Ever had a Major tank disaster??

[Reefguide]

When I say major I'm refering to tanks completely drained overnight, all life wiped out by heatwave, ect... How long was tank setup?

If so, did you jump right back into the hobby or did it take you a while before setting everything up all over again ?

I'm just curious... I see sooo many ppl talking about disasters. I fortunatly never had one myself. I know, I will someday.

 

[Syris]

I'm afraid to answer for fear of jinksing myself :wink:

 

[fishfarmer]

Yes, twice.

My first was 10+ years ago. My 38 gallon tank with two fish, recently setup at college. I got a call during Thanksgiving that my tank had drained overnight. Jumped back on the horse the following summer.

My second was over Fourth of July holiday(heat wave). I lost most corals, crabs, snails and two fish. The 55 gal tank is still setup and growing hair algae like crazy. The tank was a recent upgrade during my move in April. My 38 gal had been setup for two years and I was trying to remedy the "problems" and do the necessary upgrades on the new tank :roll: .

 

[Anonymous]

Went on a weekend trip. The relay that controls my fans failed in the off position. 2-400W mhheated te tank to over 95 degrees for 3 days. Everything died.

 

[tanzy]

Return pump failure. Normally, it shouldn't be a disaster, but I wasn't around for a week and a bit. I suppose the temperature must have rollercoastered since the lights were still running. Did not lose everything though. After cleaning out the tank, I managed to save some frags of anchor, frogspawn and stylophora. Favia survived intact but had to be chiselled out. Zoanthids made it but took a whole week to open again. Damage was not as bad as I though. Lost all fish except 2 ocellaris and a purple tang.
Jumped right backed!!! Upgrading tank now even as we speak/type. I guess I had more of an incentive to continue as I had survivors to take care of.

 

[danmhippo]

A couple of years ago I was on vacation, my office employees accidentally left MH on over a weekend with no AC on. Needless to say, it's a near total loss.

Well, the good part is that heat wave got rid of tankfull of aiptasia and flatworms.

 

[Reefguide]

Wow, I think I would cry like a baby for a month ! I need to buy back-up pumps and set up a redundant system...

 

[reefland]

[knock, kncok] <-- on wood.

Nothing yet. A few close calls where it could have been ugly. But I was prepared for them and able to handle the events. Including a recent 4 day power outage - not a single loss.

 

[Reefguide]

4days, wow. How'd ya do it? Those crappy batt powered airators used to keep bait alive?

 

[Anonymous]

 

[Reefguide]

Oh crap !!! that sucks, could have lost the house! What happened?

 

[danmhippo]

There was another incident where I was using Fluval at the time. And I think most of you know that reassembling fluval is a pain in the ass especially when you have to get the rubber ring to sit in the right place and you need to get the siphon started right (that was before they came out with the self priming design). Once afterwork, I managed to do a water change and I cleaned the compartments inside the fluval. I came back next day to find all extension power strips are burnt and wires exposed.

Apparently, the Fluval lid was not seated tight, water trickled down, shorted the power strips (Didn't install GFCI back then), powerstrip caught on fire. all plugs and carpet adjescent to it burned. I am guessing the power got cut's off finally and the sump overflowed. The overflow knocked out the fire on the carpet.

Of course, I did not report this loss to the insurance company..........

 

[Anonymous]

Of course, I did not report this loss to the insurance company..........

How come? My disaster was from a similar source- probably minor leak or salt creep caused short on power strip etc. Insurance covered it.

 

[Syris]

DanConnor:

Was it a total loss or did anything survive?

After seeing that pic I feel the urgent need to go home and test my GFCIs

 

[Anonymous]

On vacation in California for a month one summer. T-Storm came through knocking out power for a good 12-24 hours. No power - no circ, plus no AC and 110 degrees ambient air temp in the apartment means major tank crash - only lost one fish (coral beauty) but all SPS and 2 of 3 clams died. Girl taking care of my tank was in a panic but hey whatcha gonna do? If I had been home I probably could have saved it with ice but I didn't even know until 2 weeks later when I got home.

Customer had a fire under his 54 corner from a timer for his lights. Home was saved when the tank failed and put out the fire.

Nother customer and a member of this board had a fire and lost his reef recently but I'll let him give the details if he so wishes - fire source was near the tank but apparently unconnected.

 

[Anonymous]

nope, total loss

 

[Reefguide]

I think it's time for me to install a gfci outlet !

 

[Anonymous]

Had a -large- acropora millepora spawn a couple of years ago....during a week when tank temps were really high, causing problems to begin with. Between the two, I lost almost every coral in the tank in a span of 24 hrs.... even attempting to put many in other tanks and holding tanks set up on the spot.

 

[danmhippo]

Of course, I did not report this loss to the insurance company..........

How come? My disaster was from a similar source- probably minor leak or salt creep caused short on power strip etc. Insurance covered it.

The tank is in my office, and the loss of the tank itself comes to around $10,000, but if I make that claim, the insurance company will probably not want to renew our policy the next year. My office has inventories worth way way way higher then the $10K. It's hard enough to find a insurance company in California, it's even harder to find one that would insure the computer industry.

I bite the bullet and take the loss on our own.

 

[reefland]

4days, wow. How'd ya do it? Those crappy batt powered airators used to keep bait alive?

That worked the first day... but once it became obvious power would not be back for days I went to Home Deport and rented a generator.