Insurance on your investment

[reefgirl189]

How many of you have your aquarium in your insurance policy? This may not matter so much to those of you with nano setups, but could you imagine 50+ gallons of water on your floor in a worst case scenario?

Have you thought about what you would do in a situation where your aquarium gave out? Are you protected financially? What precautions have you taken to prevent a blow out that perhaps others like me could benefit from hearing?

Disclaimer: I'm not an insurance salesman.

[Nano]

How many of you have your aquarium in your insurance policy? This may not matter so much to those of you with nano setups, but could you imagine 50+ gallons of water on your floor in a worst case scenario?

Have you thought about what you would do in a situation where your aquarium gave out? Are you protected financially? What precautions have you taken to prevent a blow out that perhaps others like me could benefit from hearing?

Disclaimer: I'm not an insurance salesman.

I do it was part of my tenancy, that I had to buy insurance, its actually fairly cheap and you can cover everything, better to be safe the sorry! Especially since I have 100 gallon aquarium, and am getting a 40, with a sump, lol thats a lot of water in an apartment, luckily I'm in a cemented building!

[Casey8]

Oh yes ... a must have before I got started in this hobby.

[Coralgurl]

I never even thought of this! I'm calling my insurance company tomorrow, considering I flooded my kitchen last week filling water bottles and forgot about them....I've asked Santa for an ATO...Thanks for bringing this up!

[Aquattro]

considering I flooded my kitchen last week filling water bottles and forgot about them..

that's a rite of passage in this hobby :)

[Coralgurl]

How many rites does one get??? I think I'm wearing out forgiveness with this hobby...lol, good way to get new stuff I guess.:biggrin:

[Nano]

haha me too, I dumped 5 gallons of water on the floor in the summer.. all the towels couldnt clean it up! thankfully, nothing got damaged :redface:

[Snappy]

Losing the water is a hassle but having the ability to make up a lot of H2O in a hurry is also insurance in itself. I had approx 120 gallons empty onto the floor one time which is another reason why I like having a 300 gal per day RO unit. I had the water I needed to top up the tank in a matter of a few hours. I also recommend maintaining a large reservoir of fresh RO water.

[Rice Reef]

When I purchase my insurance I always update my broker of my tank and equipments. My broker told me that livestocks are not covered however Water damage, the tank and equipments are. I was told to make a list and to include photos and if possible, manuals and receipts. It helps when my broker used to have a tank himself.

[Funky_Fish14]

.... having the ability to make up a lot of H2O in a hurry is also insurance in itself...... I also recommend maintaining a large reservoir of fresh RO water.

I agree with this. I have space to store 100 gals... Have a 200gpd R/O unit.

I do not have insurance on my tank or in home for my tank... However my tanks are in a room with concrete floor and the equipment that would be lost if something blew is minimal. Typical deductible would not cover it... and a drain floor drain is not too far, so minimal house damage would be incurred.

[lastlight]

what's a floor drain? :mrgreen:

[monocus]

my tanks are in the basement,which has a 3" subfloor.usualy have 170 gal of mixed water on hand and 10-20 gal of r/o water.my tanks sit on a marble floor ,so it is easy to clean up,and since i have dealt with fire and flood restorations in some of my jobs,i'm faster,cheaper,and do a better job on any damage caused by any accident

[RyanJ]

Yeah, it's a good thing to have everything covered! Just incase! I talked with my broker and I have everything covered up to $100,000, that includes flood damage, theft and whatever elce... Except they do not cover missile attacks.. Or a melisha attack.. But if my tank breaks and takes out everything... They will replace it.. Except large livestock.. No one I have talked to will... But I hear there is a way! You can insure anything!!! For..600 a year.. It's well worth it! And ever better, if someone comes and robs your house.. They will cover that.. So there is wayyy more then one reason to get ur stuff insured!.. Funny thing is that I asked her if my in sump skimmer would be covered if it got flooded and she said yeah.. I had to laugh abit..

[Coralgurl]

I just spoke with my broker and everything is covered if my tank lets go, including equipment, don't need special coverage. The tank is not covered, just any water damage caused as a result of tank failure, this is all covered under my homeowners policy - I have full replacement value type coverage. I keep all my receipts in the stand, think I may move them...do you all have additional coverage or just what is carried in your homeowners policy? My broker used to have tanks years and years ago, so he understands the concern, but he confirmed that I had nothing to worry about.

[Brightwhite]

Great thread Idea! Ill be calling my insurance company asap to find out more info.

[reefgirl189]

Ohhh floor drain, that is a good idea. I wonder if insurance would give discounts for that.

I'm going to mention it to the other half. Which the basement is unfinished it should be easy to put one it. It would be difficult to create the slope the floor needs for the drain but having one in the event of a 180 gal blow out would be worth it.

On another note I was a dummy and forgot to shut off the valve to the RO and I got a nice puddle of RO all over my concrete floor. The RO and all equipment is in the utility room which has a drain but turns out my builder doesn't know how to properly slope the concrete to the drain and it leaked out of the furnace room. Think I should bother mentioning this to him?

[lastlight]

I don't have my water reservoir barrels totally plumbed into my ro/di yet so there is still a need to yank one hose from the unit and plug another in to fill a different barrel. The other night I yanked the line feeding my water change barrel and got the topoff barrel filling. Suddently I feel my feet getting wet... I let the line feeding the waterchange barrel fall to the floor. You can siphon a lot of water out in a minute even through 1/4" !

The floor is solid epoxy though... just walked away and next day the puddle had evaporated =)

[MarkoD]

I'm pretty sure house insurance will cover any house damage caused by a flood from a tank. But why would you insure the tank itself? Seems like a waste of money. How often do tanks give out and flood the floor?

[Madreefer]

Sorry but a little off topic. This is what I did so that if the float valve in my barrel to shut off the RO unit fails to prevent a flood.I put the float valve about 6" down from the top, 2" above that I drilled a hole and put small fitting in and a hose that runs to the floor drain. The float valve has'nt failed yet but at least this just adds a little protection shall it fail. Theres alot of posts about people causing floods due to forgeting to turn off their RO units or the valves sticking.

[Madreefer]

How often do tanks give out and flood the floor?

More than you would think. I've had a tank start leaking really bad that was only 4 months old as well as a refugium do the same. Brother inlaws did the same. Those were just leakers but theres quite a few posts of actual blow outs or the bottoms failing.

[Mrfish55]

Most policies cover water damage, one thing to note is most only cover sudden escape of water, if you have a slow leak over time most companies will not cover, also if you have a tank blow (happened to me once) they will cover damage caused but not the item that caused the damage ( unless someone or something accidentally hits the tank and causes the leak, then you can argue replacement on the tank as well, pray it never happens, salt water causes more damage than you think.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I'm pretty sure house insurance will cover any house damage caused by a flood from a tank. But why would you insure the tank itself? Seems like a waste of money. How often do tanks give out and flood the floor?

My 220g with 90g sump blew last September.

[MarkoD]

My 220g with 90g sump blew last September.

What was the reason?

[lastlight]

What was the reason?

I would suspect the stand. In my opinion (just an opinion I'm no expert) it needed some bracing in the middle.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=543548&postcount=3

[MarkoD]

I would suspect the stand. In my opinion (just an opinion I'm no expert) it needed some bracing in the middle.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=543548&postcount=3

lol thats exactly what it needed. i cant believe that stayed up at all. usually if its just 4 posts and no cross bracing the thing would just twist like crazy

[cwatkins]

I think most home owners policies would cover an aquarium flood. Probably just tenant insurance would require the extra rider.

I specifically asked my broker in the summer and even though they don't cover damage from pets, an aquarium isn't considered a pet, so the damage is covered. But I'd probably need an extra rider for the equipment, but the deductable wouldn't be worth it.

[Aquattro]

what's a floor drain? :mrgreen:

In my house we call it carpet...

[ReefOcean]

that's a rite of passage in this hobby :)

Yep, I went 6 years with no floods or spills. Then a couple months ago..sump flooded.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

The same stand now has Chin's old 165g starphire tank on it for the last year. Never added bracing.

The tank was a rebuild & cracked originally in the same place.

I would suspect the stand. In my opinion (just an opinion I'm no expert) it needed some bracing in the middle.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=543548&postcount=3

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

lol thats exactly what it needed. i cant believe that stayed up at all. usually if its just 4 posts and no cross bracing the thing would just twist like crazy

Nope. Tank on the same stand for the last year plus with no problems. No added work done on the stand. The original tank was busted in the same spot and then fixed with a 12mm sheet of Starphire but it blew in the same exact place. This new tank is Chin's old tank and has had no problems being on the same stand.

[lastlight]

No tank has any problem technically until it goes =) I am glad it's working out for you though. I can't imagine having that much water unleashed!