Panic Problem: When and when not to panic?

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

1. What would be a scenario in which you think would truly be a time to panic? What would cause you to panic?

Zombies have breached the wall and you just got a bad leg cramp.

 

[MnFish1]

1. What would be a scenario in which you think would truly be a time to panic? What would cause you to panic?

My first answer was 'never panic' - BUT - Electricity causing a 'shock', a 'leak', getting hit with Palytoxin, a vibrio infection would be some.... a prolonged power failure (if you haven't prepared), an electrical fire.

2. What are some common issues that cause people to panic in which there is no need to panic?

Really - in any situation its not good (or necessary) to panic. Cool heads usually prevail. Even in the examples I gave - the panic would b e 'initial - then - resolve. I think people panic too much about very small changes in parameters (my alkalinity went from 8.5 to 9), etc. and then overreacting - and causing more problems.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Zombies have breached the wall and you just got a bad leg cramp.

Wall of the tank room no doubt?!

 

[burningmime]

About a year ago I truly panacked

I hate to be a wet blanket, but...

 

[mucky1957]

I panic when anything goes wrong. Fortunately I have two friends who live close by who get me to climb off the ledge and calm me down and then usually explain how to sort out what has gone wrong

 

[Hermie]

My puffer somehow got sucked over the weir, through U tube and was hovering over the exit piping about to get sucked down. It was freaked out really bad and I thank Goodness that it didnt have any detectable internal injuries after I rescued it.

 

[Tankkeepers]

Time to panic when kid dumps a bottle of chil powder into tank I tryed to save everything but lost everything including tank equitment pretty much anything the water touched wish there was a plan for somthing like this but unfortunately cant really make one for somthing like this

 

[PicassoClown04]

If you call having my CSB looking amazing yesterday then dead and shriveled up today requiring panic, then yeah I’ve panicked!

 

[Jseimo]

Panic is a leaking tank and how do you stop/fix the issue. Panic if all you live stock is dead and have to figure out what happened. Panic is the power is out, I don’t have a generator how am I going to ensure survival. All other issues are minor and just need a deep breath and trial and error

 

[JasonK84]

One day I got home and my A/c broke ;Nailbiting ;Nailbiting Tank was at 81degrees lucky nothing died..

Just 81? A couple weeks ago my fish room temp hit 95 because I had the AC on fan mode instead of cooling. 3 fish tanks were 89 and higher. Used every bit of ice I had and floating it in ziplocks but didn’t lose a thing. Then night before last I lost power during a snow storm and was down for 15 1/2 hours. Those same three tanks dropped to 68 on the smallest and 71 on the 30 gallon. 73 on the 120 in the house. Again. Lost nothing. I do have a small generator. Only 900 watts but it powered the return pumps and a small space heater to help. 81 is nothing.

 

[Larry J]

You panic when you are keeping your 125 gal acrylic tank on your porch and you hear a huge wind gust and an enormous thud. I was getting ready to move the tank inside to plumb it when this happened 10 days ago. That's when your heart stops and drops into your gut with premonition...you know something bad happened but don't yet know what happened. After weeks of polishing the turd, this Mid Century Modern custom tank lays in the driveway with cracks everywhere and makes the custom stand and hood worthless, along with the pictures and videos for the Build Thread! So, Old School Old Guy's build is shambles! So I now have a new custom tank being made and will have another 5 weeks vested in this journey

 

[Clownfish_Boy]

I began to panic when my autistic son dropped a bowl of potato chips into the tank; then I settled down and calmly commenced to taking down the setup for a total cleaning and getting the fish safely back to the LFS. It was such a mess, with water greasy and potato chip mush all over and into everything, that I just simply elected to clean everything and start over anew. If ever there was a reason to panic, it was that mishap !

 

[RUKelly]

I tend to panic I’m embarrassed to say; little things to big things, just a genetic makeup thing.....
When first starting out in this hobby, fish with ick (and died) made me panic. Also, buying fish who were being killed by other fish made me panic abit...... when I got my new 135gal. Red Sea max, and 4 months in, the electrical panel quits on half of it, I panic; but Manufacturer replaced for free. Unfortunately, this happens two more times, more panic... and my wallet was affected then. Discovered the lights that came with my system were the culprit and two years back switched to leds and no more panic! Even chiller worked better. When I buy a $350.00 coral and it starts melting away to that great reef in the sky, I really panic. When I wake up in the night hearing a wet sound and my tank is leaking water all over my living room floor, I PANiC. Sump overflows, debri clogs. Swarming aiptasias cause panic, but a large filefish does a great job of controlling until he learns he loves frozen fish food cubes as much as my community fish do, then is harrassed by my candy stripe hogfish, and eventually dies. Currently having an aiptasia revival..... small panic there, working on solutions. Power outages for quite a few years creates a building panic... especially during hurricane seasons. Installing a gas line, full house generator solved that. Corals popping off their glued-on areas after months of growth/harmony and falling into crevices/crannies hard to reach cause panic.

I guess I’ve covered most of my “panics”..... the best part is every panic turns into a learning experience
that will benefit me in the future and hopefully creates less intensive panics; because, I know, I have future “panics” that will come to be.

 

[Pauletteraggio]

I am going to the cancer center on November 18th. Ask me after I am done.
Fish tank stuff you act calmly and quickly to save the animals. Same with fires and when the car is upside down.
I guess I have been through some stuff.

Prayers!!

 

[DHill6]

I am going to the cancer center on November 18th. Ask me after I am done.
Fish tank stuff you act calmly and quickly to save the animals. Same with fires and when the car is upside down.
I guess I have been through some stuff.

Stay strong, wishing you well.

 

[vlangel]

I used to panic a little when I was travelling and had seahorses, especially when someone would call me with a problem. Diagnosing a problem from afar is never ideal.

Now that I do not have seahorses that have special needs I do not really panic over things. My tank is mature, stable and set up simply so not a lot to go wrong. I like it that way.

 

[damselindistress]

Panicking will only make dealing with the issue harder.
Newborn sleeping, I wake up and hear what sounds like is my sump is low on water. Go to living room and find 30 gal of water on the floor. No one home to help. Had to fix leak and a clean up water before new born wakes up. Will never use hose clamps on a tank again.

Honestly I don't know which scenario is more frightening - 30 g of water in the floor or waking a sleeping newborn ;Joyful...my son is 24 but I can vividly remember the threats of violence that would involuntarily erupt from my mouth at any unfortunate soul mindlessly slamming a door or God forbid flushing a toilet when the baby was sleeping lol.

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. What would be a scenario in which you think would truly be a time to panic? What would cause you to panic?

When coming home from opening showong of Star wars and daughter and her friend had to go potty badly when i got home after drinking each. . 32oz sodas. My daughter yelled wet carpet on the way to the bathroom when she went past my tank. I stated " no its not" until my pant leg started to get wet and then realized my 360g had a pinhole in the seam. I thought. . . piece of cake- I'll go to walmart 7 mins away and get flexSeal tape.
That did NOT work at all, then the Panic began.

2. What are some common issues that cause people to panic in which there is no need to panic?

-Phosphate is high
- alk is high
- toadstool coral bent over
- doing water change and realize it is 8pm Sunday and no salt on hand
- Shrimp has molted and they think its' dead
- Left the RO unit running and went to go shopping or off to work for 8 hours

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Panic and aquariums do not go together at all yet there are times when maybe you should panic and most times when you should not!

The problem is that when you panic, you rush to judgment and you rush to make bad decisions. These bad decisions, within an aquarium, then multiply and begin a cascading of events that can lead to a total crash of your saltwater reef aquarium or the loss of all of your fishy inhabitants.

Are you panicking yet? No? Good!

So today let's talk about the very RARE times you should probably panic and all those other times you should not.


1. What would be a scenario in which you think would truly be a time to panic? What would cause you to panic?

2. What are some common issues that cause people to panic in which there is no need to panic?

1. What would be a scenario in which you think would truly be a time to panic? What would cause you to panic?
A. If hair algae present. But that's for a different discussion.
Time to panic? When you buy $5000 in soft corals. And come to find out your ph and alkilinity off.
Cause me to panic?
when corals not happy and $10000 worth of them in system.

2. What are some common issues that cause people to panic in which there is no need to panic?

when test kit outdated or off calibration...

 

[wonroc]

I panic when I find out the wife is on the way home, and I have way to much S**t to do on the tank.