Very STUPID story from yesterday.

[Canadian Man]

Well I almost DIED yesterday because my tank.

I was cleaning the grill on my exhaust fan in my tank room. Going to put it back up, I was standing on the 2x4 that spans across my 100g rubber-maid sump and a salt bucket beside it. The 2x4 slipped, I fell into the sump while cleverly grabbing the closest thing around. This object was my 400w ballast sitting on the shelf 7ft above the sump. Me and the ballast fell into the sump and luckily the ballast chord unplugged because I was smart enough to zip-tie the chord to a short length.
The ballast cracked my skimmer, which I should be happy about because I am still alive. So, did I mention that the ballast and my body happened to miss the 4 Heaters that I have in the sump. :redface: Someone was watching out for me, I think :confused:

So I had an interesting day yesterday. Glad to be talking to you all today.
I suppose I have to get off my but and build my new skimmer soon.


Some of you might remember just over a year ago I cut my tendon in my right ring finger. YES....Fiddiling with my tank :rolleyes:
Ahhh What we put up with in this hobby. Well, Me anyway :lol:

Cheers

Oh and I don't use GFI's but I have been told by the boss that now I have to get some. :lol:

[AJ_77]

Glad you're still alive - :eek: .

Surprising that Katie lets you keep that death trap... JUST KIDDING!

But really, man, you've got to do something about your propensity for near-self-destruction.

:confused:

[Canadian Man]

Yea.....Um........Well I added a couple of 2x4's above the sump and when I have to do work above it I have a piece of plywood I will now lay across the 2x4's creating a stable platform. :redface:

[LostMind]

may I recommend 4x4's? Man, that would scare the crap outta me.

I had a near death electrical experience in my basement due to my ro/di unit flooding... so I can relate a bit... but my little accident wasnt nearly as expensive as yours!

[EmilyB]

Glad you lived to tell that story :eek: :cool:

[christyf5]

Good grief Jon. :eek: Sounds like you need some Holey Sh** handles for your tank room :wink:

[zulu_principle]

Glad to hear everything is fine.

Will a power bar trip once something drops in the water ?



Wendell

[Buccaneer]

Glad you are OK Jonathon :eek: ... holy crap man ! ... you need one of my handy flip down walkways :razz: :cool: < that could be rigged up on that wall come to think of it > ... ahhhh ... another DIY project huh ? :smile: ... sounds like you will be needing that Beckett skimmer sooner than later so let me know if you need any help with it

Cheers

[sumpfinfishe]

Wow :eek: Jon,
That sounds like a scary day!
Just reading that made me a little tence so I could only image how hard it must have been to pull your heart back up out of your shorts :mrgreen:

Glad to see your still with us man :exclaim:

That could have been a really really freaky, so let's all remind ourselfs that electricity and saltwater don't mix.

Oh and Jon, you should post this story on RC as they have a huge thread going on right now about this sort of thing.

[Jack]

:eek: That coulda been worse

[Beverly]

Thank heaven you survived :eek:

You serious DIY big tank reefers would laugh your *sses off at how I have my tanks set up. No sumps, no refugiums, no skimmers, no calcuim reactors, just Hagen powerheads with Quickfilters filled with foam. It's the "keep it simple" approach :cool:

I'll bet I've saved hundreds of gallons of water from the floor over the years. The closest I've come to stupidly harming myself was not unplugging a heater and keeping it out of water while doing a water change on a 7 gal nano. Just as I put the heater into the water, it exploded. No harm was done to the tank or me, but obviously the heater was a goner.

Holy cr*p, Jonathan, you are one lucky dude :exclaim: :exclaim: :exclaim:

[Doug]

Glad your ok Jon.

[titus]

Hello,

Wow. :eek:
The house breaker should have tripped when the whole ballast is submerged. But yes, you do need to have GFCI for the water floods and other occasions.

Titus

[TANGOMAN]

Glad to hear you are here to post this !!! Are you challenging me for this months "Darwin Award"...?

[DiscusZ]

Jon Jon Jon.. Now if the baby was here you could of used the "New Father Syndrome" as an excuse :biggrin: Ya have to be careful.. . I had something similar happen once, my glass canopy broke on my 77g while I was working in my freshwater tank.. luckily the light was facing upside down.

Glad your fine dude.. we still have to hook up :lol: so don't kill yourself :smile:

[Delphinus]

One truly frightening experience. Maybe ballasts should be strapped down if they are elevated and nearby to a body of open water (in addition to grounding probes and GFCI).

Having felt 175W once when I was too lazy to turn off my halide ballast when putting in a new bulb (all of week ago ... you'd think I'd know better by now), I don't even want to begin to imagine how much one would feel (or not feel :eek: ) 400W.

Anyways as I spoke to you already about this Jonathan you already know that I am glad to hear you are still around to speak of this, but I'll say it publicly too. Glad you are still around to speak of this. For pity's sake be careful, you have others to think about! And please never hesitate to call on me if you need an extra set of hands.... You know I'm here for ya buddy ..... Methinks you need a spotter in that tank room when you do work in there!!!! :razz:

[DiscusZ]

Same goes here if you need a "spotter" and I am only 5 mins away from your house so call on me if need be.

Jim

[Canadian Man]

Thanks Everyone.

Wendell, I think the Powerbar would have tripped. I do have all my stuff plugged into powerbars. Now that I think about that I guess it's a good thing I do.

Doug, Yea I think I win November's Darwin award.

Regarding the RC thing, Can anyone post a link to the thread and I will post my story there too.

[ABreefkpr]

Glad to hear your OK Jonathan. :eek: Ya maybe the power bar might of tripped but it's good to hear that you didn't have to test that theory.
Where's the sweating bullets Emoticon :question:

Keith

[Quinn]

I think to win a Darwin award you have to actually die... maybe Jon gets runner-up. :lol:

[Tau2301]

That's just too scary. Lets be careful out folks.

Glad to still have you around.