Oh man what a day!!! I'm exhausted

cwegescheide · 02/19/2006, 03:37 PM

Wow what a chain of events!!! I'm beat.. I need a beer. Here is what happened to me in chronilogical order:

1)Well this morning I noticed I have a little bit of a leak in my Geo reactor so I put a little sealer in the groove that my o-ring fits into. I made sure it was dried pretty well before putting back together.

2)Once I got the reactor back online I fired up the return pump... Nothing. Wouldn't fire up.. What the heck? Well it had been quite a while since I cleaned it so I thought I'd tear it apart. Cleaned it all up (It was packed with crud so I guess cleaning was a good thing) and got it back together and fired it up.

3) Well the Ca reactor feed line is plumbed from the return and since I had a little air in the reactor I about blew the lid off the geo!!! I'm sure since the return pump has been cleaned its got a little more power now.. UUUUGGGGGH!!! I opened up the effluent line all the way and gradually filled the reactor with water and got that all going. Oh I'm not done yet!!! Since my return pump has been cleaned and runs stronger now my 1" drain didn't keep up at the curren't throttle back setting of the return that I have a ball valve over. So...............

4) my auto top off was dumping kalk water into my sump and my PH got to almost 9.7 in the sump. Luckily I caught it before too much of it got into the tank. So I drained a lot of the water out of the sump and poured a little vinegar into the sump to buffer the ph down to about 9. I figured this wouldn't effect the tank's ph too awfully much. Right now my PH is 8.5 in the tank.

5) I'm preparing a little salt to replace the water I drained out of my sump.... Now I have to make sure my salinity is going to be OK.

Nothing like potentially nuking a tank full of SPS to get your blood flowing on a Sunday afternoon. What a day.. So somebody tell me again why I got into this hobby?!?!?

Oh yeah this is such a relaxing, satisfying hobby...

thereefmaster · 02/19/2006, 04:23 PM

...

We all have bad times... but it is kinda funny when you read it. I am glad you fixed everything though, quick thinking and nice job!

Nate

cwegescheide · 02/19/2006, 05:27 PM

Yeah I hope I don't have to go thru that again for a while. Well I cleaned my Tunze's last week so I should be good for serious mantainence for a while. I've had a beer and a cig so I'm cool now.. I still love the reef!!!

thereefmaster · 02/19/2006, 11:55 PM

Of course you love it still!

It kind of reminds me when my skimmer overflowed onto the carpet, omg that was BAD!

Peace,

Nate

Zigzag Man · 02/20/2006, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Oh yeah this is such a relaxing, satisfying hobby...

LOL. Well, the 'relaxing' part comes in when you kick back to have that beer after averting disaster for the umpteenth time.

My wife and I refer to our reef as our 'third child'... it essentially requires as much care and maintenance as our kids, and is probably just as expensive.

02/19/2006, 03:37 PM	#1
cwegescheide YOU have been ignored! Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 5,231	Oh man what a day!!! I'm exhausted Wow what a chain of events!!! I'm beat.. I need a beer. Here is what happened to me in chronilogical order: 1)Well this morning I noticed I have a little bit of a leak in my Geo reactor so I put a little sealer in the groove that my o-ring fits into. I made sure it was dried pretty well before putting back together. 2)Once I got the reactor back online I fired up the return pump... Nothing. Wouldn't fire up.. What the heck? Well it had been quite a while since I cleaned it so I thought I'd tear it apart. Cleaned it all up (It was packed with crud so I guess cleaning was a good thing) and got it back together and fired it up. 3) Well the Ca reactor feed line is plumbed from the return and since I had a little air in the reactor I about blew the lid off the geo!!! I'm sure since the return pump has been cleaned its got a little more power now.. UUUUGGGGGH!!! I opened up the effluent line all the way and gradually filled the reactor with water and got that all going. Oh I'm not done yet!!! Since my return pump has been cleaned and runs stronger now my 1" drain didn't keep up at the curren't throttle back setting of the return that I have a ball valve over. So............... 4) my auto top off was dumping kalk water into my sump and my PH got to almost 9.7 in the sump. Luckily I caught it before too much of it got into the tank. So I drained a lot of the water out of the sump and poured a little vinegar into the sump to buffer the ph down to about 9. I figured this wouldn't effect the tank's ph too awfully much. Right now my PH is 8.5 in the tank. 5) I'm preparing a little salt to replace the water I drained out of my sump.... Now I have to make sure my salinity is going to be OK. Nothing like potentially nuking a tank full of SPS to get your blood flowing on a Sunday afternoon. What a day.. So somebody tell me again why I got into this hobby?!?!? Oh yeah this is such a relaxing, satisfying hobby...

02/19/2006, 04:23 PM	#2
thereefmaster Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mossyrock, WA Posts: 354	... We all have bad times... but it is kinda funny when you read it. I am glad you fixed everything though, quick thinking and nice job! Nate __________________ Click on the Little Red House to see my Reef! Current Tank Info: 55G Reef, Coralife SuperSkimmer 220, Current USA 260W PC, 2" SSB

02/19/2006, 11:55 PM	#4
thereefmaster Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Mossyrock, WA Posts: 354	Of course you love it still! It kind of reminds me when my skimmer overflowed onto the carpet, omg that was BAD! Peace, Nate __________________ Click on the Little Red House to see my Reef! Current Tank Info: 55G Reef, Coralife SuperSkimmer 220, Current USA 260W PC, 2" SSB

02/19/2006, 05:27 PM	#3
cwegescheide YOU have been ignored! Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 5,231	Yeah I hope I don't have to go thru that again for a while. Well I cleaned my Tunze's last week so I should be good for serious mantainence for a while. I've had a beer and a cig so I'm cool now.. I still love the reef!!!