Tank crash caused by Wal Mart fan!

[Lance]

Today was warm so I turned the fan on the sump for the 90g corner tank. Later I walked by the tank and immediately knew something was wrong. Fish were acting very strange, and the tank was murky. Looking closer I saw that all the softies and LPS were closed up, and the SPS sliming badly. I couldn't see anything obvious in the tank so I looked in the sump and found the fan had become disengaged from its base and fallen into the water. I pulled the plug out of the receptacle and removed the fan, then quickly changed out the carbon in the reactor and changed 15 gallons of water. The sump is running on a GFCI outlet, but the fan was plugged into a wall receptacle because I just use it once in awhile in the summer. (Damn that Murphy and his stupid law!)
Fish seem okay but all inverts are affected: 2 cleaner shrimp are MIA; snails look to be dying as do the Feather Dusters; clam is closed; all zoas, palys and mushrooms are closed up; all LPS are closed and SPS are sliming like crazy, which may be a good thing: if they're still sliming they're still alive.
Will wait awhile and do another water change. (Keeping fingers crossed here that it isn't as bad as it looks at the moment).

[marie]

That happened to me once, Lance.....with a walmart fan no less. My tank came through it fine though

[Lance]

That happened to me once, Lance.....with a walmart fan no less. My tank came through it fine though

Well that's good to know. :biggrin: The large torch coral and the Duncan are starting to peek out, as are the Aiptasia (Of course! Can't kill them SOB's) The SPS are still sliming though.

[fishytime]

omg Lance!.....I really hope everything pulls through ok for you man.....

[Milad]

GFCI everything!

[PoonTang]

OMG Lance that's terrible. Hope everything turns out ok. Let me know if you need anything, although I know you have some great help nearby. Luckily you didn't stick your hand in the tank before you noticed everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lastlight]

I hate coming on here and reading a thread title like that. Best of luck I
sure you'll escape disaster.

[Skimmerking]

Dude so sorry to hear about that man. I hope your tank pulls through

[Delphinus]

Good luck Lance!! Carbon and water changes...

[Lance]

Just changed another 15 gals of water, changed out the carbon again and things are looking a lot better. The torch, hammer, Duncan, brain, blastos, candy cane and mushrooms are starting to make an appearance now. The fox coral and all zoas still look in bad shape. The large Yellow Fiji Leather is tightly curled up and looking pretty sad. Too early to tell yet with any of the SPS, though they seem to be sliming less now, whether that's good or bad I don't know. The clam and feather dusters are still closed and still no sign of the shrimps. None of the snails have come out of their shells yet but the large striped spaghetti worm is back out and foraging. I fed a few pellets to the fish to see if they would eat and they scarfed them back so they are definitely ok. Unless I lose all the SPS colonies I'm considering myself pretty lucky.
I'll do another water change before work in the morning and then change the carbon again when I come home. I took pics and will upload them tomorrow.

[fishoholic]

Good luck Lance!! Carbon and water changes...

I 2nd that. Hope everything pulls though ok.

[PoonTang]

I would give the return lines a good cleaning too. You know, just to be on the safe side. ;)

[VFX]

Sorry to hear :cry:

Hope things get better soon.

.

[christyf5]

Yikes that is scary! I hope everything pulls through :neutral:

[frd72]

just wondering, is this cause by electric current? short circuit on the water?
causing all of your fish to be sick? even if you don't have it GFCI, your circuit breaker should go off. Just my thought. maybe you should consider checking it??
It happen to me once but not a fan, a battery operated led touch lamp, i think with four AA battery all fell on the sump overnight and leave no problem with the main tank, the skimmer did all the clean up. I empty the skimmer cup and saw all the juice from the battery..

thanks,
teddy

[bvlester]

I would give the return lines a good cleaning too. You know, just to be on the safe side. ;)

have your wife hold them:wink:

[Lance]

Lights aren't on yet so I don't know how everything is doing this morning. Small water change before work. Skimmer cup filled overnight so there's still a lot of crap in the water. Will do another water change after work and change out the carbon again.

Pics:


This is the culprit that caused all the grief. Fan fell right out of the base into the sump. Breaker did trip but the tank obviously got a good jolt.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2043.jpg

Fox Coral
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2044.jpg

Should look like this:
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/fishaug09/IMG_4455.jpg

Hammer coral
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2041.jpg

clam
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2040.jpg

Duncan
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2039.jpg

Torch coral
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2038.jpg

[Seafan]

Wow, that is so scary and sad. Hopefully your corals and fish return to normal in no time for you. I also use a fan just like that over my display, really has me thinking of what I can use now, sure don't want to go through what you've been through. Good Luck!

[DCDN]

I had the same with my fuge light, fortunately everything was ok

[Leah]

Lance,

Hopefully things will be okay. And they say reefing is peaceful and relaxing, huh! Never been so stressed as when I started reefing. :twised:

[Lance]

Well it looks like I've lost my two largest SPS colonies. :(
The blue-tipped Stag has expelled all its zooxanthellae and is completely bleached. The orange Monti-Cap still has some colour left but not much.
Two other smaller colonies are toast as well: (Acropora Lovellei & Sky Blue Loisetteae).
Two large Pocci's don't look very good and my Hammer Coral is hurting, but I think will pull through.
All other corals seem ok. Both cleaner shrimp made an appearance and all the fish are fine.
I have done 3x 20gal water changes, changed the carbon twice and still the skimmer is pulling the blackest, most putrid skimmate I've ever seen. This afternoon I'm going to do a 50% water change and change the carbon again.
All very depressing but I think how much worse it could have been.

[Mrfish55]

Just saw the thread, sorry to hear, need a hand with anything let me know, I have 20 gals mixed and ready to go if needed.

[Lance]

Just saw the thread, sorry to hear, need a hand with anything let me know, I have 20 gals mixed and ready to go if needed.

Thanks Dave. I'm good. I've got lots of mixed salt water and lots of carbon as well.

[Coleus]

Sorry to hear. Damn those walmart fan.

[christyf5]

Well it looks like I've lost my two largest SPS colonies. :(
The blue-tipped Stag has expelled all its zooxanthellae and is completely bleached. The orange Monti-Cap still has some colour left but not much.
Two other smaller colonies are toast as well: (Acropora Lovellei & Sky Blue Loisetteae).
Two large Pocci's don't look very good and my Hammer Coral is hurting, but I think will pull through.
All other corals seem ok. Both cleaner shrimp made an appearance and all the fish are fine.
I have done 3x 20gal water changes, changed the carbon twice and still the skimmer is pulling the blackest, most putrid skimmate I've ever seen. This afternoon I'm going to do a 50% water change and change the carbon again.
All very depressing but I think how much worse it could have been.


Ugh that is just awful Lance. Keep up with the waterchanges and carbon as the ammonia levels will do some damage if they aren't continually reduced, sounds like the nastiness I dealt with after my move. I would imagine your LPS will be ok its just the SPS (acros) that are touchy and man they can really do some damage to each other as they mucous up and die. Also you can try using an ammonia reducer, it sometimes helps but be careful with the dosages.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sorry to hear of the losses Lance. Do want me to send a frag of orange monti cap home with Christy (Marie's meeting up with her eventually) to help replace your mother colony?

[Lance]

Ugh that is just awful Lance. Keep up with the waterchanges and carbon as the ammonia levels will do some damage if they aren't continually reduced, sounds like the nastiness I dealt with after my move. I would imagine your LPS will be ok its just the SPS (acros) that are touchy and man they can really do some damage to each other as they mucous up and die. Also you can try using an ammonia reducer, it sometimes helps but be careful with the dosages.


Yeah it sucks! I've been testing the ammonia every 3 to 4 hours. Right now it's under .25 on a Salifert kit. The water still has a faint murkiness to it, even though I just did another 20 gal water change. I'm running 2 liters of carbon in a BRS dual reactor and changing it every 6 hours or so. I've got an old canister filter I could fill with carbon as well. Or do you think this may be too much?

[Lance]

Sorry to hear of the losses Lance. Do want me to send a frag of orange monti cap home with Christy (Marie's meeting up with her eventually) to help replace your mother colony?


Thanks Anthony, but I think I'll hold up for awhile and see just what happens with my cap. Portions of it still have some colour so I may be able to save some of it.

[christyf5]

Yeah it sucks! I've been testing the ammonia every 3 to 4 hours. Right now it's under .25 on a Salifert kit. The water still has a faint murkiness to it, even though I just did another 20 gal water change. I'm running 2 liters of carbon in a BRS dual reactor and changing it every 6 hours or so. I've got an old canister filter I could fill with carbon as well. Or do you think this may be too much?

I would imagine what you have running right now is likely doing the job. Just keep up with the waterchanges if you can (which can be friggin exhausting, eventually I just said eff it and gave up, it was too much but in hindsight I wish I had kept going as I ended up having a second round of die off).

[Ryanst]

That sucks I hope everything pulls through. After reading this I decided to actually install the gfi's that have been sitting on my counter for the last couple of weeks. lol

[Lance]

I would imagine what you have running right now is likely doing the job. Just keep up with the waterchanges if you can (which can be friggin exhausting, eventually I just said eff it and gave up, it was too much but in hindsight I wish I had kept going as I ended up having a second round of die off).


This is what I'm thinking:

1. 25% water change twice a day.
2. Change one liter of carbon daily.
3. Test ammonia frequently. (Amquel if needed)
4. Cut back on fish feeding.
5. Keep fingers crossed.

What do you recommend? Anything else?


Additional List:
6. Buy more salt.
7. Buy more carbon.
8. Start picking out replacement SPS from web sites.
9. Ignore Visa statement.

[christyf5]

This is what I'm thinking:

1. 25% water change twice a day.
2. Change one liter of carbon daily.
3. Test ammonia frequently. (Amquel if needed)
4. Cut back on fish feeding.
5. Keep fingers crossed.

What do you recommend? Anything else?


Additional List:
6. Buy more salt.
7. Buy more carbon.
8. Start picking out replacement SPS from web sites.
9. Ignore Visa statement.

Excellent list, thats pretty much what worked for me except I got tired of 1 and 2 and 3 after awhile. Number 8 was pretty fun though :biggrin:

As you feel you can slow down with the waterchanges, keep on top of the ammonia testing, you never know what can trigger another coral to go south and you'll need to be prepared if that happens.

[Lance]

Excellent list, thats pretty much what worked for me except I got tired of 1 and 2 and 3 after awhile. Number 8 was pretty fun though :biggrin:

As you feel you can slow down with the waterchanges, keep on top of the ammonia testing, you never know what can trigger another coral to go south and you'll need to be prepared if that happens.


OK. Thanks again.
Water changes aren't too bad. I have a 55 gal container for mixing and a big pump for quick mixing. I'm just thankful it wasn't the big tank, then the water changes would be a real PITA!

[Lance]

A couple of pics of the bleaching.

Blue-tipped Stag. One of my first SPS corals. (12"x12") The acro to the right of it is now bleaching as well.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/90%20june%2026/IMG_2045.jpg

Large orange Monti Cap (14"x6") About 50% bleached
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/90%20june%2026/IMG_2046.jpg




Losses so far:
Blue-tipped stag, Acropora Lovellei, Sky Blue Loisetteae, Blue Teal Acro, Pink Bird's Nest, unknown Acro, one small colony of zoas.

Iffy but so far still alive:
Orange Monti Cap, 2x smaller Acro colonies, Hammer Coral (5 of the 18 heads are done), two large Poccillopora colonies.

Survivors:
all softies; all LPS excluding the above mentioned Hammer, which I'm thinking will make it; all fish; all shrimps; all snails; feather dusters; and of course all Aiptasia, Majanos, Bubble algae.


Funny how the larger SPS were hardest hit. It seems the smaller the SPS the better it came through the ordeal.

[Lance]

And the clam came through okay. :biggrin:

[christyf5]

A couple of pics of the bleaching.



Losses so far:
Blue-tipped stag, Acropora Lovellei, Sky Blue Loisetteae, Blue Teal Acro, Pink Bird's Nest, unknown Acro, one small colony of zoas.

Iffy but so far still alive:
Orange Monti Cap, 2x smaller Acro colonies, Hammer Coral (5 of the 18 heads are done), two large Poccillopora colonies.

Survivors:
all softies; all LPS excluding the above mentioned Hammer, which I'm thinking will make it; all fish; all shrimps; all snails; feather dusters; and of course all Aiptasia, Majanos, Bubble algae.


Funny how the larger SPS were hardest hit. It seems the smaller the SPS the better it came through the ordeal.

Even if they look dead, don't chuck them until you can see algae on them. Caps are remarkably resilient, I had a couple with small bits of tissue on them, they closed the gap in no time at all and look great now.

Not sure what the blue tipped stag looks like but I have the lovelli, loisettae and two pink birdsnests (not sure which one yours is) as well I have a teal acro (again not sure if the same as yours) that I can get to you if Marie or Dave don't have them :biggrin:

Isn't it a ****er that aiptasia and majanos survive this kind of stuff? Ugh. :twised:

Oh and great to hear about the clam! :)

[Lance]

Even if they look dead, don't chuck them until you can see algae on them. Caps are remarkably resilient, I had a couple with small bits of tissue on them, they closed the gap in no time at all and look great now.

Not sure what the blue tipped stag looks like but I have the lovelli, loisettae and two pink birdsnests (not sure which one yours is) as well I have a teal acro (again not sure if the same as yours) that I can get to you if Marie or Dave don't have them :biggrin:

Isn't it a ****er that aiptasia and majanos survive this kind of stuff? Ugh. :twised:

Oh and great to hear about the clam! :)


Won't be touching anything until I'm sure they're goners. Thanks muchly for the offer. (I think we all can find a few of each other's pieces in our tanks). :biggrin:

[PoonTang]

Geez Lance that really sucks. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for you. I am glad it wasnt a total wipeout for you tho. What about fragging some of the worst ones a little and putting the pieces in the other tank? Sounds like you are on the right track tho with the water changes and carbon. Of course any frags that I have that would be of use to you you are more than welcome to. Keep us posted.

[Lance]

Geez Lance that really sucks. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for you. I am glad it wasnt a total wipeout for you tho. What about fragging some of the worst ones a little and putting the pieces in the other tank? Sounds like you are on the right track tho with the water changes and carbon. Of course any frags that I have that would be of use to you you are more than welcome to. Keep us posted.

Thanks Darren. I'm just going to watch closely for a bit. If the Cap and others continue to bleach I'll frag the rest of them.

[marie]

Thanks Darren. I'm just going to watch closely for a bit. If the Cap and others continue to bleach I'll frag the rest of them.

Don't frag them if it is just bleaching....everything else being good they can regain their colour again in no time....last year I had all my caps bleach completely white and within a month you would never have known it


It would be a different matter if the tissue is gone though

[Lance]

Don't frag them if it is just bleaching....everything else being good they can regain their colour again in no time....last year I had all my caps bleach completely white and within a month you would never have known it


It would be a different matter if the tissue is gone though


No, I won't touch anything until covered in algae. I've had a few SPS show new growth when I was convinced they were stone cold dead.

[lastlight]

Aw damn this sucks man. You've got the dedication...let's hope that's enough to keep everything else alive and heal the maybes.

[Doug]

Sorry for the losses Lance. Makes a person just want to sit and cry. If rtn sets in instead of bleaching be very careful. My recent rtn event wiped out all the sps I just put in. It started with what I thought was bleaching. Leaving & fragging them, only led to their tissue loss causing more rtn, or perhaps it was inevitable anyways.

Its my feeling that if I had tossed the few I tried to save, {these are all acro,s by the way}, in the beginning, I may have save the colonies I later lost. Just an opinion and could be wrong but thats how it looked to me.

As long as its just bleaching, some may recover as mentioned. Mine were actually loosing tissue though and very noticeable. And man did it stink.

Wish your tank the best in its recovery. It was a very beautiful reef aquarium.

[Lance]

Thanks guys. I'm keeping a close eye on them Doug. The moment I see tissue loss out they come. I have a QT/frag grow-out tank so I can place any suspect pieces or frags in there.

[Lance]

Well, it's been 10 days since the fan incident and the tank is doing fine. No lasting effects to any of the animals. :biggrin:
Maybe it's my imagination, but the Orange Cap seems to be getting back some of its colour. The Stag is still bleached but it's getting its blue tips back. Blue tips mean growth and that's a good thing.
I'm still counting my lucky stars as it could have been so much worse.

[Leah]

That is great to hear Lance, hope it continues to improve...a girl that loves a happy ending. :wink:

[Lance]

That is great to hear Lance, hope it continues to improve...a girl that loves a happy ending. :wink:

Thanks Leah. :biggrin:

[christyf5]

Well, it's been 10 days since the fan incident and the tank is doing fine. No lasting effects to any of the animals. :biggrin:
Maybe it's my imagination, but the Orange Cap seems to be getting back some of its colour. The Stag is still bleached but it's getting its blue tips back. Blue tips mean growth and that's a good thing.
I'm still counting my lucky stars as it could have been so much worse.


Great to hear things are rebounding!! :biggrin:

[Lance]

Great to hear things are rebounding!! :biggrin:

Thanks Christy. Water parameters are back to normal and I'm about ready to order some corals to fill in the spaces from the ones I lost.

(You know you've got a problem when corals die and you're already planning what to buy to replace them. )

[Skimmerking]

that is so great to hear Lance you tanks have come along way from the time we spoke on the phone from talking about setting up your skimmer.. well done.

[fishoholic]

Good to hear, I'm glad things are looking up :biggrin:

[christyf5]

(You know you've got a problem when corals die and you're already planning what to buy to replace them. )

LOL, I have that same problem :razz: LMK if I have anything you'd like!

[PoonTang]

Great news Lance. Glad it's working out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Zoaelite]

Thanks Christy. Water parameters are back to normal and I'm about ready to order some corals to fill in the spaces from the ones I lost.

(You know you've got a problem when corals die and you're already planning what to buy to replace them. )

Your fish can't have a plain reef Lance that's just crazy talk, far from a problem your just being a responsible reef keeper :biggrin:. Great to here everything is rebounding!

[Lance]

Well it's been one month since the fan incident. The Monti Cap is slowly regaining it's colour and the Stag, although still very pale, is growing: Blue tips everywhere. Aside from these two corals the other survivors are doing fine.

Losses: A. Lovellei, Sky Blue Loisetteae, Pink Bird's Nest, Blue Teal Acro, unknown Acro, one smaller zoa colony. All told: 6 colonies dead and two still recovering. Could have been worse I guess. You can see in the June 26 pics how murky the water still is after 8 hours, three water changes and two carbon changes. When I first came home you couldn't see to the back of the tank it was that cloudy.

The Clam (june 26)
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2040.jpg

Tonight
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2065.jpg


The Hammer
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2041.jpg

Tonight
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2062.jpg


The Duncan
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2039.jpg

Tonight
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2066.jpg


Torch Coral
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2038.jpg

Tonight
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2063.jpg


Fox Coral
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/tank%20june/IMG_2044.jpg

Tonight
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coral%20mar04/IMG_1682.jpg

The Fiji Yellow was a shrunken little ball, covered in wax for nearly a week before it opened up again. Totally fine now.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2061.jpg

The Monti Cap tonight. Has a fair amount of colour back.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/coralsjuly2010/IMG_2059.jpg

[Skimmerking]

Looking a lot better Buddy Im glad that your tank pulled through man, well done on the keep up maintenance

[christyf5]

Great to hear things are rebounding Lance!! :biggrin:

[muck]

Excellent to see Lance.
You been dosing the tank with a little absinthe or something... :mrgreen:

[trinac]

Nice work, I don't think it was luck that saved your tank, you were pretty determined!!

Now, someone mentioned a GFCI outlet. I am no electrician, and am not even sure I know the acronym... ground fault circuit interuptor? Would this thing have prevented your catastrophe? Did you have one already, or are you going to install one now?

[PoonTang]

Glad it turned out as well as it did :)

[Lance]

Thanks Guys. :biggrin:

[Lance]

Nice work, I don't think it was luck that saved your tank, you were pretty determined!!

Now, someone mentioned a GFCI outlet. I am no electrician, and am not even sure I know the acronym... ground fault circuit interuptor? Would this thing have prevented your catastrophe? Did you have one already, or are you going to install one now?


Anything that is in or near the water is on GFCI, except for the fan. :sad: It is plugged into a controller that is not on a GFCI. I've used this fan for years to keep the sump cool in the summer. The new fan and controller are now plugged into a GFCI. :wink:

[Lance]

As some of you may remember I had a partial crash of my 90g due to an incident with a fan. It's now been 6 months since the crash. I lost a few of my larger colonies but the tank is starting to fill in again. Here's a few pics:



http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2187.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2193.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2196.jpg


My cap was totally bleached out but has come back nicely.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2188.jpg


I thought this clam was a goner. Closed up tight for days.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2191.jpg

The Fiji Yellow and Fox Coral were in bad shape for a while but they too have rebounded.

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2189.jpg

http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo151/lancefishtank/Dec2010/IMG_2180.jpg