Disaster has Struck

[PrairieReefer]

Everything was doing great in my tank. Even the heat was no problem as I got a chiller earlier this year when I upgraded my lighting. I had to go into Edmonton for a day, which streached into two days. Shouldn't have been a problem. I get home and immediately know there was a problem. My house stinks like you wouldn't believe. Somehow my return pump jammed and I had no flow to my sump and chiller. My 75 gallon tank is under 660 watts of Mh lights and is directly in a full sun window. My temp was 115F. Everything is dead. Snails, crabs, fish, shrimp, brittle stars, tiger tail cuke, beautiful corals, seba anemone, and 6 incredible 6-8 inch premium clams. The water was like rotten fish soup, and has finally cleared after 3 days. It even looks like my coraline algae is bleaching. I am just sick. I never had a problem with that pump untill now and it is right when I am gone for 2 days and the hottest days of the year. It seems that Murphy's Law holds true.

Marcel

[christyf5]

Marcel,

Thats horrible. Wouldn't you know that sort of thing only happens when you aren't there even for the shortest time. Did you ever figure out what jammed the pump?? Rogue hermit crab perhaps??

Sorry to hear about your tank

Christy

[PrairieReefer]

I have no idea what jammed the pump. It has a good strainer on the intake. A hermit would not be able to fit through. And it is a Mag18 so quite powerful. I gave it a couple of clunks and it started right up. I haven't taken it appart yet, but since everything is dead, I am not in a hurry. I am going to set up a dual pump return so that can never happen again. I may not restock this tank either. I am starting on an addition to my house in August in which I am building an 800 gallon tank. I may just keep the rock and sand bed alaive until that is done and Swap it all into there. At that size I can't afford to stock 2 tanks anyway.

Marcel

[Ken]

Hi Marcel, sorry to hear news like that. It sickens me to hear things like that, especially that murphys law is alive and well. A hobbyist as yourself along with others have invested in a lot of tender loving care to their ecosystem, only to have this happen. Any magnetic drive pumps will lock up once in awhile only if the pump was shut off temporarily if just the right amount of crud or dirt builds up in the impeller and housing. Perhaps you have a power outage and the pump shut down and won't restart. For example sometimes when I shut a pump off for maintenance reasons, it won't restart so I give it a bang on the side of the pump and then they start up again. Best of luck to you, maybe its a calling for that 800 gallon you're planning on. Regards Ken

[EmilyB]

So sorry for you...

The Mag18's had some impeller problems a year or so back. Lots of people had their impellers replaced.

[Beverly]

How utterly sad, Marcel I'm sorry to hear about your disaster. Hopefully when the shock and grief wear off, you might start again.

[PrairieReefer]

Thanks for the info EmilyB. I'll have to check into that.

It is heartbreaking to see it happen, but it hasn't turned me off the hobby. I am building the 800. My floor is being engineered for it and a whole 24' by 30' room is being designed around the fact that it is being built (along with more space for my plants and a larger tank for my turtle). I have been considering waiting to restock until the big tank is built, but somehow doulbt that I can wait that long without buying something new to put in a fish tank.

However, I will be building things with double redundancy in mind from now on. It is not the first disaster (although it is the worst) I have had in my 10 years in the hobby, and I know it won't be the last, but this particular one will never happen again.

Thanks for the kind words, and keep me in mind for frags for the next meeting. My tank and I will both recover, It will just take time and patience.