What causes a tank to "crash?"

NanoNano · Nov 10, 2010

I see so many people talking about losing everything in tank crashes.

Is it something usually that is cut and dry like:

My heater malfunctioned
My ATO malfunctioned
Power went out for a few days

etc.?

Or does it include things like pests, etc.?

Just curious. Thanks

Speg · Nov 10, 2010

Not usually pests. More like, I put too many fish in and the bioload has gotten too much and everything died...or my heater malfunctioned and boiled everything.......my kid spilled bleach in the tank.....nitrates get locked in bioballs or somewhere, you move the bioballs and have a huge nitrate spike that messes stuff up.........etc...

stuff like that....Now, i did have a coral eating fire worm that was one of the reasons that I quit the hobby years ago....thing ate almost all of my corals/anemones..I was left with a few little dinky corals and it ended up really killing my mood for keeping a tank....but, I wouldn't consider that story the same as a "crash".

Paul_N · Nov 10, 2010

When I hear people talk about a crash, I usually don't associate it with a pest infestation. I always think of a tank crash as a situation that causes one or more parameters to drop or rise to an extreme value. Like a heater malfunction can cause the temp to drop and freeze everything or rise and boil it. A malfunction with a top off pump will cause the salinity to drop. A malfunction with the alk reactor can cause the alk to spike. I realize there are unsolved tank crashes where most of the coral just rtn but I always think of parameters.

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nixer · Nov 10, 2010

it could also be cyano, algae, and dino outbreaks.

robharold · Nov 10, 2010

There are hundreds of reasons a tank can crash. Everything from equipment malfuntions to a lack of husbandry.

I have never experienced a full crash, but I did have a heater malfunction on an icechest that was acting as a holding tank and killed off nearly $2000 woth of livestock. Sometimes, no explanation is ever found for the crash but most of the time, I have seen it traced back to equipment, or bad batch of chemicals from folks I have known.

Even occasionally you can get a crash caused by "old tank" syndrome.

inactive · Nov 10, 2010

nixer said:
it could also be cyano, algae, and dino outbreaks.

Tank has to first be established before it can crash, these are not signs of a "crash" imo.. but more signs of poor reefkeeping from the jump.

NanoNano · Nov 10, 2010

robharold said:
There are hundreds of reasons a tank can crash. Everything from equipment malfuntions to a lack of husbandry.

I have never experienced a full crash, but I did have a heater malfunction on an icechest that was acting as a holding tank and killed off nearly $2000 woth of livestock. Sometimes, no explanation is ever found for the crash but most of the time, I have seen it traced back to equipment, or bad batch of chemicals from folks I have known.

Even occasionally you can get a crash caused by "old tank" syndrome.

Great responses all, thanks.

What is "old tank" syndrome?

Wy Renegade · Nov 10, 2010

NanoNano said:
Great responses all, thanks.

What is "old tank" syndrome?

Click the link for an article; Old Tank Syndrome

nixer · Nov 10, 2010

Kraylen said:
Tank has to first be established before it can crash, these are not signs of a "crash" imo.. but more signs of poor reefkeeping from the jump.

not if you have not kept up with your tank

NanoNano · Nov 10, 2010

Wy Renegade said:
Click the link for an article; Old Tank Syndrome

Got it thanks.

drainbamage · Nov 10, 2010

Just like with a car, I always figured a crash is just when things go real bad. Like others have said, it's either things that build up to the point that the problem isn't easily overcome (bio-load buildup) or sudden but so extreme it's catastophic (power out+ failed check valve = water on floor and dead corals/fish.) Usually not pests, but a pest infestation is just as much a frustrating thing as any others that can seemingly "force" a person out of the hobby in frustration. Having to QT one of my tanks and dip every 3-4 days to wipe out Nudi's was just annoying, and perhaps if it had been in a bigger tank or one with a larger collection, I could have become frustrated to the point of calling it a crash and just dumping the tank and starting over.