Aaaahhhh!!!! My Tank Crashed

[prow]

o man i went out to dinner with my girlfriend and came home to a white tank and a little flooding. my skimmer clogged and the pipe overflowed. there was the pump cord running along side it and the water flowed down the cord and over the side of the sump. it was not all overflowing full blown my autotop off(lime water) was keeping up. but man solid white tank with a ph of 9.7:bugout: could not see anything. i dosed about 1/2 gallon of vinegar. white slime everywhere, its cleared up now and the ph is at 8.1. wish i my camera battery worked, now i have white slime covering every thing. all but one fish is still alive and have started to swim around. close one man. o i got two pick before the "fully charged" battery died. both these are after i blow off the corals and rock.

aaahhhh. just to check myself. tank should cool till tomarrow yah?

 

[prow]

ahh was able to get one more this a close up of the rock. everything is still so white hard to get but you can see the slime.

 

[althea2you]

oh no!!!!!, i hope everything will be ok....how can that happen? your skimmer clogged? how? sorry for my ignorance....and im sorry your tank crashed...

 

[prow]

a snail made his way to the to my air line. the powercord for the pump just happend to be against the pipe on the skimmer and the water ran down the cord, enough so my kalk topoff was constant dripping. the ph has stablized at 8.1 now and all fish and coral seem rather mad but ok. i think i added the vinegar in time, close though they did not look so good at first. they were breathing heavy after i added enough vinager to see some of them. but now most seem like nothing happened. all but my scotts wrasse who did not make it, took me forever to get him too. i am just glad i always have a gallon or two of vinegar on hand.

 

[prow]

i have question. right now i am planning on just leaving it. i think i precipitated all the excess out. will be testing the Ca and alk just to check it out. but i think it should be cool. i am planning on setting up my new 180gal tank this week so dont want to spend too much effort on this, any thoughts?

 

[prow]

ok i lost a few snails too. not too many though. 99% i would say are still cool, crusing around like normal. all fish, but the wrasse, are doing fine acting normal. all corals have open up and polyp extentions are normal. even the sun. stringy white crap all over though, its X-mas in there i tell ya. there is more snow in my tank then on the our mountain ranges. i do feel better though, i know it was only a major lime over dose. i am so thankful i had that vinegar and added it right away. i just reviewed my my ph log and went up to 9.9. the fish that did make it did not look so good at first, another 10-15min i think i would have lost more than just the wrasse. at least i can sleep thinking everyone will be good in the AM. time will tell:bouncebox..what a night....geeze...

 

[Woodstock]

BUMMER!!! But it sounds like you really didn't loose too much since you caught it quickly.
Don't forget to check the salinity!
Do you have a controller?
I have an AquaController III that keeps a watch on the PH level. If the PH rises over 8.35, it cuts off my auto top off (kalkwasser). You might want to invest in one.

 

[Melanie]

Oh my!! That's terrible! Thank goodness for your quick thinking. I did not know about the vinegar fixing that. I think you have a little work cut out for you siphoning and perhaps some water changes.

 

[BigAl07]

Good Catch buddy. Sounds like you were well on your way to a disaster! Get to testing and good luck!!

 

[hma]

Wow ... best of luck prow and have a look at KH, The carbonate hardens can very fast break in if you vinegar uses around the pH to adapt.

 

[Pro_builder]

Prow,
Why aren't you running the ETSS 600 that you got from me? Good luck with the new tank.
Did you get the crack fixed from when you dropped the 180? Make sure you get that pane of glass checked out and fixed, so you don't end up with a sunami in your living room.

 

[Frankie]

Sorry to hear about your long night dude. consider manual control over your top off. I have a float valve on mine with a on/off valve on the RO inline. I top off manually a few hours before bed by opening it then kill the water while asleep.

 

[DrHank]

I hope that your losses are minimal. This is one of the nightmares we all fear. Good luck with the 180. Glad that you were able to catch it before you lost everything.

 

[kathywithbirds]

Oh!!! :bugout:

Dear god, that was a nightmare for you.... glad your losses weren't too bad, although those wrasses are pretty.

Didn't know about that vinegar trick, you know someone with your background has a leg up on the rest of us... chem, bio, etc. Glad you had it on hand.

 

[bluespotjawfish]

Ah man, that just brings back icky nightmares for me (last December 23rd, I went to dinner myself and came home to "Aaaahhhh!!!! My Tank Crashed"). I'd siphon out and turkey baste away as much of the white stuff as you can. It will harden up pretty good and might suffocate your corals if it is still on them. I would also do a good sized WC.

 

[Dentoid]

Ouch! That really stinks! Here's to getting it resolved quickly and best of luck with the upgrade!

 

[sasquatch]

Good luck with the clean up Prow! hindsight is always 20/20, your vinegary foresight saved your butt, guess we know where Murph was yesterday lol

 

[fishnu]

God, so fast too.

I have been thinking about auto top off but can't get mine to work right (the pressure sensitive RO/DI shut off won't shut off). I think I need to rethink this whole "live" thing and go with plastic fish, coral, anemone.

 

[AQTCJAK]

Gary if there is anything you need call me.

 

[Doot77]

Sorry to hear about the crash, but at least it wasn't as bad as if you hadn't caught it so quickly.