Disaster Strikes
- Thread starter badbones
- Start date
Scissorhand
New member
Sorry about that Tony. Did you run your system through a controller or did that fail, too?
Frankysreef
Active member
Tony! Sorry for your loss... I can give you back a frag of everything I got from you! ( I think I had most of what u have )
I dont run a heater... My controller broke a few years ago and I never hooked it back up.
I use the 20 amp gfci's for bathrooms, they seem to be the best.
Only tripped when the wire got wet..., but I do use 2 instead of one so there will always be some circulation.
Good luck!
Frank
I dont run a heater... My controller broke a few years ago and I never hooked it back up.
I use the 20 amp gfci's for bathrooms, they seem to be the best.
Only tripped when the wire got wet..., but I do use 2 instead of one so there will always be some circulation.
Good luck!
Frank
Frankysreef
Active member
Josh, Tony badbones has one of the best tanks plus some of the best corals I have ever seen... 80% of my colonies came from him. Great guy very generous, A very knowledgeable reefer also. I copied a lot of my current designs from him.
This hobby will be at a serious loss without him.
Good luck Tony, I know you have a 400 gal waiting in the wings
This hobby will be at a serious loss without him.
Good luck Tony, I know you have a 400 gal waiting in the wings
I didn't mean any disrespect.
There's just a ton of reasons why I'm getting out of this hobby, and every day I get reminded of some of those reasons.
Tony, you have my condolences. Clearly, the situation is unpleasant to say the least. Losing fish is not fun. For me just saying goodbye to my fish was difficult enough, and I know they'll be living on. It does sadden me. Good luck, things will only get better from here.
In general, in my life, if something becomes too risky, or a PITA for any reason, (time or cost) I abandon it. My kids are the exception here
Josh
There's just a ton of reasons why I'm getting out of this hobby, and every day I get reminded of some of those reasons.
Tony, you have my condolences. Clearly, the situation is unpleasant to say the least. Losing fish is not fun. For me just saying goodbye to my fish was difficult enough, and I know they'll be living on. It does sadden me. Good luck, things will only get better from here.
In general, in my life, if something becomes too risky, or a PITA for any reason, (time or cost) I abandon it. My kids are the exception here
Josh
Frankysreef
Active member
I just got some fun news... My neighbor is demolishing his house today.. second time in 3 yrs, and I keep the window above my tank wide open for ventilation, now there is crap from the demo floating around in the tank... Thank god for filter socks.
Probably mostly plaster, sand and essentially dirt that got in the water...
My neighbor is a real moron...Took him 3 yrs to rebuild the back of his house..., then he gets married, and she convinces him to tear down the front... All within 5 yrs...
Probably mostly plaster, sand and essentially dirt that got in the water...
My neighbor is a real moron...Took him 3 yrs to rebuild the back of his house..., then he gets married, and she convinces him to tear down the front... All within 5 yrs...
>Originally posted</a> by Frankysreef [/i]
Josh, Tony badbones has one of the best tanks plus some of the best corals I have ever seen... 80% of my colonies came from him. Great guy very generous, A very knowledgeable reefer also.
This hobby will be at a serious loss without him.<
I agree, badbones has the nicest private collection of sps I have seen. I wish you luck in the recovery of all the corals.
sam
Josh, Tony badbones has one of the best tanks plus some of the best corals I have ever seen... 80% of my colonies came from him. Great guy very generous, A very knowledgeable reefer also.
This hobby will be at a serious loss without him.<
I agree, badbones has the nicest private collection of sps I have seen. I wish you luck in the recovery of all the corals.
sam
badbones
Premium Member
Just got home from work and the system seems stable. Just bare with no fish swimming around. God I miss the Chevron. Had him for 7 years and raised from 3/4" to about 7". My purple tang and yellow assessor will also be missed. They were so health and fat!!! A few of my corals are not doing to well. For those of you that know and have seen it, I may lose my Fiji tort that I have had for over 5 years now and recovered from the tank crash 2 1/2 years ago. Another tort colony is losing its flesh. The good news is I have a few clams and they seem fine so far. I guess they will be the test. Also the lone fish survivor is a bangai so I must assume there was some oxygen in the water still when I made it home.
To answer some questions. I pretty much have a total redundancy system. I use and AC2 to control most everything. My heaters are controlled with the AC2 as well as the heater controllers set to 82 incase the AC2 fails. I have a UPS to run a pump in the system just for this reason and I guess the battery does not hold a charge any longer. The system is mainly on 1 20amp circuit, with some of the lighting on another. The system can not entirely run on one 20 as it will pop the breaker.
I do have a new fish room being completed that has 3 20amp circuits for this very reason.
My lesson is I will NEVER buy any equipment made in CHINA!!!!! I always tell people to spend the extra on quality equipment as you get what you pay for. And this is what I get. I never thought a heater controller (not the heater element) which is separate would pop a GFCI.
Thanks for all the offers and concerns out there. Just hope that those who read this will make changes or test there equipment for this very reason. By the way, my heaters just started to come on this week.
Tony
To answer some questions. I pretty much have a total redundancy system. I use and AC2 to control most everything. My heaters are controlled with the AC2 as well as the heater controllers set to 82 incase the AC2 fails. I have a UPS to run a pump in the system just for this reason and I guess the battery does not hold a charge any longer. The system is mainly on 1 20amp circuit, with some of the lighting on another. The system can not entirely run on one 20 as it will pop the breaker.
I do have a new fish room being completed that has 3 20amp circuits for this very reason.
My lesson is I will NEVER buy any equipment made in CHINA!!!!! I always tell people to spend the extra on quality equipment as you get what you pay for. And this is what I get. I never thought a heater controller (not the heater element) which is separate would pop a GFCI.
Thanks for all the offers and concerns out there. Just hope that those who read this will make changes or test there equipment for this very reason. By the way, my heaters just started to come on this week.
Tony
golfish
Team RC
Tony, I don't know what to say, except that this is going to be a major blow to the hobby in So Cal. I know you were real close to moving things back into the house. I still have 90% of the stuff you gave me. Not sure if this will help but I'm going to take down my whole system and give everything away in the next few months, only problem is I wouldn't give anything to anyone who doesn't have a QT system cause I've never been able to pin point the problem. Your more then welome to it all. Infact, I'll bring it all to you if you want and when your ready
For those that don't know Tony, you have yet to met the BEST person in the hobby. I can't say enough about this man so I wont even try.
Tony, if you need ANYTHING just let me know.
Mark
For those that don't know Tony, you have yet to met the BEST person in the hobby. I can't say enough about this man so I wont even try.
Tony, if you need ANYTHING just let me know.
Mark
firerock
New member
Glad to hear that your system has stabilized. I am sure it'll recover soon.
Since you have AC2 controls the heater, then how did this unfortunate event occur? Sorry, I am a little confused, since everyone seems to vouch for AC2 or some kind of external controller that'll prevent this type of scenario from happening.
Since you have AC2 controls the heater, then how did this unfortunate event occur? Sorry, I am a little confused, since everyone seems to vouch for AC2 or some kind of external controller that'll prevent this type of scenario from happening.
badbones
Premium Member
The heater also has its own external temp controller. I used both the heater controller and the AC2 contoller on the same X10. I had a power strip pluged into the x-10 and then the heater controllers plugged into the power strip. This was for double security of a failer. If the x-10 stuck open then the heater controller would turn off the heater at 82 to prevent a tank over heating. Its this controller that failed and sent something (not an electrician here) through the line that tripped the GFCI. This heater controller had NO contact with water so just poor equipment I must assume.
By the way the berglias died too.......
By the way the berglias died too.......
NicoleC
New member
Firerock, a controller can't save you in the event of a total power outage. A GFCI cuts off power. It keeps you from getting electrocuted in the event of an electrical short, so it's a good thing, but in this case no power = no oxygen and/or flow, which is hard on the animals. Sometimes deadly. The lighter your bioload and the more O2 to begin with, the more leeway you have here.
A good controller system is very nice to have, but it isn't a pancea. And as Tony's unfortunate experience shows, even experienced reefers with redundant systems can have disasters. About the only thing (other than not having a piece of equipment go bad) that could have helped was a system controller that he could check via the internet -- and remembered to check it regularly -- or one that paged/text messaged/emailed him that there was a problem. Obviously, it would had to have been on another circuit.
Or, a good backup power supply for a power head or a small pump just to keep things moving might have helped, but remember, backup batteries can short out too, if there is water on it or it can fail, too. Once, I had a backup battery get totally fried in a power surge, and arrived home just in time to see fish lying on the bottom gasping. So that's not perfect either.
There is no disaster-proof reef.
A good controller system is very nice to have, but it isn't a pancea. And as Tony's unfortunate experience shows, even experienced reefers with redundant systems can have disasters. About the only thing (other than not having a piece of equipment go bad) that could have helped was a system controller that he could check via the internet -- and remembered to check it regularly -- or one that paged/text messaged/emailed him that there was a problem. Obviously, it would had to have been on another circuit.
Or, a good backup power supply for a power head or a small pump just to keep things moving might have helped, but remember, backup batteries can short out too, if there is water on it or it can fail, too. Once, I had a backup battery get totally fried in a power surge, and arrived home just in time to see fish lying on the bottom gasping. So that's not perfect either.
There is no disaster-proof reef.
firerock
New member
I was afraid to ask you about the berghia......my wife will be really sad. At this moment no one in socal has any supplies of them anymore.
They were such a happy couple.
I am just glad that whatever tripped your GFCI didn't get to do any major damages to your house. Good preventive measures certainly are important.
They were such a happy couple.
I am just glad that whatever tripped your GFCI didn't get to do any major damages to your house. Good preventive measures certainly are important.
Frankysreef
Active member
hugo's tank scared me, so I went out and bought two of those battery powered air pumps..
At least it will oxygenate the water for a while, who knows how long those D batteries will last though... 3 hrs maybe?
For my electrical components I only use household sockets gfcis, timers, and 12-2 cable.
I'll never use a power strip again, one fried on my last reef, and zapped me.
My chiller runs on a seperate circuit now...
My last problem is a 5 gal overflow when the power goes out which I should have fixed this weekend..
Since I dropped my lighting to 8 hrs a day, and changed my flow a bit since flesh was getting ripped off my big yellow green millepora, it has decided to stn on me...
The bigger they get the harder they seem to keep sometimes..
Good luck tony, and seriously if you need to replace any sps that you gave my, I'll give you a frag of whatever I got from you.
I have 5 frags of the yellow green mille.. 4 frags of the blue indo china and many others...
At least it will oxygenate the water for a while, who knows how long those D batteries will last though... 3 hrs maybe?
For my electrical components I only use household sockets gfcis, timers, and 12-2 cable.
I'll never use a power strip again, one fried on my last reef, and zapped me.
My chiller runs on a seperate circuit now...
My last problem is a 5 gal overflow when the power goes out which I should have fixed this weekend..
Since I dropped my lighting to 8 hrs a day, and changed my flow a bit since flesh was getting ripped off my big yellow green millepora, it has decided to stn on me...
The bigger they get the harder they seem to keep sometimes..
Good luck tony, and seriously if you need to replace any sps that you gave my, I'll give you a frag of whatever I got from you.
I have 5 frags of the yellow green mille.. 4 frags of the blue indo china and many others...
fish_fanatik
New member
Tony,
I have the same heater, perhaps it is time to change to a different one. I actually have 2 heaters running, both not strong enough to fry my tank if it doesnt turn off, but if it frys the circuit then I'm screwed.
If you need anything, please let me know. I have lots of carbon and filter socks too.
One more thing....don't quit!!!!!!
I have the same heater, perhaps it is time to change to a different one. I actually have 2 heaters running, both not strong enough to fry my tank if it doesnt turn off, but if it frys the circuit then I'm screwed.
If you need anything, please let me know. I have lots of carbon and filter socks too.
One more thing....don't quit!!!!!!
Similar threads
