GFCI Shut Down Heaters & Circ - How to Recover?

[Salt1972]

I arrived home this evening to find that something in our ATO tripped the GFCI breaker and shut down the heaters, circulation, lights, etc. The temp was 70.3 degrees.

At least 1 anthia is dead-- I can't find the other 3.
Our Atlantic Blue Tang is laying on his side, but breathing.
Clowns & Green Chromis seem OK.
Corals are white or recessed.

I've started 2 additional heaters in the DT along with an additional air stone.

Do I pull the tang into QT or let the heaters raise the temp? What else?

Thanks in advance.

 

[blackizzz]

Sorry to hear this

Slow is your friend. Priority one is to increase aeration of the water, aim powerheads towards the surface and get that water flowing. Too cold is less lethal than too warm. Let the water slowly heat up to desired temp.

I'd also toss in some activated carbon in case corals or inverts have released toxins.

I'd also prepare water for water changes

 

[malacoda]

Hopefully one of the #reefsquad experts will chime in soon to correct me if I'm wrong, but I would be careful how fast you raise the temp back up and advise doing it over the course of at least 6-12 hrs versus just an hour or two.

Eg. Don't drop both additional heaters in with the intent to get it back up to normal temp as quickly as possible.

I think I recall reading somewhere that warming a fish back up too quickly can be even more dangerous to its health than initial drop in temperature was.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Sorry to hear this

Slow is your friend. Priority one is to increase aeration of the water, aim powerheads towards the surface and get that water flowing. Too cold is less lethal than too warm. Let the water slowly heat up to desired temp.

I'd also toss in some activated carbon in case corals or inverts have released toxins.

I'd also prepare water for water changes

^^^This
70 degrees won't kill anything, going from 70 back to 78 quickly will. Let your heater raise the temp back up on its own. Point powerheads at the surface to promote more gas exchange and rid the co2 out of your water and raise your ph back up to normal.

 

[rkpetersen]

Sorry this happened.
Agree with everyone, the reason your animals aren't looking good is likely more the lack of circulation than the temp.
Getting water going again should hopefully perk things up. Raise temp a degree an hour.
Remember, all these creatures can survive overnight at less than 70 when shipped, as long as they get enough oxygen.
I myself wouldn't move the tang as long as your aeration is going again.
After things have stabilized, try to put at least one powerhead on battery backup.
GFCIs are essential but also scary. If I leave home for any length of time, I take my systems off it.

 

[Salt1972]

The temp is rising slowly -- it's 73.5 now (2+ hours after finding it). 3 of our 4 Lyretail Anthias died. The smallest anthia lived. The Atlantic Blue Tang seems to be doing better, but is VERY hidden. The Chromis and Clowns have been out and about throughout.

All flow is going as well as the skimmer and we have an additional air stone. I haven't begun pulling apart the ATO system yet to find out whether it's the switch or the pump. Even with an Apex, this would have happened. Trying to figure out the correct set up / back up to eliminate the possibility of this failure going forward.

Thank you for your responses and level heads.

 

[rkpetersen]

Trying to figure out the correct set up / back up to eliminate the possibility of this failure going forward.

With an Apex, you can put it and your internet router on a UPS, enable Power Monitor mode, and it will alert you any time your system loses utility power from the wall.

Sorry about your anthias. Not surprising that they suffered the most. Very high metabolisms require high dissolved oxygen levels.

 

[Dom]

I arrived home this evening

How long were you away? Seems like a good amount of damage. I mean; was everything working when you left for work this morning and you came home to find this? Or were you away and found this when you got back?

 

[Brew12]

Trying to figure out the correct set up / back up to eliminate the possibility of this failure going forward.

Sorry you are having to go through this.

I recommend never having your return pump on the same GFCI circuit as your heater(s).
I have a regular outlet behind my tank and then use this under my sump. One GFCI for each of my Profilux power bars, with my heaters and non critical items on one power bar and my return pump/skimmer on the other one.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-gfci-installation.342874/

 

[Salt1972]

How long were you away? Seems like a good amount of damage. I mean; was everything working when you left for work this morning and you came home to find this? Or were you away and found this when you got back?

This could have happened last night. When I left for work this morning, the lights were off, but that's normal. When I arrived home at 5ish, the temp was 70 and ... well.

 

[Dom]

This could have happened last night. When I left for work this morning, the lights were off, but that's normal. When I arrived home at 5ish, the temp was 70 and ... well.

I'm really sorry that this has happened to you. I'm inclined to agree; the issue is probably more related to flow than temp. Good luck and please keep us posted.

 

[Salt1972]

OK. So the switch on our ATO was the culprit. The ATO pump works fine with the switch removed. Add the switch back and the GFCI trips.

I thought we were being diligent with a GFCI outlet powering our tank. Apparently that's not enough. We need multiple GFCI's if we don't want a single point of failure like what happened to us. I read @Brew12 's thread above about GFCI and found he runs 2+... Thanks for the rec Brew. Admittedly, before this mishap, I might have called your method overkill... now I wish I had seen your rec and followed it.

Questions:
1. Are we just unlucky with the low voltage ATO switch failure?
2. What are others doing for water level sensors?
3. Do we just buy another float switch and hope for the best?

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[Brew12]

OK. So the switch on our ATO was the culprit. The ATO pump works fine with the switch removed. Add the switch back and the GFCI trips.

I thought we were being diligent with a GFCI outlet powering our tank. Apparently that's not enough. We need multiple GFCI's if we don't want a single point of failure like what happened to us. I read @Brew12 's thread above about GFCI and found he runs 2+... Thanks for the rec Brew. Admittedly, before this mishap, I might have called your method overkill... now I wish I had seen your rec and followed it.

Questions:
1. Are we just unlucky with the low voltage ATO switch failure?
2. What are others doing for water level sensors?
3. Do we just buy another float switch and hope for the best?

Thanks for all of your help.

I think you were very unlucky. I've never heard of a float switch failing and tripping a GFCI. Many low voltage switches use a transformer to drop voltage and a ground fault cannot travel "through" a transformer. There are other ways of doing it so this may (unfortunately) become more common.
I know multiple GFCI's seems like overkill, but I wouldn't do it any other way. I used to run 4 GFCI's made the exact same way but instead of plugging them into the wall I plugged each one into an Apex outlet. This gave me 4 controllable GFCI outlets. Worked great. Now, I have too many controlled loads to give each its own GFCI.
I do think my current system could be better and I recently purchased another small power bar for my Profilux controller. It will get it's own GFCI and the 4 outlets will be 2 heaters, and my T5 supplemental lighting.

 

[Dom]

What are others doing for water level sensors?

Keep it simple. I use a gravity fed reservoir and an Eshopps float.

 

[Salt1972]

Keep it simple. I use a gravity fed reservoir and an Eshopps float.

Have you ever had a float valve fail? We did on an RO/DI system. Thankfully, that wasn't connected to any tanks, but it did overflow the barrel.

 

[Dom]

Have you ever had a float valve fail? We did on an RO/DI system. Thankfully, that wasn't connected to any tanks, but it did overflow the barrel.

Nope... that has never happened.

My float valve is in my sump. My reservoir total capacity does not exceed the available volume in the sump. In the event of a float valve failure, all RODI water in the reservoir will fit in the sump with our overflow.

 

[Jay Z]

Have you ever had a float valve fail? We did on an RO/DI system. Thankfully, that wasn't connected to any tanks, but it did overflow the barrel.

I bought 3 from BRS, 2 of the 3 were bad right out of the box.

 

[Dom]

I bought 3 from BRS, 2 of the 3 were bad right out of the box.

Wow... that is surprising.

Was it this one? https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/rodi-float-valve-kit-eshopps/

I've never had a problem with these. Guess I've been lucky.

 

[Jay Z]

No it was not. It was the BRS branded ones.