Major disaster.

[Curehead]

Came home to 3 inches of water left in tank electric tripped out and an inch of water on the floor.

My canister filter had blown a joint and continued to pump out my lovely cycled water all over the floor. Fish and verts all seemed happy in the water left in the tank.

I cleared the floor then pumped the rest of the water from the sump into the tank which took me to 50% full.

Mixed up the remaining water and risked using the tap water with aquatan and without leaving it to stand for a day as usual and pumped it in through the sump as not to disturb the sand bed.
Added a dose of micro bacteria from the bottle and a normal dose of strontium just to be safe.

After inspecting the filter I noticed there was very little detrius so it was probably safe to transfer the ceramics (which are bagged up) into the sump
together with the bagged charcoal and phosphate gel. I think I will not use a canister filter again.

2 hours later the PH seems fine and the salinity is settling OK.

Fish seem happy enough and are even begging for food.
Sand bed doesn't seem to have been disturbed and my cherry nem is open again as are all my pollups and hard coral.

Seems that I just did an involuntary 60% water change. Hope no damage done...though not sure if the Ikea flooring will recover.

 

[shark32]

Wow. Good luck with everything. Glad to hear the fish seem happy!

 

[GrendelPrime]

glad everything is ok but i would feed very lightly for the next few days and test ur water, ur tank drained and ur rock was exposed to air for a number of hrs. so there might be alot of die off and i would be nervous about a mini spike

 

[Big Ray]

ohh man ! sorry to hear that's like every reefers nightmare

but Im glad u took actions fast and seems like most will recover. worst you can do at those times is to panic.

I dumped over 25G od SW on my hardwood flooring and 1.5 year later, still nothing bad has happened. good luck with that

 

[Curehead]

Thanks guys...yes planning to just feed lightly with flake for the next few days. Clowns should be ok with a little food just worried about the tiny green cron as I guess he will have a high metabolism

 

[DaveK]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Could you tell us a little more about what occurred? What brand and model of canister filter were you using? What do you mean by "My canister filter had blown a joint"?

Do you mean the main seal in the canister failed, or a hose connection came off, or some other connection broke, or what?

Obviously people may be using similar canister filters, and want to take possible action to prevent what happened to you. Thanks.

 

[Curehead]

Sorry to hear about your problem.

Could you tell us a little more about what occurred? What brand and model of canister filter were you using? What do you mean by "My canister filter had blown a joint"?

Do you mean the main seal in the canister failed, or a hose connection came off, or some other connection broke, or what?

Obviously people may be using similar canister filters, and want to take possible action to prevent what happened to you. Thanks.

The main seal busted it was a Eheim 2213 it looks like it just rotted away. despite the manual stating it was marine and fresh safe it looks like the salt rotted the thing away or maybe it was just a bad batch of mouldings.

 

[bwhit1406]

Sorry to hear it. At least your livestock is ok

 

[JulesVane]

That's a heck of a way to get a water change done! (LOL)...Hope all is and will be well...

 

[DaveK]

The main seal busted it was a Eheim 2213 it looks like it just rotted away. despite the manual stating it was marine and fresh safe it looks like the salt rotted the thing away or maybe it was just a bad batch of mouldings.

That is sure unusual for an Eheim. They are usually considered the best canister filters you can get. BTW, Eheim parts are generally available. You can buy replacement seals and O rings. If nothing else, you can repair it and sell it on Ebay or one of the planted tank forums. A small consolation, to be sure, but at least you'll get something out of it.

 

[Reefmack]

What a disaster, but a quick recovery!

 

[Curehead]

7 am and 2 bells the next morning and all's well!

 

[Curehead]

That is sure unusual for an Eheim. They are usually considered the best canister filters you can get. BTW, Eheim parts are generally available. You can buy replacement seals and O rings. If nothing else, you can repair it and sell it on Ebay or one of the planted tank forums. A small consolation, to be sure, but at least you'll get something out of it.

Yes i will buy a new O'Ring for it and install it into one of my tropicals that has an annoying overhead trickle filter. I'll say one thing for it...it's the quietest filter I've ever had.

 

[appleton]

Were you applying petroleum jelly to your o-ring over the years.That is a major factor in keeping your equipment in tip top cod't.

 

[Reddog170]

That was a good save. It is unusual for an eheim to have a problem like that, but not unheard of. I had one blow out like that on a freshwater setup once, I was lucky enough to have placed it in a tub, just in case. When you replace the o-ring remember to clean the seal seat real well before putting the new seal on. Also check to make sure everything else is in good order, other seals may also need replacing. Best of luck, Shaun

 

[Curehead]

Day 2 after major panic and alls well in fact my leather finger seems to have been totally refreshed by 4 hours out of the water...his first full bloom since I had him....no signs of die off from the rock..I'm guessing that everything thought it was a low spring tide.

 

[DaveK]

Glad to hear it's working out, but it's one heck of a way to do a water change. (grin)

 

[Curehead]

Some pictures 3 days post disaster...everyone ship shape and happy..
really happy with my home made sump and new skimmer and overflow box.

My lovely new overflow box which meant i could lose the canister filter and use my home made sump..

My home made sump small but effective...

I added the bags of phosphate gel, carbon and ceramics that were in the broken canister filter and the filter cotton from the filter under the overflow box outlet to try and was some of the bacteria into the mechanical wet dry filter chamber of the sump.

My beautiful Blue green Chron baby... will probably get another 4 once i know that the live rock isn't going to spike the nitrates with any post disaster die off. This guys is really entertaining to watch and I read that they are amazing in odd numbered shoals.

My baby clowns are growing fast and love chasing the Chron around.

Latest addition to the tank is my Pink Spotted Goby, follows me all over the room and always gets to a place where he can see me. (maybe thats why they are called watchmen.. he has taken to making perfectly round mounds in the sand and filtering the sand through his gills.

Worms were the first to sample the new water change

My only hard coral is loving the water change and blooming away all day....as is the tiny Cherry rose nem that hitch hiked with it from LFS

Cherry nem moves faster than my tiger conches...moves all over this one rock during the day....the conche shell you can see on the hard coral rock is actually my hermit crab who ate the previous occupant.

 

[Reddog170]

Happy to hear everything is doing Good, nice save. Shaun

 

[Curehead]

I recommend the Goby to anyone that loves tank entertainment.
He's taken to moving the sand tube worms around the tank and 're-planting' them where he wants them. If the conches wander into his cave he sucks them up into his mouth and drops them off at the other end of the tank. he has bonded with Tyson the boxer shrimp and turns almost upside down letting him clean his huge gills.