Ever have a nightmare water change?

[c2l2parker]

Ever have a water change that went so badly, it makes you question everything? I have done water changes every 2 weeks for the last 8 years on my 180, and thought I had the process “mastered”. Yesterday I removed about 30 gallons no problem. When filling, I use a pump attached to a garden hose where water is sent from my garage mixing station directly to the sump. I didn’t notice that my hose had fallen out of the sock I stuck it in (generally keeps it secure), and water is spilling all over the place. I make the correction, and want to soak up my mess, so I sprint to get some old towels. My wife, who can’t see the mess but is nearby, raises an eyebrow. Then I quickly grabbed the bottles of various supplements, etc. that are in the sump and toss them towards a towel I had behind me. Argh, an old bottle of coral dipping solution hits the wall, and literally explodes. There is an orange stain all over the walls and floor (ok, perhaps I threw it a little hard, but I my defense I eventually concluded the bottle became brittle). After a few select words, I am debating whether I should try to clean up the stain before the wife notices or clean up the excess water in my sump and on the hardwood floors. At that moment I realize the water in my sump is about to overflow because I haven’t turned on my return pump. I grab my phone and use my trusty apex to start the pump (with a pump in and pump out, this normally keeps the sump water level constant.) Click. Nothing. I am thinking “is it my EB8, or the pump itself”? No problem, I have 2 return pumps, so I just started the other one. Nothing. I sprint to the garage to unplug the water being sent to the sump. At this point, the wife is staring, and not in a good way. But wait...there’s more! I get back, start soaking up the orange stain, and realize that is futile - will paint later. Return pump #2 suddenly starts. Great. I pivot and start soaking up water. A short time later, I hear these sucking sounds...sump has run dry. I sprint back to the garage to turn on the water supply. I ultimately finish the water change, and as I am trying to get behind my sump to clean up water, my skimmer suddenly goes off. No idea what I just did.

Post-trauma, most everything is fairly normal. I guess I should be glad I didn’t kill any livestock, and the wife hasn’t killed me. Anyone else have a fun water change story?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hasn't everybody had a nightmare water change! ;Hilarious It's just that the longer you're in the hobby the nightmares can get worse!

 

[Cmooreinor]

 

[philosophile]

Well, not as bad as yours.... but once I was doing a water change, and paying more attention to what I was siphoning out, than where it was siphoning to... went for a patch of detritus was in the back corner, and the siphon hose came out of my bucket and started spewing tank water out of the bucket.... and on to my power strip. The sound of saltwater hitting a live power strip is rather horrifying. Bzzzt!

 

[alpburakozbay]

Experience and professionalism ensure to survive such events with the least loss.
My experience was also in installation (from my inexperience). I installed a skimz overflow box in my 9x9x9 inch aquarium (yeah yeah I know it's a very big tank...), I used the return pump new jet 1200, and the sump was a small yogurt bucket and there were multiple sockets right next to the aquarium. I started the system, then shut it down, did not calculate the overflow that should be in the sump and then did not pay attention. In the morning, I saw that the water in the bucket was on the overflow limit and I said to myself, "You are stupid and lucky." If the water had overflowed, it would most likely be an electric shock to me.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Ever have a water change that went so badly, it makes you question everything? I have done water changes every 2 weeks for the last 8 years on my 180, and thought I had the process “mastered”. Yesterday I removed about 30 gallons no problem. When filling, I use a pump attached to a garden hose where water is sent from my garage mixing station directly to the sump. I didn’t notice that my hose had fallen out of the sock I stuck it in (generally keeps it secure), and water is spilling all over the place. I make the correction, and want to soak up my mess, so I sprint to get some old towels. My wife, who can’t see the mess but is nearby, raises an eyebrow. Then I quickly grabbed the bottles of various supplements, etc. that are in the sump and toss them towards a towel I had behind me. Argh, an old bottle of coral dipping solution hits the wall, and literally explodes. There is an orange stain all over the walls and floor (ok, perhaps I threw it a little hard, but I my defense I eventually concluded the bottle became brittle). After a few select words, I am debating whether I should try to clean up the stain before the wife notices or clean up the excess water in my sump and on the hardwood floors. At that moment I realize the water in my sump is about to overflow because I haven’t turned on my return pump. I grab my phone and use my trusty apex to start the pump (with a pump in and pump out, this normally keeps the sump water level constant.) Click. Nothing. I am thinking “is it my EB8, or the pump itself”? No problem, I have 2 return pumps, so I just started the other one. Nothing. I sprint to the garage to unplug the water being sent to the sump. At this point, the wife is staring, and not in a good way. But wait...there’s more! I get back, start soaking up the orange stain, and realize that is futile - will paint later. Return pump #2 suddenly starts. Great. I pivot and start soaking up water. A short time later, I hear these sucking sounds...sump has run dry. I sprint back to the garage to turn on the water supply. I ultimately finish the water change, and as I am trying to get behind my sump to clean up water, my skimmer suddenly goes off. No idea what I just did.

Post-trauma, most everything is fairly normal. I guess I should be glad I didn’t kill any livestock, and the wife hasn’t killed me. Anyone else have a fun water change story?

If you have been at this for any length of time, yes there will be stories!

I learned long ago to use a hook of PVC attached to my fill line, to hang on my sump for the same reasons to stated!

I have a garden sprayer attached to my tap water line down by my slop sink. One day I was cleaning some stuff with it and I left it on and hung it in the sink. Had to run up stairs to do something quick in the garage. When I came back in, the display tank was off and was syphoning back to the sump down stairs. I run down stairs and turn the corner and can hear water splashing. I turn another corner to the fish room and the hose with the spray nozzle is on the concrete floor spraying up over everything. Lights, electrical boxes, the floor joists, ductwork.... It tripped the circuit breaker and everything was off!

Needless to say, after two hours of drying off everything, including taking the electrical box covers off to dry them, running every fan in the house, I was back up and running.

What a nightmare! Lol

 

[Casket_Case]

That’s how every other Night went with a hang on sump that used vacuum suction. I hated it. It only happened at Night. I woke up to that terrible sucking noise and spent an hour or two trying to get things going again. I still have Nightmares.

 

[Biglew11]

Yesterday was close, I do my water changes and cleaning on sundays. I fill my saltwater brute up on Saturday, turn on the heat and circulation pump, my ro brut didn't have quite enough water in it to fill my saltwater brute. I come downstairs a few hours later and my circulation pump hose has come out of the brute, I pumped around 30 gallons of to down our sump pump. To top it off the hose from the ro transfer pump fell out and I was waiting that ro water also :mad:. I can make about 200 Gpd. I fill the brute back up about 10:30. I still need about 5 more gallons, sonot to libad. I get up this morning and all is well, the ro brute is full. Add the 5 gallons to the Saltwater brute, and do a 30 gallon water change, I just used some chemclean so wanted a larger water change than the normal 10%.;Woot just one of those weekends. But at thankfully my water only went down a drain. And not in living room or something.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

If you have been at this for any length of time, yes there will be stories!

I learned long ago to use a hook of PVC attached to my fill line, to hang on my sump for the same reasons to stated!

The only thing I would add to that it a ball valve to prevent the time it takes to open the app, swipe the pump off and wonder if fusion recognized your command? Simply give it a twist and the water stops flowing...

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

And to empathize, I've had many similar experiences that left me with towels saturated with salt water. When I lived in california, I had to replace the entire hardwood floor with wood tile because I destroyed the floor, all the planks around the tank were curled.

--you live you learn

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

I was pumping water back into my tank and was using the incoming water flow to blow off the rocks a bit more. Hose came off the pump and out of the bucket as I was reaching across the tank...and that was the day that I learned how syphons work! Since I had the end of the hose submerged in the tank it immediately started pulling water out of the tank and onto my hardwood floor. The worst part is that the syphon lesson took more than a few seconds to kick in so the hose stayed submerged much longer than it should have.

 

[c2l2parker]

If you have been at this for any length of time, yes there will be stories!

I learned long ago to use a hook of PVC attached to my fill line, to hang on my sump for the same reasons to stated!

I have a garden sprayer attached to my tap water line down by my slop sink. One day I was cleaning some stuff with it and I left it on and hung it in the sink. Had to run up stairs to do something quick in the garage. When I came back in, the display tank was off and was syphoning back to the sump down stairs. I run down stairs and turn the corner and can hear water splashing. I turn another corner to the fish room and the hose with the spray nozzle is on the concrete floor spraying up over everything. Lights, electrical boxes, the floor joists, ductwork.... It tripped the circuit breaker and everything was off!

Needless to say, after two hours of drying off everything, including taking the electrical box covers off to dry them, running every fan in the house, I was back up and running.

What a nightmare! Lol

Yikes. That is a scary one. Spraying water near our tanks is usually a recipe for disaster.