Tank Crashed! Oh No!

Avianman

Avianman

Member
As I was running around getting ready for a busy day I glanced over and noticed that none of my star polyps were out....a noticable difference as I have quite a few. Not a HUGE deal I figured - its not unusual that a group will be retracted. Then it dawned on me that ALL of the star polyps were closed.....thats NOT right! I walked over and looked in the tank....the mushrooms were withered to nothing....the feather duster worm was out of its tube and on the bottom...the new flower pot coral was a skeleton! The torch and frogspawn were skeletons, too! OH NO! I dropped in the thermometer 96 degrees!!!:bugout:

So....much...dead! Crashed!!

I unplugged the heaters. I keep two in there because about 10 years ago I had only one and it went out and dropped a previous tank dangerously low. I always buy nice, expensive heaters, too...Ive learned my lesson in the past. But now one went nuts overnight and :tears:

My maroon clown is still alive....not sure on the star polyps. Im doing a partial water change to try and get some of the toxins out and lower the temp. I dont want the temp to drop too quick, either I suppose.

All that work.....so many years.......
 
bwhit1406

bwhit1406

Member
I would put some carbon in there if you dont already. let the water get back within range, maybe blow a fan across the top, small water change. Then do Bigger water change.
 
GrendelPrime

GrendelPrime

Well-Known Member
damn as someone who been through a crash i feel ur pain here..ide do a round of water changes and throw some carbon in there and moving forward i would invest in a controller for ur heater to avoid things like this in the future, hopefuly some of ur coral will recover
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
Wow sounds awful, sorry for your losses. Have to agree WC and Good carbon. Change the carbon frequently.

When you do get it settled, you should change to 2 smaller heaters. That was always the idea so if 1 stuck on it wouldn't/couldn't boil the tank, and if 1 stopped working it the other could maintain high enough it wouldn't drop to far.

I also highly recommend a controller, ReefKeeper Lite for $99 is a great safety net.
 
jpsika08

jpsika08

Well-Known Member
Really sorry about your losses, I would recommend a controller ASAP, this is the only way I can think of you can truly control the tank's temp.

The investment of this will be much lower rather than loosing your aquatic friends.

BTW, Lower the temp slowly as it can really affect your clown if you get it down drastically.

Good luck.
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
Sorry for your loss, Avianman. I wouldn't worry about dropping the temp quickly, if they survived the trip up to almost 100*, they should be able to survive a quick, but controlled trip back down. As others have said, carbon carbon carbon!


steved13 said:
I also highly recommend a controller, ReefKeeper Lite for $99 is a great safety net.
Click to expand...

+1. It boggles the mind that many reefers have no problem dropping $300 on an RO/DI unit, $400+ on a skimmer, and a few hundred to thousand dollars on corals, but wouldn't spend $99 to address a critical weak spot in EVERY reef aquarium out there that's just waiting for the perfect time to rear its ugly head.
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
chipmunkofdoom2 said:
+1. It boggles the mind that many reefers have no problem dropping $300 on an RO/DI unit, $400+ on a skimmer, and a few hundred to thousand dollars on corals, but wouldn't spend $99 to address a critical weak spot in EVERY reef aquarium out there that's just waiting for the perfect time to rear its ugly head.
Click to expand...


I think many, think about all the other stuff a controller can do and say "I don't need that" then the basic idea of using it for something so simple gets lost...not to mention $99 is a new very low price point. If I were D/A I would market it, targeting this purpose, and the expandability as a bonus.
 
chipmunkofdoom2

chipmunkofdoom2

Well-Known Member
steved13 said:
I think many, think about all the other stuff a controller can do and say "I don't need that" then the basic idea of using it for something so simple gets lost...not to mention $99 is a new very low price point. If I were D/A I would market it, targeting this purpose, and the expandability as a bonus.
Click to expand...
a

Actually, I think the Reefkeeper Lite has always been around that price, but I get your point. And my previous post was in no way meant to make fun of or put down the OP.

What I really don't get is why it's considered a must to have equipment like an RO/DI unit or a skimmer, but it's okay to just "hope for the best" as far as temperature control, where a cheap $50 heater can kill thousands in livestock.

People get so heated over skimmers that one user actually got banned in the ATS thread because he simply couldn't wrap his head around not needing a skimmer (well, he got banned because he was being argumentative and literally asked for it, but you get my point). Many just can't fathom setting up a new tank without a skimmer or using RO/DI.. I just don't understand how a temperature controller isn't considered necessary. Sure, heater technology has gotten better, but there are so many stories out there (this one included now, sadly) where a faulty thermometer brought down an entire tank. A cheap $99 controller shouldn't be considered optional.
 
astiesi

astiesi

Member
Really sorry to hear about the loss. I had the same thing happen in May while away on vacation, although not due to heater failure but A/C failure in my home. I dropped a small bag of ice into the sump and got the temperature down over a 2 or 3 hour timespan.

As for what lived, I did have 2 clowns and a yellow watchman live through the event. I also had a few larger zoa colonies live through it. All SPS/LPS died as well as GSP/Xenia/Toadstool. So I would be hopeful that your clown will be no worse for the wear, however the GSP matte may slowly melt away.

And like many others, the very next day I bought a ReefKeeper Lite. Having a controller to keep the heater in check as well as turn off lighting and other non-neccessary equipment in the event of the tank getting too hot is well worth the $99.
 
steved13

steved13

Well-Known Member
PREMIUM
Until recently, I hadn't even seen anyone advocating there use for "temperature insurance". I think with the $99 price point and mre and more folks like us bringing it up it will soon be much more prevalant.

I think a lot of us in this hobby are like me and like the equipment as much as anything else, so provided a good excuse more and more will buy a controller.
 
Reddog170

Reddog170

Active Member
Well yes a temp controller is great and may have prevented the crash. But why don't we bring this back on track here and help out getting his tank straitened out.
Water changes, slow decline in temp, a new heater, and some carbon, changed out every other day. That and time may be all that can be done for now. Any time a tank crashes is a sad day, no matter how preventable it is. A lot of people do not use controllers. I believe that the main reason is that the information is confusing. I know several sweet tanks that do not use controllers. I think he did a great job catching it and saving what he did. Now I got to talk with a lady a while back that says that time will heal all, even a crash. Her 200 crashed and after several weeks of water changes it cycled and was ready to go. She just removed anything that died, did water changes and ran carbon and changed it every 48 hours. That is all I recommend for this. I wish you the best of luck and hope all goes well, Shaun
 
Avianman

Avianman

Member
Thanks for all the support, guys! They say necessity is the mother of invention, and I think the same could be said for new technology. Since I havent run into this problem before (my last heater incident wouldnt have been prevented by a controller) and I have never heard of a controller in my 15 years of reefkeeping I dont have one. I mean, if you have never heard of something, how would you know to buy one?

Oh well, live and learn. I am the most bummed about the GSP's. They were HUGE and beautiful, some strange subspecies....beautiful curled polyps (see my avatar) that I have never seen before.

The clown made it, and it looks like my zoa colony looks like it made it. Looks like everything else is toast. Oh well, live and learn and move on....
 
W

WVUReefer

Member
digital aquatics makes controllers..stars could still bounce back..I thought mine were dead once..the polyps purple skin became flaky and peeled after a heater indient, but within a few weeks they bounced back..a year later they are back to being pests again...
 
Avianman

Avianman

Member
Since digital controllers are effectively the same as whats inside the better heaters....whats to stop them from failing?
 
Avianman

Avianman

Member
Nothing specific....having a computer science background I know the basic principals inside should be the same....essentially a thermostatically controlled switch. I mean, it's like plugging a surge protector into a surge protector....when a power surge happens either one can still fail - they just both have to fail at the same time for harm to be done. It gets worse when someone maxes out their heater and relies on the temp controller....if it fails, another crash happens. Our heaters, any of the thermostatically controlled units where you set the temp on the heater, are just heaters with internal temperature controllers.

Just thinking out loud really. Not knocking temp controllers, just would be curious to know their fail rate compared to a good thermostatically controlled heater. I think a lot of times we see something with flashing lights, a higher pricetag and a digital readout and assume it is more reliable, better or a must have - especially in this hobby. Lots of people are saying that a temp controller would have prevented my crash - but that is assuming the temp controller didnt fail....

In reality, the low-wattage dual heater suggestion seems safer. But then, if they both failed at once im in the same boat...... *sigh*


Look at this product:

Temp controllerl

When you read the reviews you see people who relied on the controller and ended up with the same result I did. Now, it looks like this is a crappy controller, but my point is the same.....I spent a lot less for the same miserable results :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top