worst day of my life

02/01/2011 a date which will live in infamy!

Well at least in my house it will.... Let me tell you guys about the day I just had. It all started at 630 this morning I woke up cause I couldnt sleep. I walked past the tank and thought to myself I finally have a good looking reef! I have spent probably around $1000- $1200 in live stock... mostly corals I had beautiful acros, rare zoas,  an awesome amount of LPS, some chalice and some a really dope scollys. Well that was until today at least

Around 930 my wife woke up and walked past the tank and noticed the moonlight LEDs were blinking. So she checked it out and it was submerged under water. I had put a strip of LEDs on the bottom of our canopy so we could see all the cool things at night. Well the water level in the tank rose about 2 inches and submerged the strip. Guess what it electrocuted everything... For god know how long it was happening it was zapping everything in the damn water. She rushed downstairs and grabbed me I came up turned on the halides and almost all of my precious corals are dead. Most everything was expelling their slime and had lost all their color.

Well I immediately grabbed the 5 gallons of saltwater I had and did a water change. Then started making more. Then when I turned my pumps back on I could not get my overflow to siphon correctly and ended up flooding my living room. The crazy thing about all this is my fish are fine. Most of my inverts look OK with the exception of the sand sifting star is dead I think he hasnt moved all day and I cant find my tiger tail cucumber that scares the crap out of me by itself. But really I guess I dont have much left to lose anyway. Oh and my coco worm could not take it anymore and took a dive out of his tube to a certain death.

I determined the culprit to be a damn aqualifter pump that I use to maintain a siphon on my overflow. It took a crap and wasnt sucking up anything.. I wish I never would have done an overflow and would have just drilled my stupid tank. I had to drive down to the Aqariaum to get another one cause no LFS around my area carries them. After I got home I did another water change and I plan on doing a few more tomorrow but now I am not sure what to do next. Do I just wait it out and hope for the corals to come back? Should I pull everything that has lost its color out? Im really not sure....
 
Needless to say I thinking about getting out I love this hobby and how sweet an awesome reef looks but this day has really changed my perspective. I mean I have done everything that I thought was right. I set up a refug with macro, made a remote DSB, I got an awesome protein skimmer and watch my water params like a hawk. Still it didnt prevent my tank from  crashing and all my hard work went right down the drain in a few hours. It really sucks....




 

That does suck.  If it makes you feel better.... I've had lots of disasters over the years.  We all have.  It's incredibly frustrating and the reason that over 50% of hobbyist leave the hobby within 2 years.  If it wasn't for friends and relationships and great times.... we'd all have left this hobby by now.

I hate my laptop! I walk the same line also, probably same as everyone else. Sorry to hear this. I just installed an auto topoff unit I'm paranoid 24/7, also added an external media reactor, paranoid 48/14!? Wish you luck.

I'll try to find the link where you can buy a couple. I've been running my pump for close to 2 years now, just change the filter every 6 weeks.

I am so sorry that is terrible! I can only imagine your frustration. Hope things get better.
 Pam

That is just bad luck. Its great that all of your fish survived. Lesson learned have LED higher in canopies, and i thought loosing fishes from time to time was bad. Seeing almost everything gone makes you wonder what thing could have been prevented from causing this type of accidents. Do you have any pics? just curious 

I dont have any pics right now maybe I will put up some before and after pics tomorrow. That is going to be super depressing though. Yeah I would have put them higher in the canopy but they looked good right there lol. I never thought about that happening and I am the type of person that thinks and thinks before I do anything. I mean I have heard of peoples overflows losing the siphon but I just figured Mine would be ok. Giving it doesnt take much to keep it going once its started. I assumed the pump was almost like fail safe. Lesson learned for sure. Im really not sure why the surge protector that is was plugged into didnt trip. Thinking about that make me realize it could have been alot worse It could have started a fire or something.

By the way, it may not seem like it now but if this is the worst day of your life.... you have a frickin' fabulous life.  Many many many people out there would gladly trade their problems for this.

I had something similar to that happen with my parents tank that I take care of except I was in Las Vegas at the time. Luckily we didn't lose everything, just a few awesome coral. 

Sorry man

Get set back up and come over and I'll give you a bunch of frags for free.   Give me a call if you need any help setting it back up if you decide to.