Is the tank suppose to be black?

[Mr.Biggs]

That was the question my wife asked at 5:30 this mooring. (me still sleeping)

What do you mean?

it's dark. (the lights should be on at this time.)

no lights?

none. (this is bad as the fuge light is on 24/7)

any sound?

no. (this isn't any better and not looking good and I'm now fully awake)

THE TANK HAS LOST ALL POWER AND IS SILENT!!!

@#$%@#$@$@ ..... @#$%@#^%@%^

check breaker ..... found 20a breaker tripped....reset...

lights, heaters and return pumps start up no skimmer.

skimmer pump shorted and melted in sump. (man does that smell bad)

water temp is lower than normal 76 (glad the house is set for 74).

all brittle stars are out the the rocks(the only time I see this is during tank moves and generally a sign of low O2)

Installed the critical spare skimmer pump that I keep on hand and back up and running in time to get to work.

sure glad I have 20gal (about 15% of water valume) of fresh SW on hand.(but hope it's not to late by the time I get home).

My big fear is die off on the rocks and CU or other cemical poising from the pump on the tank leading to a crash.

will it survive???.........

[KCZoanthid]

You'll find out tonight when you get home from work.

All you can do is wait it out. Do water changes if nitrates spike. Not much else you can do.

Oh!! Buy another spare pump for the skimmer in case the new one shorts out again.

[Haddonisreef]

totla hrs w/o eletricty? All will be fine i would airate the main disply and at that time alow the skimmer to work on the sump, bring temp up slow and run carbon for a while if you dont already! C

[osprey77]

well how does it look? Any floaters

[Mr.Biggs]

Nothing dead yet.

all sps are starting to bleach.

softies are retracted and not happy.

Fish are looking good. I didn't feed them tonight.

Changed about 12 - 15% of water volume. and added some GAC

I would guess power was off max of about 6hr.

the system was up and running about 1/2 hour to 45 min after I found out about it.

The skimmer is not putting that much out. I adjusted it a little wetter.

Thinking about doing a water change in 3 days and pulling the GAC in 28-48 hours.

What are your thoughts?

[osprey77]

water change sooner.

[bmb527]

Do big water changes daily for a few days or until you change out at least 100% of system volume. I have done it before in emergencies and, at this point, it can't hurt.
Bill

[joeyg4583]

How are things going for you? I hope you don't lose anything.

[Fish Friendly]

Hope all is well with your tank

[sscherin]

I hope everything is OK..

Try coming how the the "Black tank" after being out of town for a week. It's horrible.

We installed new light timers right before we left and they tripped the GFI on the first night.

On the bright side it killed all the Aiptasia and made moving the tank to Colorado much simpler.

[Mr.Biggs]

Things are looking ok at this point.

I did see a dead hermit and a snail. I don't know if this caused there death or if it was just there time to go.

I pulled the GAC out to day.

The corals look like they started to stabilize yesterday so I have not done any other water changes.

I don't have a rigid water change schedule. last change was about 2-3 week before this. I had been doing weekly changes for 4 weeks before this and it was 4-5 months before that.

The algae was starting to pickup and that's why I started doing the weekly change.

I'm a firm believer in that nothing good in a reef happens fast.

I have been keeping fish for as long as I can remember.
Over the years I have killed off some fish/coral doing to much to fast.

I don't know If I'm out of the woods yet on this (it still could crash) but I belive that having the pump, water and GAC on hand is what might have saved this tank.

Watch this board long enough and you will see those not prepared.

Had I seen or if I see that the corals continue to decline I defiantly will do as suggested and make larger changes more often.

sscherin, have you got your tank stabilize now?

I took a pic of the pump and will post it soon. Can any one guess what brand it was?
I think I might rethink my choice.

[Zooid]

RIO?

[sscherin]

Yeah it's stable that was 4 years ago..

Since then we moved to Colorado, ran the tank for 2 years and sold out..
We just got back into Saltwater in December and that Tank is doing well

Same Question as Zooid..

What that a RIO pump?
I have a RIO 2100 on my Skimmer. I've been thinking of replacing it with an Ocean Runner 2700

[Mr.Biggs]

Yep a RIO 1700.

I had the pump running for about 4-5 years in different applications.

I don't know why it should have failed in this way other than it's a RIO.

I'm thinking of switching to a mag drive 7. I belive that there reputation is a little better.

Anybody else running one of these? How long have you had it running?

[sscherin]

What Skimmer do you have?

I have a Turboflotor 1000.. They Sell an Ocean Runner 2700 kit with the right fittings and needle wheel for about $80

I used to have a Mag 7 as a return pump.. Nice but a little noisy.

[coqui1pr]

Get an eheim pump much better runs cooler and last for years of course its more expensive.

HTH
Nestor

[Mr.Biggs]

sscherin, modified ams g2 skimmer. what type of noise? was it caused by the way it was mounted? (vibration)

tcoqui1pr, the eheim pumps are nice but 2x the price. Are they worth it?
In what ways is it better?

[coqui1pr]

Hi Mr. Biggs

Ok the price is 2x the regular pumps much better quality they dont wear as often or break down as easily as the other brand pumps if you are on a budget ok but if you want to make a good investment get a good pump to begin with you will have less problems in the long run i've had my eheim pump for 12 years and still running strong all i had to do is replace is the impeller every few years thats all and regular maintenance every 6 months JMHO get the best equipment you can for your reef tank so you dont have to come to your tank being destroyed by a bad pump or worse yet get electrocuted by one bad pump.

HTH
Nestor