What would you do if.....

[NaH2O]

I've read several "woops" situations in regards to tanks, so I thought I could compile several of them, and see how you would handle the given situation. Hopefully, we can get some good responses put together, in case the time comes to either help someone else, or help your own system. Also, if you can think of any preventative measures....that would be a big help.

Situation 1: Lighting -

• You discovered a MH bulb has broken into the tank. What do you do?

and/or

• You go to do some tank maintenance, move the canopy, and drop half of it with PC lighting into the water. (it's possible....anything can fall in there) What do you do?

 

[Max]

well for the first one, I would take the bulb out (well actualy I would turn the power off first) then I would take the bulb out... then I would take all my coral out (with my anemone... well thats an invert, so I guess inverts first) then I would take my coral, fish would probably be dead by now, so... then put all of my coral and what not in a 20L or so, and run PC till I get it back up an going...

 

[wrightme43]

Ok now here is one I know all about. My cat broke the legs on my 4 65wt pc hood and fell with it into the tank. Excitement insued. LOL
Go immediately to the circuit brkr box, shut off power to the tank. The cat will already be out of the tank, don't worry. LOL
Take the light out of the tank, and unplug it. POWER IS OFF!!!! wipe up the water from around the tank. Turn the power to the tank back on at the barker box. Even though I could hear a sizzling noise, none of the fish were dead, the corals, clam, anemone all closed up and got very pale, all the fish were very light colored but everything lived. I did a partial, ordered a new light overnight and this is bad. I know it was wrong and wish like hell I had not done it but I kicked the cat. He had done it on purpose because he hates new flea collars. When ever I put one on him he tears something up. After sitting and thinking about it I think I understand why the fish and corals were ok. My tank is not grounded. I think had it been grounded the brkr would of blown on its own, and killed everything in the tank. JMO. I may be wrong.
Also do not waste your time completely disassembling the light, blow drying it, wipeing it off and reassembling it. I did, my reward, a few seconds of bright light followed by a little wisp of smoke and a sizzling noise and a bright flash then a small fire, I unpluged it and put it in the trash. The cat has not got near the top of the tank again, and has forgiven me for kicking him. HTH, Steve

 

[o2manyfish]

1) Turn the lights and the power to the tank off - Your GFI should save your tush - but why challenge yourself on a Friday....

2) Don't just switch things off - Actually unplug from the wall.

3) Remove the lighting and any fragments of glass. Wipe down everything with freshwater and vinegar.

Make sure everything is dry, all your wiring and end caps. Towel dry everything and then you can use a fan to get the residual moisture out.


Now as far as the Halide bulb -- Depends what part of the bulb broke. If it is just the outer shield, then that is the UV protector. Depending on how long the bulb was on - The UV can definitely kill the corals.

If the bulb totally shattered, and is 10K or over, it contains Mercury. I would recommend a large bag of carbon and a polyfilter or two. The Polyfilter can pull out various metals.

If the corals were damaged from the UC, the may start to degenerate. Water changes, more carbon, and poly filters.

Dave B

 

[mojoreef]

Nikki what have you DONE now!!!!!! lol

Heres one for ya. You come home to your tank looking like a skimmer with so many micro bubbles that you can see anything. You run into the back room and see all is well, except for a small leek from one of your ball valves. Hmm you figure, the valve must be leaking and drawing in air. No problem, go go to the store and buy some plugs for the closed loops and a new valve. Ya get home and turn off the valves (one before and one after cuz your smart) and the valves start pissing water, I mean solid streams...hmmm..you grab both valve knobs and pull up on them and the water stops leaking...phewww.

So the question...Now what!!!!!!!!!


Mike

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks for the lighting answers. Dave - thanks also for mentioning the mercury.

but why challenge yourself on a Friday....

*SIGH* - so true, except in my case it would be more like Sunday evening

you grab both valve knobs and pull up on them and the water stops leaking...phewww.

Mike, do you mean like something was loose, and when you pulled up on them they went back in place? Have you taken it apart yet? I'm curious to know why they were leaking.

I think I would replace the valves, regardless. Not an easy task for some, but I wouldn't trust them again, and my luck with water disasters would mean something larger would happen. Shoot, my luck with water, when I replace the valves, they would leak worse. *refraining from any glue comments

LOL, Mike, don't worry I haven't done anything again....yet. I have to do a water change, so we'll see. The weekend is still young.

 

[NaH2O]

oops, forgot: Max, Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

 

[mkpaulson]

lol Sounds like Mike needs to be in two places at once, he need to plug off the supply line, but to do that he needs to let go of the valves which would cause a flood, I remember a situation similar to that, but of course you're by yourself.

 

[mojoreef]

Yep thats right mark what a drag. Probibly the hardest fastest plumbing job I have ever had to do. I dragged over a ladder, took off my shoes and climbe up a couple of steps. Slid my toes under the lowest valve, kept holding the top valve and with the free hand I unscrewed the drain strainers and put in the plugs.

Came back down to begin the repair so I shut off the valves, Well five minutes later thier still leeking like crazy. I guess they dont close any more. Well...back into my latest yoga position once more and took out all the locline from the outputs on that cl (12!!!!!) and went back to the repair. A total of four hours later and I had th repair complete and running again.

Ohhh one last thing...took the old valves out behind the shed aand recycled them ...with my sledge.


MIke

 

[CarlaW]

Sounds like you are doing some fine anger management there Mike Good to hear you got the problem fixed tho.

 

[NaH2O]

LOL, Charlie. I tried that type of anger management on my closed loop, except I used my car.

OK - next couple of situations:

Your auto top-off set-up failed and ran a considerable amount of fresh RO/DI into the system significantly reducing the tanks salinity. What do you do?

and/or

Your kalkwasser set-up fails dumping all of your kalkwasser in the tank overnight. What do you do?

 

[o2manyfish]

Nikki


a) Relax and be calm

b) Determine how bad the situation is

c) See notation A


Depends on how much your salinity dropped - My system is big so I make salinity adjustments by just dumping a bag or 2 or 3 of salt directly into a high flow area of the sump (50g Salt Mix) --- While this is definitely not the recommended way of mixing salt water into a tank -- I never said I did things by the book.

You can make an extremely high salinity solution, If you take a 5g bucket and add salt till the water can't reach a higher salinity - Max Concentration. Then set that high concentration on a drip line (air line with a loose knot acting as a siphon line.

Keep adding the higher salinity concentration slowly until you are a happy camper.



Now for Scenario B -- Your Kalk

a) See notation A from above

b) Depends how much Kalk, and what the effects are. If you overdosed your kalk to fatal levels, then by morning the story is written, time to do a massive water change, and plan the things you want to change about your tank before restarting it.

c) If however, you dumped your Kalk load, and in the morning the inhabitants of the tank are still alive, you can do a partial water change. Depending on the Calc level in your tank, you may have gotten the white calcium snow storm that occurs when the Calc levels reach maximum concentration and the Calcium begins to precipitate out of the water and appear to be snow.

If this is the case, stop your kalk and calc for a few days. Your tank should be dusted in white -- Use a powerhead of a turkey baster to keep blowing it off the rocks for several days, it should dissolve back into the water column. You can also use a small micron (5 to 15) filter sock to accellerate this part of the project.

Dave B

 

[NaH2O]

Thanks Dave!

I never thought about making a maximum concentration salt water - sounds easier than the plan I had in place. I always thought of water changing gradually over several days with an increased salinity. I suppose both would accomplish the same, as long as it was slow.

In regards to the kalk - I would either quickly set-up a QT tank for anything that is still alive, or find someone to hold livestock that is still healty until I could get the tank back under control. I would water change like crazy.

Next Scenario (anytime, feel free to add to what has been discussed prior)


• While working in the tank, you feel current. What would you do?

 

[CarlaW]

I would think that I would start turning my equipment off one by one until the current disappeared, hopefully . That way you can identify which piece of equipment is causing the problem and then take the correct action after that. Never had this happen to me, so this would be an educated guess