ChadTheSpike
03/05/2012, 09:21 AM
On Thursday night, I awoke at 1 AM to the smell of burning electronics - never, never, never a good sign. I went downstairs to find 15 gallons of water on the floor that had overflowed from the tank sitting atop my electronics cabinet. I have spent most of the last day and a half recovering from this problem - at this point I am back and running sans fuge.
Any time something in my control fails, after I get things back under control, I always take a step away and evaluate what happened to find out what I did right and what I could have done better. I have a couple of takeaways at the end that I encourage everyone to look at and then take a close look at your setup.
The Setup:
http://www.wamas.org/forums/uploads/1290373965/gallery_2632346_867_137178.jpg
This is an older picture of my setup (circa 2010), but it clearly shows my "flow-through" setup. The return pump sends water to the refugium on left which then flows through a 2" siphon from the fuge to the display. I periodically (1-2x per year) clean out the siphon, it was last done early summer 2011.
Since I have two cabinets, I keep all of my tank electronics, plugs, etc. in the fuge cabinet.
The Problem:
http://www.wamas.org/forums/uploads/1330655253/gallery_2632346_867_399356.jpg
At 1 AM in the morning this blockage caused 15 gallons of salt water to infiltrate the electronics cabinet.
The Targets:
3 MH ballasts
Apex controller and display
2 EB8s for the Apex
Internet adapter for the Apex
LED power supply
Liter Meter dosing pump with 2 pump modules
MP40 controller
Four DC power supplies for ecotech and tunze products
MP40 dry side
The Casualties:
Internet adapter for the Apex
Liter Meter dosing pump
Three DC power supplies
MP40 dry side
The Evaluation:
My overflow setup from the fuge to the display way failure prone. I made a recent system change to add some finicky fish, so a few months back I started feeding the system 4-6x per day, which has resulted in a micro-fauna explosion of growth. I was aware of the failure-prone nature of my siphon and performed maintenance on it a couple times a year to keep it going. We make changes all the time without fully understanding all of the consequences.
Lesson Learned: That being said, any overflow could be prone to this type of blockage as the pineapple sponges that formed the bulk of the blockage prefer high flow and low light areas - exactly the conditions in just about any overflow. This system should have been set up with a less failure-prone overflow. I will drill it and put a dry safety overflow in place.
My electronics cabinet largely escaped damage. The things that were damaged were on the outside of the cabinet (gaming adapter, liter meter, MP40 dry side) or were "low hanging fruit." All of the power supplies were of the standard lap-top dc power adapter variety, like this:
http://www.insaneblogging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/laptop-power-cords.jpg
We all learn in reef keeping 101 about drip loops. I had them installed on all of my equipment and all plugs were installed high on the inside of the cabinet. However, on the power supplies, I bundled the whole string of wires together with the ac/dc converter (the box part) and hanging at essentially the low point. So when the water dripped into the cabinet, these were at the bottom of the drip loop, which caused most of them to be severely damaged (two were in lucky locations and were salvageable).
Lesson Learned: AC/DC power supplies should be protected along with plugs and equipment, place the wrapped up cords high and out of the way from potential water sources. Equipment that doesn't need to be attached to the outside of an aquarium cabinet shouldn't be. Not sure what to say about the vortech dry side, buy tunze maybe? :spin3:
Final Thought: This could have been really bad. Saltwater and electricity do not mix, 15 gallons of water could have easily caused a fire that may have destroyed my home and potentially killed me and my family. I did some things right here that saved it from being really bad, but there was some water damage and also at least $500 in equipment damage.
I strongly encourage you all to check your overflows regularly and inspect your drip loops for vulnerabilities.
Happy reefing all!
Any time something in my control fails, after I get things back under control, I always take a step away and evaluate what happened to find out what I did right and what I could have done better. I have a couple of takeaways at the end that I encourage everyone to look at and then take a close look at your setup.
The Setup:
http://www.wamas.org/forums/uploads/1290373965/gallery_2632346_867_137178.jpg
This is an older picture of my setup (circa 2010), but it clearly shows my "flow-through" setup. The return pump sends water to the refugium on left which then flows through a 2" siphon from the fuge to the display. I periodically (1-2x per year) clean out the siphon, it was last done early summer 2011.
Since I have two cabinets, I keep all of my tank electronics, plugs, etc. in the fuge cabinet.
The Problem:
http://www.wamas.org/forums/uploads/1330655253/gallery_2632346_867_399356.jpg
At 1 AM in the morning this blockage caused 15 gallons of salt water to infiltrate the electronics cabinet.
The Targets:
3 MH ballasts
Apex controller and display
2 EB8s for the Apex
Internet adapter for the Apex
LED power supply
Liter Meter dosing pump with 2 pump modules
MP40 controller
Four DC power supplies for ecotech and tunze products
MP40 dry side
The Casualties:
Internet adapter for the Apex
Liter Meter dosing pump
Three DC power supplies
MP40 dry side
The Evaluation:
My overflow setup from the fuge to the display way failure prone. I made a recent system change to add some finicky fish, so a few months back I started feeding the system 4-6x per day, which has resulted in a micro-fauna explosion of growth. I was aware of the failure-prone nature of my siphon and performed maintenance on it a couple times a year to keep it going. We make changes all the time without fully understanding all of the consequences.
Lesson Learned: That being said, any overflow could be prone to this type of blockage as the pineapple sponges that formed the bulk of the blockage prefer high flow and low light areas - exactly the conditions in just about any overflow. This system should have been set up with a less failure-prone overflow. I will drill it and put a dry safety overflow in place.
My electronics cabinet largely escaped damage. The things that were damaged were on the outside of the cabinet (gaming adapter, liter meter, MP40 dry side) or were "low hanging fruit." All of the power supplies were of the standard lap-top dc power adapter variety, like this:
http://www.insaneblogging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/laptop-power-cords.jpg
We all learn in reef keeping 101 about drip loops. I had them installed on all of my equipment and all plugs were installed high on the inside of the cabinet. However, on the power supplies, I bundled the whole string of wires together with the ac/dc converter (the box part) and hanging at essentially the low point. So when the water dripped into the cabinet, these were at the bottom of the drip loop, which caused most of them to be severely damaged (two were in lucky locations and were salvageable).
Lesson Learned: AC/DC power supplies should be protected along with plugs and equipment, place the wrapped up cords high and out of the way from potential water sources. Equipment that doesn't need to be attached to the outside of an aquarium cabinet shouldn't be. Not sure what to say about the vortech dry side, buy tunze maybe? :spin3:
Final Thought: This could have been really bad. Saltwater and electricity do not mix, 15 gallons of water could have easily caused a fire that may have destroyed my home and potentially killed me and my family. I did some things right here that saved it from being really bad, but there was some water damage and also at least $500 in equipment damage.
I strongly encourage you all to check your overflows regularly and inspect your drip loops for vulnerabilities.
Happy reefing all!