Sad Day.......uuuughh

[jelwyoming]

I started my daily morning this morning to find a very disheartening silence when I entered our living room where my 120g reef tank is...no lights...no flow...no sound. Apparently, soon after bedtime last night, the circuit that feeds my tank failed for no obvious reason. The result was that I lost more than half of my fish, several very precious ones to me. Amongst the lost were my female breeding clarkii clown, a awesome mystery wrasse and the female of my mated carpenter wrasse pair. I also lost the flame angel that I have worked so hard to get acclimated to my tank. Total losses were 8 fish. Fortunately, I didn't loose any inverts or corals..at least not yet. I am saddest about loosing parts of my mated pairs though. They don't come easy. Well, today I get to spend time fishing their bodies out and finding the reason the curuit tripped. It didn't even have half load on it.
If anyone has a large female clarkii clown, I would be interested, in time.

 

[jdieck]

Sorry for your loss.
Are you using GFCI outlets and grounding probe? If so and the GFCI was the one tripped you may need to remove the grounding probe and check your equipment for potential shorts, Powerheads and heaters are the most common culprits.
If is not the GFCI, Did the breaker trip? If so you need to check your equipment. Replace the breaker if nothing seems to be causing the trouble.
To test the equipment you need a multitester. If you have a grounding probe remove it and measure the voltage between the tank water and the ground leg of an outlet, if you detect voltage disconect (not only turn off) one piece of equipment at a time until the voltage goes away to find the defective piece.

 

[ambaratur]

I am sorry to hear of your loss.

Do you have a second circuit anywhere near your tank? If possible I would say after you research why the circuit tripped you might want to plug at least one powerhead into the other circuit for a little extra protection.

I know how the heart sinks when you hear no hum at all coming from a dark tank.

 

[sirjohn]

I echo jdieck's suggestion.

IMO, it seems like a lot of fish to lose just from the power going out sometime during the night. Perhaps there was a short and stray electrical current got sent into the tank?

 

[ghostrida3]

man ive had this happen before but never lost anything to it. my tank is alright for a day w/ the power on. ive never heard of losing so many fish. sorry for ur loss. do u think the lack of circulation and oxygen depletion caused it? (i hope this isnt a stupid question.)

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10171245#post10171245 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ghostrida3
man ive had this happen before but never lost anything to it. my tank is alright for a day w/ the power on. ive never heard of losing so many fish. sorry for ur loss. do u think the lack of circulation and oxygen depletion caused it? (i hope this isnt a stupid question.)

Lack of Oxygen and circulation might be a factor if the tank was not well aerated but overnight (say 6 to 8 hours) seems too fast, as comparison remember when they are shipped they stand in the bag some times more than 24 hours. This is why I suspect current going trough the tank or if something failed may burned out some nasty chemicals into the tank.

 

[honda2sk]

yea but shipping bags are filled with 100% oxygen, makes a big difference

also, he may have a bioload too high for his tank, just a guess

 

[jelwyoming]

The remaining occupants perked up after I got the flow going again. I had a pretty high bio load in that tank with 16 fish, though they are fairly small; largest at 6".
During shipping, the bags are filled with pure O2 at a slight pressure so the water is saturated. It's not like that in a tank. But the point is well made. I have access to a insulation test device that I will check out the different submerged devices to see if they could have been the culprit. Nothing visible any way.
One of the very saddest parts of this episode is that I am in the middle of pulling in a second circuit just for this purpose. Along wtih that I had just purchased a UPS to plug some of the power heads into. I just didn't get it done yesterday. Wowwww! That is discouraging!

 

[jelwyoming]

I should have also noted that without the power my recirc pump was off. This let the tank temperature also drop to about 70F. That was too low along with the low flow/O2. It was a full 8 hours too, if not a bit more.

 

[romanr]

Sorry to hear this, I know I would be very upset. I think it is absolutely necessary to have several backup methods. In my tank I have a UPS that will keep 3 SEIO powerheads going for about 3 hours. If the outage is longer than that then 3 battery opperated pumps automatically kick on after that and they will run for about 4 days. I also have a power inverter and a Deep Cycle Marine battery to power essential equipment for about 5 hours. I also bought a small generator. It was a story like yours on RC that made me take these measures and I rest much better @ night because of it. Again, I'm very sorry for your loss and I hope that others can benefit from becoming aware of the posibility of such a tragic event.

 

[jelwyoming]

Some lessons learned...
I did have all of this on a GFI circuit, so I don't think the fish were shocked to death or it would have tripped that protection.
I bought, but didn't plug in my UPS for the power heads...don't procrastinate!
I was pulling in a second power circuit. On any system that is this sensitive, two power sources is a good idea, a battery backup is even better!
Fish need losts of flow in a heavily stocked tank. Don't stock as heavily as I did. All was working well, but when the flow went away, they didn't last long.
Use a grounding device to keep stray currents grounded out.
I did prevent things from getting even worse by removing all the dead fish right away. I couldn't access some that were in the rocks easily. I ended up taking a small spare power head and attached it to a 3' hose. I was able to blow their bodies out of the rock to where I could reach them.
What am I missing?

 

[CeeGee]

man that bites. Sorry.

 

[MTB]

Sad day indeed. I woke this morning to find my skunk cleaner shrimp dead. And my power went out a week a go and two of my fish jumped. A diamond goby and the male of my pair of maroon clowns. I doubt I will be able to pair her up again. I went through three males to get this one she liked. I feel your pain.

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10171842#post10171842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jelwyoming
....Use a grounding device to keep stray currents grounded out....

Never use a grounding probe without a GFCI. And if using a GFCI do not install the grounding probe if you are not near the tank most of the time.

GFCI + Probe Trip when fault happens, if you are not around the tank can be without power for long. Protects you better and power off is a clear indication that something has failed but will put critters at risk.

GFCI alone Trips when you touch the water. Protects you and the fish but you do not have an imediate indication until you touch the water.

 

[jelwyoming]

Good point, jdieck. In some states, arc fault protection is required in certain parts of the home. It offers the ground fault protection plus arc fault protection as well. All the extra protection definitely means that your tank may be without power due to a fault. But that risk is better than you or a loved one being dead or hurt.
Well the UPS is going in today for sure.
I haven't nailed down the fault yet. I may have a faulty circuit breaker for all I know at this point.
Any one with any reef safe fish that they want to get rid of? PM me if you do. It would be appreciated more than you know.

 

[p4ck37p1mp]

They make alarms that trip when power is cut as well. The battery air pumps can really help when you aren't near the tank, cheap insurance. I got used to power issues when living in Ft Lauderdale and how to mitigate. Power there is up and down, FPL (Florida Power and Light) was often called 'Florida Flicker and Flash' from all the brown outs, my UPSs running most eq on my tank beeped a lot nearly all the time.

 

[cdangel0]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Out of curiosity, are you running a sump inside the tank stand? Is that where the outlet that tripped is located?

I ask because as humidity builds inside the tank stand it may have caused the tiniest bit of condensation in the outlet which caused the breaker to trip.

If that's the case, consider yourself very lucky all you lost was 8 fish and not your whole house.

 

[jelwyoming]

I also have a deep cycle marine battery and inverter for the times power is out longer than my 2 1500w UPS's can run. That hasn't been too often. Our power here has been reliable, but that may be because I am biased working for the local power company!

 

[jelwyoming]

I am willing to swap some used equipment. Take a look at my thread in the WTT forum.

 

[twogreyhounds]

I'm really sorry to hear the bad news, JEL. I recently lost some (near-and-dear favorite) fish to ich so I as well feel your pain...

-Ryan