Panic Problem: When and when not to panic?

[Indytraveler83]

Panic scenario- when my old equipment overflowed on to a T5 ballast and caught fire (thankfully small and contained).

All exposures to palytoxin.


People panic but shouldnt-

Any scenario where something is sick and/or dying, but has yet to effect the rest of the tank. One frag dying, one fish with ick, etc. People panic, overreact and then destabilize a system, rather than solving the problem.

 

[Totlxtc]

Nothing like turning off the tv and heading to bed only to step in a river running across the living room floor at 11pm to make you panic.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Had one tank leak out the bottom seam once. Woke up and stepped out if bed into water. Had my wife wake me up one night about 5am asking what that smell was, went downstairs through the smoke to see flames coming out from the stand.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Everyone is going to have a different trigger for "Panic".

With Halloween tomorrow, this thread should be "Things that have scared you the most, reef addition!" Lol

Seriously, most of everything I've ever dealt with in the hobby over the years has never made me "Panic", but definitely made me move or act quickly.

 

[Cell]

The only real time to panic is when something bad is happening very quickly that you have the ability to stop or mitigate if the correct action is taken, but could make worse if the wrong action is taken. A lot of the time with reefing incidents, the bad thing already happened and we are just cleaning up the aftermath.

A tank blowout is a time to panic, well, try not to, but completely understandable.

High nitrates is not a time to panic.

 

[SMSREEF]

My idea of “panic” is moving with an extreme sense of urgency and as quickly as you can.

times I have “panicked” and rightfully so:

When I heard a waterfall in the middle of the night. Panic allowed me to rapidly siphon out water before it all ended up on the wood floors. As it was probably only 30 gallons ended on the floor and the other 30 in buckets.

When I was balancing a container of water with citric acid on the corner of my tank to clean my powerhead. As you can guess, it dumped into tank. I rightfully panicked and got my corals out within 2 minutes and a full 100% water change done within 15 minutes.

there are times to panic in this hobby, but that’s when you catch what is going severely wrong while it is happening. If it already happened, panic is not gonna help, and usually lead to bad decisions and outcomes.

 

[glb]

I panicked when I heard a cracking/sizzling sound in my electronics cabinet and that horrible smell of electronics burning. The surge protector was fried but saved all my equipment.

 

[walloutlet]

Always something to stress about with thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars on the line.

However, three major things that I panic about:
1. APEX leak senor going off when I'm hours from home
2. Power outage on tank, with no other power outage in house and hours away
3. Pricked, squirted or rub against something known to have toxins that can have an impact on a human

I thought reefing was supposed to be relaxing! LOL!

 

[stanleo]

The only time I have ever panicked in the aquarium hobby was when I was doing a water change in my 55 gal FW and I broke the support bar on the top. When I filled it back up the front glass bowed like crazy. The two local LFS's didn't have a 55 gal in stock and I had to drive to a third store an hour away to find one. And it was one of those ridiculous kits so I ended up with a bunch of equipment, light, heater, and filter I didn't need. But upside, years down the road I did use it all for small tanks that I setup.

 

[stanleo]

My power went out a couple days ago for 6 hours. The battery backup that I thought was good for four hours only lasted two and my two other backup backup batteries were dead. I don't have a generator but my truck does have a plug that allowed me to power all the pumps and the sump return and luckily it was 75 degrees outside. I just opened the windows and the temp only dropped half a degree. I didn't panic but I did start to sweat a little.

 

[tripdad]

I had a health event in 2011 where I stood at the pearly gate and was reaching to shake St. Peter's hand before getting yanked back into this world. Now, nothing makes me panic except illness of a loved one. The fish tank stuff is just something to be dealt with, however severe, and move on.

 

[Abe K]

And one year later

What is that?

WHAT WAS LEFT OF A LEATHER THAT DIED along with everything else

 

[logansreef]

Panic time is when you come home from work to a weird noise,walk over to tank and your feet get wet as you realize it's your return pump running dry and your 125 gallon long (60×18×25) tank is only 1/4 full and your 1.5 year old solid oak floors are cupping up from all the water that has leaked out. Scramble to find containers to put everything in and get water flowing. Lost most my fish,inverts but most the coral was fine. It was a used setup I bought about 12 months prior,the seams were leaking in 2 dif spots. Had 3 separate Rubbermaid bins in dining room with my rock and corals and sand. Took 3 weeks to get a new tank in. Set my progress back a while and was very disheartening, and expensive!!!
Insurance covered the cost of the floors and the dry wall, but not the cost of the tank. All in all I think about 90 gallons leaked,luckily with it being saltwater mold want a issue.

 

[Steph72]

The only time I really panicked was when a heater exploded. I got a call at work that my house was on fire and rushed home with this sick feeling that my animals were dying and home was destroyed. The fire department met me at the front door and gave the all clear...thankfully the only damage was black soot on my ceiling and the wall behind the tank. I don’t use heaters anymore because of that. I live in Houston so there’s really not a need to have a heater most of the year... I actually struggle to keep the tank cool enough. No more heaters, I just keep the house a little warmer in the winter when it gets cold and watch the temp closely.

 

[Steph72]

Panic time is when you come home from work to a weird noise,walk over to tank and your feet get wet as you realize it's your return pump running dry and your 125 gallon long (60×18×25) tank is only 1/4 full and your 1.5 year old solid oak floors are cupping up from all the water that has leaked out. Scramble to find containers to put everything in and get water flowing. Lost most my fish,inverts but most the coral was fine. It was a used setup I bought about 12 months prior,the seams were leaking in 2 dif spots. Had 3 separate Rubbermaid bins in dining room with my rock and corals and sand. Took 3 weeks to get a new tank in. Set my progress back a while and was very disheartening, and expensive!!!
Insurance covered the cost of the floors and the dry wall, but not the cost of the tank. All in all I think about 90 gallons leaked,luckily with it being saltwater mold want a issue.

That’s awful!!!! I’m so sorry!

 

[logansreef]

Panic is also when you don't know much, or i should say nothing about palyotocins(spelling) and our new to the hobby and have the idea to clean off so of your reef rocks and get rid of some things so you use as hot water as you can handle in the laundry room with your wife helping you clean your rock then both getting very ill, figuire out whats going on with symptoms and calling the in laws to get your kids out of the house for the night as you deal with yourselves from your own stupidity/ignorance! Steam+palyotocins=not a fun time at all thankfully we couldn't have been exposed to too much or it could have been much much worse!
Man I've learned so much in this hobby, and you learn more ach day!

 

[Abe K]

WHAT WAS LEFT OF A LEATHER THAT DIED along with everything else
[/QUOTE]
This is what the tank looks after omne year

 

[Bleigh]

And one year later

WHAT WAS LEFT OF A LEATHER THAT DIED along with everything else

Omg. That’s crazy!!! I thought it was a giant dog rawhide or a towel or something.

 

[flyfisher2]

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.

Best wishes. Stay positive

 

[KrisReef]

No one remembers the hobby-wide panic during the Indonesia closure? Back then I were seriously considering acquiring a sturdy boat and sailing around the world to start my own stealth reef collecting venture. I love to snorkel and dive all day in warm water and the loss of specimens at the lfs was catastrophic!
My wife vetoed the idea and my counselor agreed with her.

I’m getting old but it’s too late to panic now. I find peace in prayer for the Many issues I can not control.
Praying for @WVNed, and a long list of other stuff.