tank emergency please help now (monday am)

fambrough

fambrough

Member
I'm in Baltimore, but my wife just a "disaster" with a tank. She screwed up and had an overflow, smoke, maybe some fire (god I hope not). The fire dept. told her to get out of the house. She's going to call me back shortly. She also got shocked as trying to unplug electric cords.

I know what happened. She broke the siphon. And the sump overflowed, which shouldn't have happened. Anyway, I'm hoping someone can go by and restore order/assess the damage. I'm going to have her stay away from the tank and not mess with trying to deal with any electrical stuff. I can't imagine there was a huge amount of overflow. Obviously there was enough to cause problems.

Please call my cell (216) 990-9162, if you can help.

Thanks a million!!!

I'll report back with an update when I find out what's going on.
 
Ok, here's the status

no fire (thank goodness!). The fire department checked everything out and made sure my wife is ok. She said they were really good. Poor girl, she was really upset. She's going to the store to get some new powercords.

What I need is for someone who knows how to restart the siphon for the overflow to go over there, get it going, and make sure that the things are reconnected and plugged in the way they should be. It's not a very complicated system.

We've got only minimal water damage, probably just cosmetic. She feels so badly. Now She's totally worried that everything is going to die. I've told her not to worry. The most important thing is that she and the house are ok.

Please call me, if you are able to help. I will be very indebted to you. (216) 990-9162
 
update

update

Thanks for the calls, Peter and Kevin!

The cavalry is on the way. Mike is going to get everything right. He is even at the store picking up a GFCI and powercords! What a guy.

I tell you what: this really makes me want to upgrade to a drilled tank.

More later.
 
Glad to hear it worked out. Mike did you take time to change in a phone booth or were you wearing your superman costume?
 
naawww, neither Jeff,

I couldn't get them from the cleaners in time, so I had to settle for Spiderman PJ's from Walmart while enroute instead.
 
Mike is my hero

Mike is my hero

Wow, spiderman pjs? The wife didn't mention that. Hmm.

Actually, I am seriously indebted to Mike. Sounds like I've got some grill duty as soon as the weather breaks, a juty I very much look forward to. I think Mike must have spent at least an hour at my place doing varying degrees of damage control (my wife decided to fill up the tank enough to cover some exposed corals, she used top off water...as if she wasn't feeling bad enough already, it didn't help her to learn she might have skewed the SG). Plus the run to the store he made.

I am still doing a little late prep for the dinners I'm catering down here, so I've got to run.

I will mention that my wife thinks the only damage to the house is a somewhat wet area of the dining room ceiling.

I'll update when I get back.
 
Hey Ben I just read your post glad to hear most things are ok, please LMK if you need more help, I am off wed afternoon.
Man I love the people in this hobby. NIce job Mike and you should have worn yer 5mm wetsuit, its a tropical reef man! Spidey! Yeesh! Whata guy.
 
Hey Fambbrough,

Don't forget to balance out your system when you return. Make sure your sump is full of water(at the highest point after it refills) and then pull the plug on your return pump. It should not overflow your sump when the main tank starts sucking air and looses the siphon. If it does overlfow the sump put a hole(1/8-1/4") in your return line( inside the tank of course) as high as possible so you don't drain too much water out of your main tank when your return pump has no power.

Dave
 
All,

Just got back into town from my trip. The tanks are running fine. I've got just a little clean up inside the tanks and adjustments to make, but Mike did a fantastic job, really above and beyond!

Dave,

I will do that. I've tested power outage senerios in the past without a sump overflow, so I'm not sure exactly what happed there, unless my wife just added too much top off to the system in the first place, which I doubt. Anyway, I'll make sure. Thanks fot the reminder.

Tomorrow is going to be a play with the tanks day. It's good to be home. I just need a shower and a beer. :)

Mike,

Sorry about the phone tag today. I'll call you tomorrow.
 
Ok. Last update here, then we can kill this thread.

I figured out why the sump overflowed. The whole I drilled to break the back siphon had become clogged with a small cluster of bubble algae. If I had been more attentive to the little details, there wouldn't have been such a mess. Yet, we never would have learned that Mike is a part time super hero in spidey pjs! :) And, I guess, it's also been a stimulus for some upgrades.

all's well in tanklandia
 
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