Tragedy Strikes Again

[Clownguy]

Well, my wife and I came home this evening and she noticed that my tank smelled a little fishy. So I thought she was crazy and ignored her. I went out a couple minutes later just to check and she was right. The tank temperature was 95 degrees. Oh my GOD!!! Apparently the fan on my chiller stopped and heated the living bejesus out of my tank What really irritated me was that I had just got a bunch a frags from reefer madness and they were all starting to grow like crazy. As of 11:30 I have lost 5 of the nicest frags I got and most of the rest are not looking so good. If it is not one thing its another.

Chris

 

[jsmkmavity]

dont count them out yet. they can look like theres nothing left to save but sometimes if put in a good clean tank they will come back. NEVER give up!

 

[Elmo18]

We all band together. Each one of our tanks are works in progress, and hopefully you will resolve your problem and have everything back in shape.

Which model chiller was it? (make/model).

I think at the same time, now would be a good time to check the heater, just to make sure it is ok as well.

Best,
Ilham

 

[morgan]

sorry to hear your losses man i hate lossing acros and zoo's i would be hell pissed at my chiller cause those things arent cheaphope u ring the company

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear that man! I had to look twice when you said 95F! Ouch! I hope your losses don't end up being as bad as you thought. I hope it all works out man. Sorry to hear that again...

 

[shallowreef]

Wow sorry to here that.

 

[DonW]

Ive had the fan on my Pacific Coast chiller fail 3 times. I called granger and they fixed me up with a fan that should last much longer. They just crossed over the part number. The original fan cost $10 to replace and the new one was $55 and fit perfectly.

Don

 

[Clownguy]

Hey Don, you dont remember that number do you, because mine is a pacific coast chiller also model C-0250.

Well, The losses are worse then I thought. When I went to bed my a lot of my stuff wa looking alright, but when I went out to check it out the tank was cloudy and most of my corals had totaly RTNed or were getting ready to. This really sucks that $10 fan can cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Chris

 

[LakeEd]

Chris,

I would contact Pacific Coast if I was you, and let them know of your problem. They have had an outstanding rep for service on their products... and might just surprise you and help with the new fan.

I know their manual does state "Clean and Lubricate the fan monthly, inspecting for any wear"... which is covering them in cases like this I'm sure.

However, you're correct... even a replacement fan now won't help with the casualties you are, and will continue to have in your tank for a while yet.

Very sorry to hear all this! Keep your chin up guy!!!

 

[bc_slc]

wow, I am so sorry to hear Chris. Keep at it, even this you can overcome. Totally sucks to have 2 back-to-back equipment failures.

Let me know when you get setup again. You can have frags of anything that is fragable in my tank for free. I have some nice stuff you might like.

Mat

 

[DonW]

Sorry dont have any pn#'s. I use the granger in fife, they are very helpful most of the time. Its not a question of customer service with pacific coast. They were good to me and replaced my fans under warranty. Its a quality of the fan issue and pc is going to give you the same oem fan. Some people have had great luck with theirs and other havent, just depends on how often your chiller runs.

Don

 

[Krish]

So far no problems with my Pacific Coast CL-280. Hopefully I won't have to replace any fans...

 

[jammet]

Man I am really sorry to hear this. Those chillers can be a scary item when they break down. If I were you I would look in to other fan options from a different source. I work with computers all day long and have had tons of fans die, clog, lose bearings, catch fire and a few other problems in there. Buying quaility fans really makes a difference in noise, life, and maintence.

It might be helpful as well to look in to backup's for your chiller, maybe for some way to shut it off if something like this happens again.

 

[Clownguy]

I love my chiller I have had it for 5 years now with no problems until last night. I even run two of Pacific Coasts pumps. Their customer service is great. I think I am going to go to the granger up here in Everett today.

Chris

 

[james734]

Sorry to hear about the loss

It did make me go tear apart my Pacific Coast chiller and lube up my fan and flush it out.. I haven't done anything with since I got a 1 year ago.

 

[Beckmola24]

Sorry to hear about your losses! I had the suction cup lose suction on the probe of my won bros heater and bake my tank to 95 too... I only had snails in there at the time though... half made it, half didn't. Luckily enough my lr didn't lose any life in the long run. As of today I have many sponges and dusters on my rock.... Keep your spirits up as much as you can! Again, sorry for your losses.

 

[robo100]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss.

I can recomend something that may help next time. I use a temperature controller from Finnex and its a pretty simple device. Basically you plug the unit into the wall outlet and plug your 120V device into the controller. There is a temperature sensor that goes inside your tank. Then you set the dial to the maximum high temperature (70 to 94 degrees). What happens is the unit provides 120VAC to your device and when the temperature of the water rises too high a relay inside the controller will disconnect your device. I use these units on my standard heaters for freshwater and reef but there is no reason that I know of that they wouldn't work on a chiller. They control up to 800Watt devices (10 amps of current) and if your handy you could use a solid state relay on the output with normally open contacts to control higher current if your chiller draws more than 10 amps. And here is the best news... It's only $30.00. Not sure where you are located as I am located in the USA. But here is the source I use..

http://www.northcoastmarines.com/heaters_thermometers.htm#thermometers

Of course there is always the argument that the finnex controller could fail causing the device not to be powered up but so far after a year all my controllers (3 of them) are running fine.

 

[jsmkmavity]

if its rated for enough amps you could plug your lites into one also and this would minimize the problem in this situation. maybe one for lites and one for heaters/chillers.

 

[Clownguy]

Well the week just keeps getting better. I just got back from the vet with my chocolate lab and found out the he has hip displacia. At least it is not to bad. The tanks temp has stabilized and I have done a few water changes the tank is still cloudy. Anyone know how long it will be until the tank clears up again? I just put some new carbon in.

Chris

 

[Clownguy]

I have just ordered the temperature controller by the way. Thanks for the advice.

Chris