MarineBioHSU
In Memoriam
Alas, in spite of all of my efforts and precautions in buffering my anemone propagation system against my own stupidity, last night I somehow managed to "out smart" (or more accurately, "out stupid") myself.
I have a very bad habit of somehow managaing to short out heaters, no matter what, I somehow screw up. I decided with several tanks full of RBTA's I should do anything I can to prevent this, so hired one of more tech savvy friends to help me out. He made some sort of thermostat/fail safe contraption thingy that would prevent cooking my anemones. Basically it is a auto shut off for the heaters if the tank gets too hot, (I really am stuck in the stone ages when it comes to techy stuff...), and as long as the heater is plugged into the controller, which is then plugged into the power strip, then there should be no problems. Well, last night after I got home from a buddies house where I indulged in some wonderful local microbrew I decided the water I had been mixing was ready to go. So I proceeded to do the water change and when I was done I plugged the heater back in and sat back to marvel at the tank.
When I went to check on the tanks today, I noticed the one that I had cleaned last night was very warm, as in 86F warm, and dang near every RBTA in that tank was expelling its zooxanthellae, doh! Turns out I managed to overcome my own fail-safe, when I plugged the heater back in, I didn't plug back into the controller, instead I had plugged it directly into the powerstrip. And, I must have at some point bumped the thermostat up, it could have been weeks ago but I did not notice as the "fail-safe" kept things in check.
Now, I have about 30 partially bleached RBTA's, thankfully in spite of my fiances complaints I have spread my RBTA's out over multiple tanks to insulate myself from a situation such as this. Luckily the other several hundred I have are doing fine, but now the long process of bringing this group back to health begins...
Just goes to show you, stupidity cannot be out-smarted. :eek1:
I have a very bad habit of somehow managaing to short out heaters, no matter what, I somehow screw up. I decided with several tanks full of RBTA's I should do anything I can to prevent this, so hired one of more tech savvy friends to help me out. He made some sort of thermostat/fail safe contraption thingy that would prevent cooking my anemones. Basically it is a auto shut off for the heaters if the tank gets too hot, (I really am stuck in the stone ages when it comes to techy stuff...), and as long as the heater is plugged into the controller, which is then plugged into the power strip, then there should be no problems. Well, last night after I got home from a buddies house where I indulged in some wonderful local microbrew I decided the water I had been mixing was ready to go. So I proceeded to do the water change and when I was done I plugged the heater back in and sat back to marvel at the tank.
When I went to check on the tanks today, I noticed the one that I had cleaned last night was very warm, as in 86F warm, and dang near every RBTA in that tank was expelling its zooxanthellae, doh! Turns out I managed to overcome my own fail-safe, when I plugged the heater back in, I didn't plug back into the controller, instead I had plugged it directly into the powerstrip. And, I must have at some point bumped the thermostat up, it could have been weeks ago but I did not notice as the "fail-safe" kept things in check.
Now, I have about 30 partially bleached RBTA's, thankfully in spite of my fiances complaints I have spread my RBTA's out over multiple tanks to insulate myself from a situation such as this. Luckily the other several hundred I have are doing fine, but now the long process of bringing this group back to health begins...
Just goes to show you, stupidity cannot be out-smarted. :eek1:
