Well we're starting 2009 off with a bang!

Kevin went downstairs after a shower this morning and wow, look, our basement has transformed itself into a lake, complete with a few extra deep parts! It was a freshwater lake, filled from our overflowing floor drain! Yay! Just what I wanted to do on my day off! <--- I'm a little bitter about this....

There is water damage, and damage to my laundry, mostly work or sports clothes. The tank stand also seemed to have wicked up quite a bit, the bottom 2" of the stand is wet, and it seems that in some places the water has wicked up further. I am REALLY hoping that I don't have to dismantle the 180 and replace the stand. Thankfully the tank itself is fine, the only potential issues we see is the stand.

In general the lowest areas have about 2" of wetness, and the bathroom where the drain is located is looking like its heading for a complete gut. I can't say I'm upset, the room needed to be gutted anyways 'cause its going to be our eventual fishroom.

So now we're waiting on insurance, and a plumber possibly. We're trying to figure out if there is a problem with the city's side of things, or if a clog developed today sometime while the shower was running.

geezus. When it rains it poors. Sorry about the luck Catherine. Fingers crossed

hopefully insurance will pay for your new fish room, i think my insurance dosnt cover that for some reason but im shure it depends on why it happened

What the heck?? :neutral: Weird. Sorry to hear.

If your stand is solid wood I don't think there's a problem other than it's wet. If it was say MDF or something yeah you'd have a problem but 2x4's and stuff .. Speaking from experience anyhow, I can say 2x4's and 2x3's and plywood can get pretty darn wet and there's no structural concern other than maybe screws may start to rust.

1+ on the 2x4 being ok after being soaked ... I've become quite competent in soaking my stand and no ill effects to date.

Your having quite the run of bad luck, hope 2009 brings better luck your way. I'm quite envious of your big tank plans; maybe this is all a sign that you need to start that build...

Let's hope it's the City's problem, or if your problem, an insured one. I can't believe the run of bad luck you've had.

just wondering this is going to be a sw setup right? did they drill holes aswell. if so what did it cost for the whole package??

Well the issue turned out to be roots in the drain pipe, the result of it not having been cleaned in a very long time. It cost us $50 to have a company come out and clean the line. The guy said that he could only make it 70 of the 90 ft because the root system that had developed were too difficult for his machine. He made some changes and pushed through the last 20 ft eventually.

The basement was under 3" of water total, and we couldn't use any drains or the toilets for most of yesterday. Its all cleaned up now, but there is damage to most of the walls, the old front door that was stored in the basement, as well as all my laundry. I took photos and now we need to inform our insurance and then make a decision as to if we should make a claim or not.

After the cleaning and before the plumber showed, the drain is still under 3" of water
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0600.jpg

This morning
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0609.jpg

The new reactor
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0589.jpg

Top down
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0592.jpg

I'm confused by your questions. What are you asking me about, the existing 180g or the new system? Our current system is completely DIY, so we did all the work ourselves.

Gawd Catherine! Sorry to hear the new house is turning into the "money pit". Did the doctors know why you were so sick?(pm me) Just wondering if perhaps the drain was an ongoing problem in the house. If there was water damage to the drywall before you bought the house Im sure it was painted over and the previous owner did his/her best to hide it. Maybe there is mold in the walls that caused you to get so sick, is what Im getting at.

I'm just unlucky when it comes to getting sick. I only ever get sick about once every 3-5 years, and when I get sick, I get really sick. Although I think this is the longest to date I've ever been so ill. I had a cold, then I caught the flu, and then I caught the stomach bug while I had the flu. Oh...yeah I have a cough, its free to a home, any home, want to adopt? I'll even let you hear it it all its seal-like glory tomorrow.

There didn't seem to be any water damage before the first flood, when the tank emptied itself onto the floor. Who knows though right? Its coming down anyways now.

Man, what rotten luck. :( I hope things get bet for you soon Catherine. Get well, take care of yourself.

Catherine put the claim in for the amount of 500 i think is the claim amount or lower you will have the reno company come in clean all the water damage and re build everything that got wet i did it here and it work ed great back in 2001 the water came up thru the drain and it was on the city's side. if you have trees around your place if they are on your side then its your fault and the insurance wont cover it. if its on city property then its their falut they take over the expense.

if the roots are on city property then they will paid to get this done every 3 months and you just pay up front and they will cut the money back to you..

Well I did call insurance and the lady was as dumb as a rock. I'm waiting until Monday when our broker is back to work. Our deductable is $1000, and we don't think there is that much damage. However I did take a lot of photos, and we've already cleaned up most everything. I guess we'll figure it out on Monday if it worth it to move forwards with a claim or not.

We just looked out the window and our neighbor has a plumber over right now....hmm I wonder if everyone is having issues?

I picked up two new SPS mini-colonies today. A confusa, and a I don't know what, however I previously had another frag of it, which did not survive the heater crash, aka crash #1.

Revive/floor cleaner bath
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0614.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0616.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0617-1.jpg

This is what I am hoping it will turn into,
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0742.jpg

some nice pieces there Catherine

yep the second piece is an A. abrotanoides. I'm patiently waiting for mine to color up to that last pic too :biggrin:

I see the big end is first :)


Inside joke folks don't worry..... :)

Hey catherine sorry to hear about the flood!

I see something blue or purple beside the new monti any pics of those?

:lol:And they say size doesnt matter. :wink:

You guys kill me! :mrgreen:

Thanks Christy!

This is the one to the left of the monti
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...DSC_0567-1.jpg

To the right
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0569.jpg

wow thanks!!

I love anything blue, my car, my walls and ofcourse blueberry sps...

I see that you're using the pinesol cleaner for qt, I recently found out that it works wonders form threads that I found on RC and have been passing the happy news around town.

If it's not too much to ask when you have sometime a 2009 ft would be cool thanks.

I asked Kevin at RC to bring in Revive for me after I kept reading about it on Reef Central. So far I think its a great product!

I'm hoping tonight to clean up the extra algae around the top & bottom of the tank, as well as fix the aquascaping. There will be lots of photos to share.

What's this about Pine-Sol? Are you guys kidding? Or is there an URL you can point me to, or can give me a quick synopsis?

Catherine where are you getting your coral colonies from very nice..

Roots in the drain pipe? does this mean the line running to the city line is broken? how did the roots get in there? it might cause another problem down the road.....

WHAT a good looking reactor. Kudos to the clearly very talented person who built that thing. :)

These colonies came from Red Coral here in town.

The Pine-Sol we're chatting about is Revive by Two Little Fishies.

The reactor is awesomely huge. Possibly big enough to run the large system for awhile when its lightly stocked.

About the drain, I don't know, our house is from the late 50s, and I'm pretty clueless about this drain line business. I think it needs to be investigated further so we know what to expect down the road, or if we have to start gearing up to do a replacement this summer.

I sort of reaquascaped. I fixed up the right side of the tank that I hated so much, but lost motivation to do the left side. I still don't really love it though. Finally got around to removing the heater and the seio powerhead (which was not even plugged in) from the tank to clean it up. The sand got smoothed out a little bit, and most of the algae around the top and bottom of the tank was removed. Kevin also swapped out the refugium light bulb.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0633.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0623.jpg

The power control center is getting a work-over. Half of the timers are no longer needed, and the DJ powerstrip isn't being used, so its being removed, and it keeps tripping the GFI for no reason. The new power center is going to be half the height, and will hold 3 timers, a switched plug, the RKE head unit, and maybe the nitrate monitor.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0624.jpg

The tank needs a new float switch, ours is not longer sending correctly to the RKE. It just uses everything in the top-off bucket. We are still using the top-off system, but only when topping off in small doses, this method is allowing us to continue to dose Kalk. via the freshwater.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...a/DSC_0638.jpg

Interested in selling the DJ powerstrip?:mrgreen: If so, can you pm me some dimensions on its length?

It has a problem though, it works, but kicks off the GFI when its plugged in to the GFI. I think its 20" long.

I'm a bad reefer tho, and don't use GFI.. :redface:

Kevin says its destined to be fixed. Apparently it keeps kicking off the GFI because current is going through the ground. <-- this means nothing to me. He says he wants to try and fix it.

That's cool.. They aren't too bad brand new, just thought I would see. :biggrin:

Tank is looking alot better..

Thanks, its getting there.

I need to bug you about getting my camera dialed in right next time I see you. I just can't get the white balance right no matter what I do.

I think Kevin is going to toss or force me to sell the RKE. The RKE does not like him at all.

If you didn't know the head unit works using Capsense (?) buttons. For some reason Kevin cannot get within 1/2" of the unit or it just starts randomly freaking out by clicking options, scrolling through menus, etc. The point here is that Kevin cannot touch the unit without it having a serious meltdown, which sometimes requires a complete restart. Its not just Kevin either unfortunately, it seems like there is a small set of people who throw the unit off somehow.

I however can touch it mostly without difficulties. The only thing I can't get it to do is set the time right, and have it consistently keep time. It also takes up to an hour after a reset and reprogramming session for the proper date to show up.

While the RKE did have its problems, I never experienced the bulk of them. Our first head unit's buttons would randomly stop working, always starting with the Enter button and eventually spreading to all buttons. DA replaced the unit.

I acknowledge that our replacement is better, and that Digital Aquatics has made a fantastic effort with their customer service, and in offering up firmware upgrades. However, I am unsure if I had the option, that I would once again buy the product. I say this for 4 reasons; 1) Kevin can't use the unit, 2) Its not mac compatable, so I have to find a PC to update it with 3) there are no Canadian dealers (not the last tiem I checked) who carry the RKE, so I'm always looking at additional duty when I purchase to expand the system, 4) the time hasn't bee right on my unit for at least 3 months, making it untrustworthy.

I'd also recommend to DA that they find a better way to seal in the back of the head unit. Its a controller that is undoubtably around corrosive salt water, and I am concerned about its long term survivability. A second recommendation would be to adjust how the wire comes into the head unit. Is awkward and difficult for people with bigger fingers to manuver with additional tools.

The unit seems like a good bang for your buck, but like any new unit it obviously requires some time for the bugs to be worked out.

could it be a cellphone or maybe something magnetized that kevin is carrying with him? or does he have any metal plates in his body?

just a guess, i have no clue if that would mess it up or not though

You know those touchpads on labtop computers? I use them all the time, but whenever I use them during a presentation, the cursor jumps all over the screen whenever I touch it. Maybe I'm nuts, but something about me changes when I'm presenting in front of people an the touchpad doesn't work. Sweaty fingertip, nervousness, electrical...I have no idea.

I do presentations all the time. Its not like I'm a nervous wreck or anything.

It is really dramatic. I simply put my finger in the centre of the touchpad and the cursor jumps erratically all over the entire screen. Later, it works fine.

Kevin may have the same effect on the RKE.

I'm bugging him now asking if he has performance anxiety when he has to use the RKE. I now can't stop snickering either...

Hey there Catherine I was thinking about something all the dead corals would that have a play in the troubles that you have been having.. or is that the first time that you have been putting the corals in there. I know that i have ready that using dead corals can give off phosphates..... i cant remember where it was..

I don't think so. The dead corals were from after the crashes. I'm not having any more problems.