Woke up to smoke

[Gexx]

Hi all,

As the title says my fiance woke up and noticed the aquarium was trickling and smelled smoke. Needless to say, my HOB CPR aquafuge was somehow overflowing and dripping water down the side into the stand of the aquarium.

Now, this normally wouldnt be a huge issue as drip loops were made for all equipment. However, one of my power strips became disconnected from the stand wall and all drip loops to that cord were undone. This caused water drainage to that chord and smoke to come out of power chord. This then caused my ATO to start up, filling with fresh.

IDK all the damage yet (AI Prime HD was plugged into this strip and adaptor is wet now) but am assessing as i clean.

I have new saltwater ready to do a water change, hopefully to balance SG (1.022 now)

What i need help on:

Best way to minimize damage to the light/ any other equipment plugged into this power source

Advice on making sure this doesnt happen in the future

How did the HOB fuge overflow? It has a large outlet, possibly my carbon bag blocking flow?

Needless to say, it was an eventful 2am wake up call, but luckily no full blown fire.

Tank inhabitants seem fine so far.

Attached are some pics

 

[Hemmdog]

Sorry to hear about that. Times like this are never fun. The hob refugiums have always scared me for that reason. I like everything to be contained inside the system not hanging off it, so when it happens to overflow it will overflow into the system and not on your surge protector lol.

 

[Gexx]

Update. Light dried out and seems to work fine. Doing a water change now to help salinity and drying out the stand with a fan, will likely leave it as is until after work.

Just running surface agitation pump, heater and lights until i have more time to fix it this evening

 

[Katrina71]

I'm sorry about the chaos, but glad you caught it!

 

[Gexx]

Fuge came back on and seems to work fine. Carbon bag must have blocked the output... thats all i can come up with

 

[Gareth elliott]

That is a crappy thing to wake up too
Besides the carbon bag.
With hob overflows, ime need to routinely check the siphon and the return pump. If either starts to decrease the overflow can also fail. Return slows down, not enough flow to maintain the siphon(the cpr uses a pump to counteract this, but could fail at the same time its needed).

When using attachment adhesives, i use velcro strips. Attach the strips to the product and wall 24 hours before placing together, will allow adhesive to set before weight begins to pull on them. Cord management can also be used as a backup for if does fail. Some key placed cord wraps and cord holders can maintain to weight of surge pad or other item so if the attachment fails theres a back up. Can also make your own overflow alarm, will only work if home but its something. A simple circuit where a Float valve completes the circuit to an alarm when engaged. Seneye also has leak detectors now. So if dont have a full controller can get alerts when not at home.

 

[jrill]

I use the smart level switch on all my tanks
https://media.cdn.bulkreefsupply.co...autoaqua-atolevelsecurity-controller-fr_1.jpg

Connect to your pump it will turn it off if the tank level gets too high and prevents the overflow

 

[Dom]

Fuge came back on and seems to work fine. Carbon bag must have blocked the output... thats all i can come up with

Why were you running carbon and why were you running it in the fuge?

 

[Gexx]

Why were you running carbon and why were you running it in the fuge?

Its a HOB fuge, so there is a pump in and gravity return. There is also a shelf that can hold media bags in the gravity return.

 

[dutch27]

How were the power strips attached to the stand and wall? I've had strips attached to the wall via a screw in a stud that they hung on and they never faltered. I'll also +1 to the idea of velcro strips above, also effective.

 

[Jr'sReef]

I hang all my strips using the conventional method with the screws. But I also use zip ties the ones that one end has a hole for a screw. And secure the power strips to the stand with zip ties. I also use those zip ties to secure the wires to the stand as well.

 

[Captain Quint]

Sorry, this happened but glad to hear that you handled so quickly.

 

[JasonK84]

Was any of this plugged through a GFCI socket or strip? That could have been very bad! Glad all is ok and it was discovered early.

 

[Gexx]

All plugged into a strip. My cat must have gotten into the stand (will be butting eggcrate on the back now) and knocked the strip from the stand wall. Things are now velcroed to the sides. Stand is still drying out. attached are photos of the old strip. MAKE SURE TO CATPROOF YOUR STAND FOLKS

 

[Gexx]

How were the power strips attached to the stand and wall? I've had strips attached to the wall via a screw in a stud that they hung on and they never faltered. I'll also +1 to the idea of velcro strips above, also effective.

They were attached via the "notch" in the back that a screw head can fit in. In guessing the cat knocked it off at some point this past week and i didnt notice. Velcro is being used now.

 

[rkpetersen]

MAKE SURE TO CATPROOF YOUR STAND FOLKS

+1. One of mine (the orange terror) liked to crawl in the back of the equipment compartments and lay down on all the cords and power supplies , before I blocked his access.

 

[Dom]

Its a HOB fuge, so there is a pump in and gravity return. There is also a shelf that can hold media bags in the gravity return.

I'm still curious... why were you running carbon?

 

[Why-Me]

Wow!
Glad to hear you, your fiance and home are ok.

 

[Gexx]

I'm still curious... why were you running carbon?

Sorry i didnt address this. I just ran a treatment of chemiclean, so added a bit extra carbon to get the remnants out. I also have softies so i usually run carbon in the tank

 

[Gexx]

Wow!
Glad to hear you, your fiance and home are ok.

We are very thankful it was caught in time and there was no significant damage. Drying the carpet and stand have been the only real issues stemming from this, its been an all day affair. Couldnt stay at work knowing there was just wet carpet sitting at home