jeremyjoslin
New member
Catastrophe has struck. Screw closed loop circuits and their ilk.
It happened like this...
My hammerhead pump in the basement driving my closed loop circuit blew a seal last week. I turned the pump off and locked off the ball valves on either side of the pump. The seals arrived in the mail today, so I disconnected the union ball valve x 2 and removed the pump. Worked on the pump for a bit and realized unscrewing the impeller was a two person job so I left it until tomorrow.
Walked up the stairs and heard a loud pop and a waterfall. Rushed downstairs and water was pouring like a fire house from here:
Later I would find these pieces that blew out of the valve from the pressure:
Looking up into it:
Luckily I have a large drain from my basement out of the bottom of it out to our yard (our house is on a hill). Still, 4 inches of water is a lot when it's your entire basement:
The entire tank drained in a matter of 2-3 minutes. I was thinking it only drained half of my tank as I thought the pipe fitting that broke was on the intake side which was located half way up my tank (in my disaster planning stages, I was somewhat comforted by the thought of failure on this circuit as only draining half the tank).
But in the heat of the moment (I dove into the gushing water trying to hold it back with my palm completely helplessly and insignificantly), I was mistaken. It was the side that returned water to the tank bottom and so it drained the entire tank minus 3 inches. I didn't know until I came upstairs.
All 15 or so fish and my few corals!!!!
I dove into action grabbing fish with my hands and carrying them down to my sump (70g plus inline 40g refugium). At least I have a temporary holding cell for them!
Could you imaging going from a normal life to a 300g tank being emptied with all its livestock in it???????
I've grabbed what I could and now have an empty tank in my living room
Tomorrow is dump day for all the sand, LR, PVC, and destroyed items in my basement. This tank needs to go... sledgehammer anyone?
By the way, here's a link to my once pride-inspiring build thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2211695
This tank is for sale as of right now. I'll start a clean thread with the sale.
It happened like this...
My hammerhead pump in the basement driving my closed loop circuit blew a seal last week. I turned the pump off and locked off the ball valves on either side of the pump. The seals arrived in the mail today, so I disconnected the union ball valve x 2 and removed the pump. Worked on the pump for a bit and realized unscrewing the impeller was a two person job so I left it until tomorrow.
Walked up the stairs and heard a loud pop and a waterfall. Rushed downstairs and water was pouring like a fire house from here:
Later I would find these pieces that blew out of the valve from the pressure:
Looking up into it:
Luckily I have a large drain from my basement out of the bottom of it out to our yard (our house is on a hill). Still, 4 inches of water is a lot when it's your entire basement:
The entire tank drained in a matter of 2-3 minutes. I was thinking it only drained half of my tank as I thought the pipe fitting that broke was on the intake side which was located half way up my tank (in my disaster planning stages, I was somewhat comforted by the thought of failure on this circuit as only draining half the tank).
But in the heat of the moment (I dove into the gushing water trying to hold it back with my palm completely helplessly and insignificantly), I was mistaken. It was the side that returned water to the tank bottom and so it drained the entire tank minus 3 inches. I didn't know until I came upstairs.
All 15 or so fish and my few corals!!!!
I dove into action grabbing fish with my hands and carrying them down to my sump (70g plus inline 40g refugium). At least I have a temporary holding cell for them!
Could you imaging going from a normal life to a 300g tank being emptied with all its livestock in it???????
I've grabbed what I could and now have an empty tank in my living room
Tomorrow is dump day for all the sand, LR, PVC, and destroyed items in my basement. This tank needs to go... sledgehammer anyone?
By the way, here's a link to my once pride-inspiring build thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2211695
This tank is for sale as of right now. I'll start a clean thread with the sale.
