Rude Awakening

[Susan Edwards]

Rudely awakened by hubbie informing me that there was a lot of water on the floor of my office! Rushed in--carefully of course to see that the display refugium was spraying water out of the tank.Down about 7-8 gal as that is approx what I had to put back in!

cleaned up all water after shutting everything down. So glad my electronics and plugs are in a cabinet we just set up. Used an Ikea medicine cabinet. There were two other cords on the floor for other things so new rule: no plugs on floor. hang them up on wall! Wiped down the hanging lights. Hoping no water got inside the box

Figure the problem was the spray bar of the canister filter. Noticed when I went to bed, water level down just a bit. Decided it could wait until morning. lots of times it was lower before I topped off. Wrong move... I think the middle section of the spray bar somehow got turned toward back of tank and pointed up and it started just spraying water out which led to more as water level dropped. Ended up a big mess.

My hubby said it wasn't flooded when he got up--the noise of the powerheads alerted him. Water level has been lower without issue--a bit of spray toward front usually but never this fast or bad. Took spray bar out. Water can just return to tank. Pointed a powerhead up toward surface for oxygen exchange. Has a nice shimmer going so should be good. Only a sand sifter goby and damsel in there, along with some macros and colts and xenias.

Fish are now back out. Tank is a bit cooler--74 degrees. Hoping heater not damaged as it was on and exposed. Will watch it. Red light is on so hopefully...

Tank will be taken apart in a couple months and turned to a QT tank--it's a 39 gal tall tank. Rock and sand will go into the sump or in the new tank of my new build if no macro or corals on the rock and I think I'll take off the canister filter and order another aquaclear hob power filter. Have 2 others and like them. The one on the 20 gal hex might be okay but I may want to get a bigger, stronger one and keep the others as back up or if I decide to use 2.

Lessons learned:
--don't put off topping off
--keep all plugs/extension cords/electronics away from water and off floor in case of a flood...
--glad no carpet. Put down waterproof vinyl plank flooring
--Label cords in cabinet so I can quickly shut down, esp. if one hasn't had any coffee
So my day has started with an unpleasant bang...

 

[five.five-six]

Oh crap!

Lessons learned:
--don't put off topping off
--keep all plugs/extension cords/electronics away from water and off floor in case of a flood...
--glad no carpet. Put down waterproof vinyl plank flooring
--Label cords in cabinet so I can quickly shut down, esp. if one hasn't had any coffee

That’s a really good set of best practices. I would go one step further and say that an ATO is essential for a host of reasons that I won’t go into here.

So my day has started with an unpleasant bang...

Gets your heart pumping! Better than coffee really


Also, take note of just how much you can accomplish is a short period of time when you are on task. It’s rather amazing.

 

[Susan Edwards]

lol's @five.five-six I don't have an ato on that tank as the original plan had been to plumb it to the main display. Now I plan to take that tank apart and make it a qt when my new build is going. Spray bar is gone so won't have that issue again...

 

[five.five-six]

I recommend against plumbing directly to an ATO. Falls under lessons learned. When the ATO fails you will have a wet floor and a brackish tank. Note that si said when it fails, not if it fails.

 

[Susan Edwards]

oh, meant that the display refugium was going to be plumbed to the main display and the main display has an ato so I wouldn't need one for the refugium.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Glad to see you survived! It certainly could have been a lot worse....as you pointed out.

I must say, this hobby is a whole bunch of "lessons learned." In my case, I call them "Doh" lessons....and I've had a bunch.