Tank crash: not an if but when

[ScottR]

My background, this is my second time in this hobby. Current tank is about 40 gallons and 3 months old. I keep reading horror stories on here - whether it be a 1 month old tank or a 10 year old tank crashing. I know at some point something will go horribly wrong. As much hard work, time and money we put in - it’s bound to happen and it’s extrmemly frustrating.

Care to share your stories about what went wrong with a tank you have/had? How you dealt with it.

A pic of my tank. (Sorry it’s so blue. iPhone takes horrible photos)

 

[ccombs]

Had to fully breakdown tank after 7 months. Introduced Chromis with Uronema (looked healthy when added). Unfortunately I misdiagnosed the issue (it seemed to correlate with some other parameter issues going on as well). In the end I lost 6 fish to Uronema in DT, 2 made it to QT where I then got velvet somehow, which took another fish out, and I am fighting velvet with the only remaining one.

I proceeded to do a full bleaching of everything, rebuilt my system from ground up, took a lot of time and money and I almost ditched the hobby.

 

[ScottR]

Had to fully breakdown tank after 7 months. Introduced Chromis with Uronema (looked healthy when added). Unfortunately I misdiagnosed the issue (it seemed to correlate with some other parameter issues going on as well). In the end I lost 6 fish to Uronema in DT, 2 made it to QT where I then got velvet somehow, which took another fish out, and I am fighting velvet with the only remaining one.

I proceeded to do a full bleaching of everything, rebuilt my system from ground up, took a lot of time and money and I almost ditched the hobby.

That’s so frustrating. Sorry to hear about that loss. I used to keep fish when I was in high school in Hawaii. I never used salt or a refractometer. I lived close to the beach so I just used ocean water. One day all of my fish just died so I broke it down and quit. And here I am again... but doing it *right* this time.

 

[Boltline]

I’ve had the nasty case of bryopsis that I was just dealing with for serval months. I was ready to call it quits until I came across the fluconazole thread. It completely saved me from a reboot! The big lesson that I learned was not give up too soon and keep doing research. We are all going to have tough time with our tanks but having grit in the hard times will keep you going.

 

[ScottR]

I’ve had the nasty case of bryopsis that I was just dealing with for serval months. I was ready to call it quits until I came across the fluconazole thread. It completely saved me from a reboot! The big lesson that I learned was not give up too soon and keep doing research. We are all going to have tough time with our tanks but having grit in the hard times will keep you going.

I agree. I’ve kept freshwater as well. I had a 125g crack. There’s no saving that. Cleanup wasn’t fun. Kept me out of the hobby for years.

 

[beaslbob]

Had tanks fw and salt since '79 or so with some setups running for 10-12 years continuous.

(I moved around in the air force every 5-6 years or so. LOL)

After I settled into my routine I did have one major tank crash.

It was after I thought I was so successful I put on some latex gloves to frag some corals.

In 10 hours all the fish were breathing heavy and very distressed. Lost a yellow tang the next day.

Ammonia was off the charts.

I moved livestock to a tank I was culturing macro algae in and the fish recovered in hours.

Treated the display with Prime.

It took 3 weeks for the tank to recover with deep ph drops down to 7.6 or lower. All corals mostly softies lost.

Fish were returned to display and lived for years after that.

I suspect the latex gloves had a disinfectant with crashed the system.

lesson learned.

my .02

 

[therealman1]

Got a new kitten, kitten found the power strip the first night. Kitten proceeds to turn off the tank in the middle of the night. "Lucky" for me I just lost 2 clowns and a diamond back goby.

 

[Flippers4pups]

There is a bit of unknown with a tank at times. Equipment failures are a major issue, but as with anything reef related, it's hinges on the reef keeper to be in tune with ones tank and inspect everything closely on a daily basis. Won't stop a failure, but will help reduce chances.

Not saying this is the norm, but in all my years in the hobby, I've never had a catastrophic tank failure. Chemistry wise, tank leak or crack....etc. I've had equipment failures, of course, but never brought the tank down to a loss. Knock on wood! Lol

 

[fish farmer]

My first crash was after I had upgraded from a 38 to a 55 gallon after two years in the hobby. I had a heat wave while I was away cook the 2 month old 55. I recured my tank and rock, had some bleached plays come back and some mushrooms, I still have both. The 55 was never the same after, I was plagued with lots of algae problems. I never thought of leaving the hobby, there were lots of local reefers with cheap frags. I was planning on buying a house so there was the potential for another upgrade/restart.

My second tank crash was soon after another upgrade(downgrade) to a 25 gallon wall tank. I had a DIY overflow which was really noisy and I tried fixing it. Cracked the tank and had water pouring out the side, duct tape to the rescue. Luckily I had a middle refuge tank so everything went in there. I upgraded to the current 29 I have now.

 

[Darsh]

My background, this is my second time in this hobby. Current tank is about 40 gallons and 3 months old. I keep reading horror stories on here - whether it be a 1 month old tank or a 10 year old tank crashing. I know at some point something will go horribly wrong. As much hard work, time and money we put in - it’s bound to happen and it’s extrmemly frustrating.

I'm setting up a tank at the moment after a nearly 6 year break. I never had a tank fail just a little ich outbreak with my very first saltwater fish.
But I agree with you I keep reading about tanks crashing, and people sound like it's totally normal. The worst I think is the tank cracking or an overflow failure and flooding the house! Hopefully I'll never have to deal with that, the boss would kill me!

 

[MrObscura]

I'm a noob with only an 8 month old nano, but from my readings most crashes seem to result from one of three things. Either a major Alk crash or spike. It's an ulns that was always living precariously on the edge to begin with. Or lastly, it's a no water change system thats gone years without one and eventually something throws off the balance. And in a way it was living just as precariously as the ulns.

Really outside of a freak accident I'd like to think a reefer could avoid a total crash if they stay on top of things and avoid pitfalls.

 

[ScottR]

I'm a noob with only an 8 month old nano, but from my readings most crashes seem to result from one of three things. Either a major Alk crash or spike. It's an ulns that was always living precariously on the edge to begin with. Or lastly, it's a no water change system thats gone years without one and eventually something throws off the balance. And in a way it was living just as precariously as the ulns.

Really outside of a freak accident I'd like to think a reefer could avoid a total crash if they stay on top of things and avoid pitfalls.

I’ve been reading lots with ppl that have had lost entire fish and/or coral populations and their parameters were totally in check (supposedly). But I believe that husbandry will save and protect your tank. Unlike, those ppl that neglect their tanks for months or a year.

 

[Doctorgori]

I think most of my tank crashes took 2 forms:
power outages or sandbed "nuclear" events (or some type of environmental toxin) ...my last crash happened just 2 mos ago took out a 6yr old bonded pair of marine bettas plus many fish over 3-5 yrs old //the pain
----the power outages: I had 2; mid summer in Phoenix in the 90's, back then all we had were batt operated air pumps ... all I could do was call A very nice LFS store owner who was nice enough to drive out to my place and dig through the slime & goo for survivors
----Sand bed crashes and environmental poisons: I usually do massive water changes over 24hrs, run carbon like heck ....usually save most livestock, never all

 

[ScottR]

I think most of my tank crashes took 2 forms:
power outages or sandbed "nuclear" events (or some type of environmental toxin) ...my last crash happened just 2 mos ago took out a 6yr old bonded pair of marine bettas plus many fish over 3-5 yrs old //the pain
----the power outages: I had 2; mid summer in Phoenix in the 90's, back then all we had were batt operated air pumps ... all I could do was call A very nice LFS store owner who was nice enough to drive out to my place and dig through the slime & goo for survivors
----Sand bed crashes and environmental poisons: I usually do massive water changes over 24hrs, run carbon like heck ....usually save most livestock, never all

When I lived in Hawaii, we had power outages all the time. Even a thunderstorm could leave you two days without power. Such a pain. Living in Hong Kong now, we have extremely fierce storms annually. Never one power outage. ;Muted

 

[WVNed]

I have had 2 tank crashes. A heater exploded and burned in the sump while I was gone. I went on a 2 week vacation and the person watching our pets never added the water I left to fill the tank.

Never leave your tank

ever

 

[ScottR]

I have has 2 tank crashes. A heater exploded and burned in the sump while I was gone. I went on a 2 week vacation and the person watching our pets never added the water I left to fill the tank.

Never leave your tank

ever

There seems to be a consensus about never leaving your tank alone. No long vacations for me ;Sorry

 

[SeaDweller]

ASO wasn’t shutting off on my RODI unit. Depleted my filters before I realized they needed to be replaced, so I was probably pumping in water with some TDS in it despite me changing the DI resin based off of color. Lost 100% of my SPS. Also never trusting a hand held refractometer again.

 

[ScottR]

ASO wasn’t shutting off on my RODI unit. Depleted my filters before I realized they needed to be replaced, so I was probably pumping in water with some TDS in it despite me changing the DI resin based off of color. Lost 100% of my SPS. Also never trusting a hand held refractometer again.

Ouch. All SPS?

 

[norfolkgarden]

Clueless noob 3 years in who could work miracles.
SPS, LPS, softies and 21 fish in a 75 gallon tank.
Until the DSB became fully saturated with filth.


Not bulletproof. :-(
DSB's eventually can fail.
DSB's still need maintenance.
20 pounds of nice Fiji rock sits in the backyard cause the SPS graveyard was too much to look at.

The third picture is typical. The original $5 frag was a tiny dot in the center 1/5 the height of the other small branches.

Can't reproduce that tank stability yet in a bare bottom.

 

[ScottR]

Clueless noob 3 years in who could work miracles.
SPS, LPS, softies and 21 fish in a 75 gallon tank.
Until the DSB became fully saturated with filth.


Not bulletproof. :-(
DSB's eventually can fail.
DSB's still need maintenance.
20 pounds of nice Fiji rock sits in the backyard cause the SPS graveyard was too much to look at.

The third picture is typical. The original $5 frag was a tiny dot in the center 1/5 the height of the other small branches.

Can't reproduce that tank stability yet in a bare bottom.

Nice tank. Flame angels, clown, cardinals, hippo, yellow tang. Good variety.

I went from DSB to BB. Sand gave me more problems than I hoped for in the end. BB is just easier to manage but it does limit you. I’m considering putting coral rubble later. But still thinking.