Alarn for a disasterous event.

[tat2z_21]

So today I woke up to find that my power head tripped the GFI on the frag tank in the garage. I had all of my essentials on that circuit which was an obvious design flaw. My heaters were not powered and well a tropical tank at 43 degrees is a dead tank. Everything died. Now I have to figure out how I am going to redo this to prevent anything like that in the future. Sorry but I just need to vent right now. I lost all of my RBTA's in which I had on some live rock in the sump with a 250w halide over it. All of the corals are gone. My maroon clownfish is gone. Oh well not much I can do now. I will just get back to the drawing board and plan this out a little bit better. Just a disappointing day.

 

[ashton]

wow sorry to hear.

 

[tat2z_21]

Yeah it is a tough lesson and gives me a chance to plan a little better.

 

[roscoe]

Ahhh man that totally bites!!! When I designed my system. I made sure that the system will have dedicated circuits just for the system. I had an electrician install 2 20A circuits. One circuit powers all my lights split off between the garage and my DT and a heater the other powered all my pumps and another heater in the garage. The DT itself is in my office room and the circuit for that room also powers all my PH.

 

[tat2z_21]

Redundancy is the key here. Back up to a back up. This just makes me want to throw it out the window right now though. I just can not believe that I could let something like that happen. I know that in this hobby a good rule of thumb is "If it can happen, it will happen." However I just wish that it wouldn't have been a total loss. I do not even know where to start now. My skimmer is going insane. Thank you guys for letting me get on here to vent.

 

[Myteemouse]

BUMMER
I also have 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits and 3 20 amp GFI plugs on each circuit..
wire separately so if one trips the others wont!
So sorry about this..

 

[chadmace]

In the event you cannot put things on different circuits, you can always look into one of these: Link

I don't think these are GFCI sockets, so you'll just have to put a GFCI on the sockets that have wires going to components that touch water. (If you put the GFCI before this device and the GFCI kicks then your back in the same boat.)

 

[nata]

So sorry..i have my tank in the garage also and check it often..i am always worried this will happen to me one day..do not give up!!

 

[Steve B]

sorry to hear dude...make me want to check mine and re-wire it as well...

 

[gas4544]

I am sorry for your tragic loss.

I have a 40-gallon SPS tank in the unheated garage, but I have not installed a GFCI on that tank. My two indoor tanks have them.

I visually check my tanks often. If I get up in the middle of the night for anything, I make the rounds and check on all three tanks.

g

 

[dragoneggs]

BUMMER
I also have 2 dedicated 20 amp circuits and 3 20 amp GFI plugs on each circuit..
wire separately so if one trips the others wont!
So sorry about this..

Three GFI plugs on each circuit??? If I understand you right, you do NOT want more than one GFI outlet per circuit and it should be first in line from the breaker. The rest of the outlets should be standard (non GFI).

I agree that dedicated circuits for your tank and equipment is prudent. I had two 20amp circuits on my old set up, one powering the lights, and the other powering the pumps, etc. I will do pretty much the same think with my new set up.

 

[tat2z_21]

I check my tank every night. Looks like next time I will have to sleep in there. It is just a little depressing. Has anyone ever had this happen. Normally it is the other way around and peoples heaters get stuck and cook everything. Is there a chance that the fauna and the chaeto and rock are still good. Do I need to ake everything out and restart it or should I just let it go.

 

[Myteemouse]

Three GFI plugs on each circuit??? If I understand you right, you do NOT want more than one GFI outlet per circuit and it should be first in line from the breaker. The rest of the outlets should be standard (non GFI).

I agree that dedicated circuits for your tank and equipment is prudent. I had two 20amp circuits on my old set up, one powering the lights, and the other powering the pumps, etc. I will do pretty much the same think with my new set up.

well that would be right if you wanted every plug to shut of if one trips..
In the way I have mine is if one trips the others will stay on unless there is a massive problem then all will trip . This way if one of my plugs gets wet on (lets say a fan) it will only trip that outlet, and in turn, not turn off the pump out let so my tank doesn't crash on one wet plug or exposed wire.

 

[Myteemouse]

On a side note, I had all my things pluged in and turned on
3x250w MH
1 200w heater
1 chiller
3 skimmer pumps
1 dart pump
3 k-4's 2 sea swirls
1 100w heater
2x return pumps (one quiet one 2000, on gen x 30 external)
2x fuge lights
5x fans

total amperage on two circuits = 13

 

[tat2z_21]

So after spending the afternoon changing the water and rerouting my electrical, I think I got my first glimpse of a miracle. I went in to move one of my rocks and found that my rose anemone had went into a cave and looks like it is alive. I also now see off shoots of the anemones foot that looks like I forced her into survival mode and well she is duplicating herself. I also found that one of my toadstools had partial polyp extension. Do you think that it could be possible. That these guys need for survival can be strong enough to fight off the nuclear winter. Hmmmm. Makes me wonder. My frogspawn heads are showing signs of life. I have hermit crabs popping up all over the place, and snails, those glorious snails are still there. So it may not be total devistation of life. So my next question with the amount of life lost
a) do you think that it wiped out all of the fauna, and pod population.
b) should I continue with large water changes due to the amount of die off.
Any help would be great.

 

[Inconservatory]

Your tragedy is a lesson for the rest of us. For that, I thank you. Water changes and a clean up would seem wise, but don't lose all hope! If the anemone is still alive in a small crevice, then it's likely that pods and microfauna would still be alive deep within the rock. Good luck to you.

 

[tat2z_21]

I was figuring the same thing. I hope that any residual heat left on the rocks sustained the life momentarily. It was a huge shock though. So a word of advice to all that are reading this. Redundancy is never redundant. Make sure that the life line of the tank is well maintained and properly completed to avoid any kind of mishap.