What caused your tank crash?

[SeveredDime]

Having kids!

We were blessed with twins. So in the early years I had less and less time for the tank and I failed to notice one my GFCI's tripped and shut down a lot of the equipment. Doesn't take long to crash once things start to cool off.

 

[Susan Bates]

Dosing Tri-sulpur for Ick this was my ammonia and now I have brown jelly

The Tri-sulpurkilled the good bacteria as well as the bad

 

[zoomonster]

Two major ones in my time...

1) Crap pressure sensor ATO stuck on and wiped a whole tank when I was away. Don't remember brand but was one of the first ATO units back in the 90's and fish, softies and LPS all gone. I had a large ATO reservoir with float operated RODI and it just kept going. Fortunately the sump was in basement with tank upstairs and the water just flowed out the basement sump pump. In about 2 days tank was 100% freshwater.
2) More recently an alkalinity crash that only bothered SPS. Lost more than 1/2 my colonies and a bunch of frags. Mostly my fault for not monitoring alk more closely and realizing my CaRx was not really working right. Dumb mistake on a tank that was my first almost all SPS tank. Now the CaRx has been remodeled to add a 2nd chamber with non clogging constant flow and I use an ATO (Tunze or nothing) fed Kalk stirrer. Did I mention I check alkalinity more often .

 

[Pdandy]

My tank is set up at my work and we have generators for the building if the power goes out so I never thought a power outage would be a problem. I was wrong. My heater kicked on for the first time since I set the tank up back in February and it tripped the breaker to the tank and maybe two other rooms in the building. This was on early Saturday morning and almost no one is there over the weekend. Since the rest of the building had power the generators were not turned on and no one reset the breaker. Cleaning lady comes in Sunday and notices dead and dying fish and calls me right away. Lost about half my fish. Luckily my corals were fine. Needless to say I got a battery backup the next day and set up my Apex to text me when the power goes out, not when it comes back on.

 

[cloak]

I'm not sure if this would be considered a crash, but I woke up one morning to find a crack running straight down the middle of my tank. I had to tear the whole thing down before the tank burst. At the time I didn't have the funds to start a new one so everything had to be traded in at the LFS. The tank was about 9 years old when this happened too.

 

[bruleyii]

I'm not sure if this would be considered a crash, but I woke up one morning to find a crack running straight down the middle of my tank. I had to tear the whole thing down before the tank burst. At the time I didn't have the funds to start a new one so everything had to be traded in at the LFS. The tank was about 9 years old when this happened too.

This is always my fear. IF it would ever happen to me I think I would just hold everything in tubs until I could find a replacement tank.

 

[Jeff.:P:.]

On my old tank I had an auto top off valve stay on dumping freshwater and lowering salinity.
-1/2 off the Acropora bleached and lost a few.

On my current AOI nano tank, while I was away on vacation the return pump failed/clogged. This raised salinity, set off CA/ALK parameters and chilled the tank. Luckily only lost a few Acropora.

Lessons learned:
- Do not tie in your ATO to your water service.
- Regular maintenance of all pumps is highly recommended.

*Knocks on wood.

 

[brotherd]

Right front seam separated on my 180 gal in the middle of the night. Smell woke me up. Lost everything but a few fish and a couple torches and a hammer. Planning a new system.

 

[Shaun Sweeney]

Had a heater melt the bracket that held it to the back of the tank. It also melted an air line running along side it. It was a fresh water tank but it killed everything in the tank almost instantly.

 

[reeefer]

Following

 

[lauderdalestunner]

Had my brother watch the tank while on vacation..............

 

[EAsalty]

Chemical Warfare in my mixed reef. I was using Rally and kick Itch and everything was fine fish and corals looking good. Just for good measure. I decide to run an extra week or so after the treatment in the event the little itch gremlins were still hatching. Any Who, I was advised by Ruby Red to conduct a healthy WC and run my skimmer before adding a couple of extra weeks. Well, I did not conduct a WC. I guess my leathers had about enough and all H*ll broke loose as everything in the tank started fighting. My LPS and SPS corals started to shut down and being a noobie, I did not recognize this was occurring until it was nearly too late. After conducting numerous water changes, running carbon, wet skimming, and dipping the corals, I was able to save some corals. However, I lost the majority of my SPS and LPS corals. I will add the leathers and softies were smiling the entire time!

The Rally and Kick Itch worked fine and I blame myself for not conducting the WC as instructed by the folks at Ruby Red before extending the treatment. In addition, as a noobie, I was not testing my water parameters- costly mistake learned well.

 

[madweazl]

Lots of heater failures. I setup my first tank around '95 and I've never had a heater failure (knock on wood). It really surprises me to read of so many.

 

[Darryl]

package of OREO cookies:mad_O

 

[madweazl]

package of OREO cookies:mad_O

I've had TV remotes, hot wheels, crayons, and assorted other ridiculous things but never cookies LOL.

 

[shorty2545]

Got a clown. Wife and kids insisted on a nem. Got a condy. Need I say more??? Lol

 

[bobman]

I have had 2 crashes over the years first was on my 180. I had a stone crab in the sump and he got big really big. One day chewed through the cord to my return pump. When I got home I seen my corals were dead/dieing along with my cat shark dead. First thing I though was check my water when I stuck my hand in the tank ZAP it was a shocking experience to say the least. The worst part was I lost almost everything but the stone crab lived.

The second time was pretty recent when I moved my 150. I still am not sure exactly what happened. Broke the tank down put livestock in a brute trash can and rocks in another one. Put sand in buckets. I moved the tank fine but was waiting for rodi water for the tank. Put powerheads in the trash cans for flow and left it over night. Next morning almost everything was dead. Only thing I can figure was I must have stirred up the sand to much trying to catch the livestock and it contaminated the water I put in the trash cans. Other than that I have no idea what actually caused the crash.

 

[bobman]

Had my brother watch the tank while on vacation..............

Dang sorry to hear that

 

[that Reef Guy]

Paly Toxin

 

[djsmallz]

I have had 2 tank crashes and I think I finally know why....Reefapollaza... Lol. No I think it was changing salt too fast. I normally would change 20% of my water but I changed from the standard instant oceans to Brightwell salt. Tank appears to have negative reaction a few days later so naturally I do another water change of course this makes it worse corals rtn, turn pale and/or shrivel up and die. So I move start a new tank back to my instant ocean everything is thriving in its new home I go to Reefapollaza and is lucky enough to win salt. I run out out of instant ocean start new salt and repeat the same process over with the same result. Of course that's when the light bulb went off and I came to the conclusion slowwwwwwly change salt or be ready to replace all your sticks. Needless to say, I'll be buying rather large quantities of same brand salt moving forward.