Actual Tank Crashes ... Cause and Remedy!

[IdahoGuy]

I had a tank crash 6 months ago.. Did a 10 gallon water change on a 65g and cleaned out all filter pads(RedSea Max250). Either the temp of the SW was off(used NSW in a box) or something screwed up the biological filtration when I cleaned the filter pads and put them back in. Had massive ammonia spike, killed everything in 48 hrs.

[MellowReefer]

Originally Posted by danil

I think there are four (five) major tank killers out there
1. Temp. issue. Heater get stuck or failed cooking or freezing tank. This is the most common by far and the easiest to prevent. When I hear another tank crush due to failed heater I get really upset about the whole thing. It's just stupid.

What's the best way to prevent this heater failure? Besides getting two (or more) smaller heaters instead of one bigger one?

[Heymybigfish]

Ahhh, my 1st tank crash, I remember it like... ok well u get the idea...

55gal reef tank, run perfectly for 7 months. now my birthday comes along and my mom (who generally doesn't spend a lot of money on my), show up at my house and surprises me with a powder blue tang...its so beautiful... but hey, whats that white spot?

my mom tells me the LFS salesperson assured her its not a parasite...

i was a lot more experienced at the time, and my tang DID in fact have ich. i SHOULD have followed my gut

1. don't add a tang to a 55gal, 2. don't add any fish without proper QT, 3. THERES A DAMN ICH WHITE SPOT ON SIDE OF SAID FISH! YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?


so to please my mom, i figured, 'eh, im always so careful, ill just float it, and dump it...i'm SURE it'll be fine. right?


anyways, longer story short, the entire stock got ICH, i had 2 fish disappear in my 80lbs of LR and had ridiculous ammonia spike, that i couldn't change water fast enough. corals dying, fish dying...


was a nightmare scenario. all because of ONE SINGLE FISH.


ALWAYS follow your gut in this hobby. and don't try to make other people like your tank. not even your mom.


so i lost my entire tank (between fish and corals and CUC, probably $500+)... plus i decided to dismantle, and wasn't financially able to restart the tank (rough patch in my life)...so i had to shut it down completely. that hurt a bit.

i still remember the 1st day my cycle finished. i was so happy.

[Heymybigfish]

Originally Posted by IdahoGuy

I had a tank crash 6 months ago.. Did a 10 gallon water change on a 65g and cleaned out all filter pads(RedSea Max250). Either the temp of the SW was off(used NSW in a box) or something screwed up the biological filtration when I cleaned the filter pads and put them back in. Had massive ammonia spike, killed everything in 48 hrs.

bingo.

rotate changing media. 1 filter pad at a time. or 1 carbon bag...etc... like a month apart.

[HDreef]

No one here mentioned anything about moving to a new house. Seven months ago we moved and the tank crashed two weeks later. I tried everything that I could to save.

[mandarinfanatic]

Originally Posted by HDreef

No one here mentioned anything about moving to a new house. Seven months ago we moved and the tank crashed two weeks later. I tried everything that I could to save.

dose bacteria daily for first two weeks of moving tank.

[dkeller_nc]

Originally Posted by MellowReefer

What's the best way to prevent this heater failure? Besides getting two (or more) smaller heaters instead of one bigger one?

Two smaller heaters may actually make things worse, depending on the size of said heaters. If one alone is capable of heating the tank into the fatal range (over 86 F), then the chances of a heater thermostat sticking "on" and killing the tank is doubled.

Most advise installing a controller - either a system controller like the Apex, or a specific controller for the heater. In that way, you've a redundant back-up: the heater thermostat is set so that it's slightly higher than the upper limit of the controller's setpoint. So the controller turns the heater on/off. If the controller fails, then you've a second since the tank temperature will rise until the heater thermostat kicks off.

[Patroklos]

I have had two crashes.

1.) Heater failure. I had a single heater of doom in my tank and it got stuck on. The solution was to go with a dedicated controler for the new heater. The new heater was rated at just above my tank size so that if I somehow had a controller and thermostat failure it would hopefully only raise my temp so much ans slowely so I would have time to come home from work and catch it. Th next tank had two heaters, each rated at just below my tank size so if one failed the other would keep things going enough for me to, again, get home from work in time. Now I have one on direct power again below my tank rating for emergencys and a proper heater linked to my ReefKeeperLite for normal temperature control which also controls a fan that can slow down any out of control heating if that happens.

2.) Tank sitter. Its awesome that I have friends that can take care of my tank while I am gone but nobody knows your tank like you! My fiance watched my tank far a two month underway (I am in the Navy) and I neglected to tell her that top off water is RO, not saltwater. The salinity was 2.038 when I get home. I lost everything, but luckly at that point there wasn't much to lose. So the solution here is make sure you leave exact instructions because a good sitter is going to do exactly what you tell them (nothing more, nothing less!).

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by danil

For mature tank Alk dosing failure is a #1 killer. It could be problem with dosing pump or clogged Cal reactor. Due to signification amount of daily dosing (could be in hundreds of ml) it take only a day or two to crash the tank.

You mean 'over-dosing' rather than 'under-dosing', right? Why would a clogged Ca reactor over-dose - I'd think it would under-dose?

[Esage]

Originally Posted by HDreef

No one here mentioned anything about moving to a new house. Seven months ago we moved and the tank crashed two weeks later. I tried everything that I could to save.

This makes me very nervous. I'm moving in six months and I think about moving the tank everyday. I'm not sure if I should sell off all the livestock or do the tank move.

[HDreef]

Originally Posted by Esage

This makes me very nervous. I'm moving in six months and I think about moving the tank everyday. I'm not sure if I should sell off all the livestock or do the tank move.

How big is your tank?

[ca1ore]

Originally Posted by Esage

This makes me very nervous. I'm moving in six months and I think about moving the tank everyday. I'm not sure if I should sell off all the livestock or do the tank move.

I recently bought a complete 90 gal setup from a chap about 100 miles from where I live and was able to breakdown, transport, and set back up again within 8 hours and had very little die off. Two months later and the only fish death was a green mandarin and the only coral death was a hammer. So, it can be done. About the only thing I'd do differently next time is not use any of the old sand.

[Mr D smack]

Originally Posted by Meanmike

What exactly did you notice? Not being an *** I'm just trying to get all the info as I use a variety of containers.

Your not being an ***, hopefully my mistake will help others from doing the same

All of the leathers were laying down like they were flat, not standing upright. Even kenya trees

Zoas were closed and very fast at melting

SPS was shedding skin or bleach white

Red slime algea was almost black in color

[bpoore89]

I've had a heater get stuck on killing a lion fish and brittle star, a heater that failed to turn on, killing my snowflake, and when I was a noob I had a tank crash nuking everything. I'm almost absolutely positive that I can attribute that to crushed coral and lack of any skimmer. I've come a long way since then. Always run two heaters and spend the money to get a controller. Redundancy is key

[64Ivy]

In over 30 years of reef keeping, I've only had 2 major and 1 minor crash:

Minor: Imo, this was caused by mixing Marine Mix Bioassay salt with Instant Ocean. A lot of hobbyists suffered partial to total losses when they did this; a popular bandwagon that got jumped on in the early 2000's.

Major #1: Changed my lighting scheme after several years causing a major light (well, PAR) shock.

Major #2: Copper poisoning. Never found the cause but just in case, I run a Polypad continually now.

[buffalo123]

first successful reef was killed when in ignorant i treated ick with copper wipe out except for fish. Early reef days in 80s.
second time got ill on moving day corals and fish sat in garage for a day before i was well enough to attend to them .Needless to say a disaster. Have someone else who knows what to do if you can't be there to do it.

[mbrady4him]

If this thread is not enough to convince you to spend the money and buy a heater controller or tank controller I have no idea what would. The cost of a controller is nothing compared to tank crash.