tank crash

[w16227]

sigh

Came home after work - no lights in tank.

My skimmer was setting off the GCFI.

Nobody at home noticed - but probably off for a while.

I have a MP40 with battery backup - but that only buys me around 6 hours.

Looks like all fish dead. Sick.

Foxface
2 Wrasse
Engineer Goby
Picasso Clown

Are the known goners

watchman goby
sleeper goby
other clown

are unknown (tough fish but no hope)

The good.....

Most corals seem to be ok. Even the sebae anemone, while shriveled, is showing good color.

My first coral (a leather live rock hitchhicker) had drooped a lot - but I see polyp extension now so should be good. Most/all SPS look ok. Frogspawn appears to have some color - plate corals seem to be brighter than normal, lol - those things are almost indestructible.

Snails are alive. Even nassarius. Bad crab is too. Clam does not look bad at all.

Remaining "live" critter purchase appears to be my tuxedo urchin.

So - not a total loss. But sucks. Been over a year with really good results and no losses. Now hardware takes out my critters. Sigh.

Just venting a little. Not thinking of getting out. Just sucks.

 

[jfuka78]

Why do hook up to a gfci, sometimes they trip when something is plugged in or turned on. Sorry about your loss.

 

[latinreefer]

I have my tank hooked up to a GFCI not sure why but they said it was a good idea. Can someone explain why we should or shouldn't?

Thanks

 

[jasimek]

Electricity and water don't mix well together...you want power to be cut off if the outlet gets wet

 

[jfuka78]

Why would you have outlets where they can get wet? Mine are above and behind up top.

 

[w16227]

Why would you have outlets where they can get wet? Mine are above and behind up top.

The GFI outlets are there to prevent a fire. In my case- same or worse if the skimmer pump had an electrical failure (which appears to be the issue)

 

[taylor t]

I lost all my fish a couple months ago, but it was from anemone shreading. Now I have a 210 fishless, except for the 3 clowns. OP, I know how it feels... Sorry for you too.

No fish, coral, or any life inside a fish tank is worth a human life. GFI protection is a must. I have (2) seperate circuits feeding multiple GFI's with both my tanks (210 & 75). If one trips, not the end of my tank. If a motor or heater of any kind leaks voltage, look out. Only takes one time. You can't ask for a mulligan with fire or electricution.

 

[skunkmere]

I lost all my fish a couple months ago, but it was from anemone shreading. Now I have a 210 fishless, except for the 3 clowns. OP, I know how it feels... Sorry for you too.

No fish, coral, or any life inside a fish tank is worth a human life. GFI protection is a must. I have (2) seperate circuits feeding multiple GFI's with both my tanks (210 & 75). If one trips, not the end of my tank. If a motor or heater of any kind leaks voltage, look out. Only takes one time. You can't ask for a mulligan with fire or electricution.

+1 thats why i dont buy expensive stuff. (im cheap/poor as well). at least you still have everything else and no damage to your home.

 

[slapshot]

The answer is two circuits running pumps. You should never run a tank without a GFI. All it takes is putting your hand in with a bad pump or heater or a light falls in while your messing around in there. If you can split things in separate circuits look at it this way, the cost of a few fish is cheap compared to replacing your house or someone's life. Sorry about the losses though.

 

[BigBarnacles]

That sucks! Sorry about your losses man. All we can do is learn from what happens and move on. Mighty tough of you not to give up and march on. Much respect.

 

[3seconds2live]

gfci stands for ground fault circuit interruptor. essentially what this does it's prevent you from getting shocked in the event their is a current or amperage leak. let's say you have a pump that has some exposed wire now let's say you put your hand in the tank and you are in some way grounded the gfci senses the current not returning back to itself and says hmmm it must bee going somewhere else and shuts off. it takes a fraction of a second to trip thus prevents death because it's not voltage that kills but amperage and a small amount of current can kill you. here is the catch. gfci's are designed to cut power with electrical fluctuations of as small as .005 amps. because its so sensitive it's most affective when wired to a single outlet. we plug in power strips and pumps on wavemakers and this causes it to become more susceptible to phantom tripping. some pumps also have slight electrical fluctuations and this may be percieved by your gfci. Or lets say those fluctuations arent enough to trip the gfci but you have two pumps on the same outlet on a power strip that have a small fluctuation at the exact same time reaching that .005 amp trip point. They are sensitive for a reason. safety for you is not Not NOT safe for your tank. hope this helps people understand.

ps typed on my phone so mind typos.

 

[w16227]

That sucks! Sorry about your losses man. All we can do is learn from what happens and move on. Mighty tough of you not to give up and march on. Much respect.

Heh - just more $$$ for sho-tank, lol

I have had losses before - mostly self inflicted. Last mini crash was coral related. Several of the corals have come back really strong and new ones have grown a ton. Would have been very depressing to lose everything.

This morning- everything running and the nem still looks good (only thing that could really take out the rest would be the nem polluting the tank). By the end of the night - most of the corals were showing some signs of recovery - even the GSP was back to normal. My plate coral colony actually looked better (fuller color) - those things can survive anything, lol.

This was with the skimmer unplugged--- if plugged in, outlet tripped. Shame that I did not have any power outage alarm going. Since I have the battery backup on the MP40s - I never really though I needed something like that. We would know when the whole house loses power- and check everything. This was just nobody noticing the lights were not on - until I got home.

Not a lot of hope that the missing fish are around. Glad I do not go for the overly costly fishes. Even the Picasso clowns were not the "expensive" variety.

 

[BigBarnacles]

What about the titanium grounding probes? Are they helpful?

 

[jcw]

from what i understand the ideal situation is to run a gfci WITH a grounding probe. That way if there is faulty equipment it will trip right away.

Without the grounding probe, it will not trip until YOU create the fault.

I run the tank (specifically the two return pumps) on separate GFCI's so tripping one doesn't shut the whole tank down.

 

[w16227]

from what i understand the ideal situation is to run a gfci WITH a grounding probe. That way if there is faulty equipment it will trip right away.

Without the grounding probe, it will not trip until YOU create the fault.

I run the tank (specifically the two return pumps) on separate GFCI's so tripping one doesn't shut the whole tank down.

I have a ground probe as well.

In the location that I have - there is not really an option for separate GFCI - as all the available outlets are on the same breaker. While I do have multiple GFCI outlets - I believe that the one closest to the main breaker on the circuit will be the one to trip. That is what happened to me here - the GFCI outlet on the skimmer power strip did not trip - but the skimmer is definitely the culprit.

 

[catalano]

My guess is u over amp the the circuit due to the pump going. A gfci is to protect the wiring not u. It's just a plus that it acts faster than a breaker so u don't get shocked.

 

[doubled50]

How long we're you at work? Seems like 8 hours was awful fast to kill your fish. You had circulation, lights wouldn't do it. No skimmer for a few hours shouldn't do it for 8 hours. All I can think is the temp, but I assume your house is 70-76° so they shouldn't have cooked or froze. I'm kinda confused unless you were gone a few days.

 

[DragonWarriorPo]

How long we're you at work? Seems like 8 hours was awful fast to kill your fish. You had circulation, lights wouldn't do it. No skimmer for a few hours shouldn't do it for 8 hours. All I can think is the temp, but I assume your house is 70-76° so they shouldn't have cooked or froze. I'm kinda confused unless you were gone a few days.

Fish will perish fast in an aquarium without flow because they are swimming around and use up more oxygen. I know they are shipped for 24 hours and arrive fine, but they are not swimming in a bag and won't require much oxygen.

 

[doubled50]

Fish will perish fast in an aquarium without flow because they are swimming around and use up more oxygen. I know they are shipped for 24 hours and arrive fine, but they are not swimming in a bag and won't require much oxygen.

But not within 8 hours will they? Geez.