I return tomorrow evening and hopefully will have less than tragic news to report.
I really can't thank Richie, Nottick, James and my Pratt Reef club kids enough. Without them, this surely would have been a total disaster.
. Randy ur tank is an inspiration to so many. Why does stuff happen when we are away?
