Has Your Tank Ever Crashed? Was Your Tank Ever Nuked?

[linda lee]

When someone says a tank *crashed*, I don't really know what that means. I picture all four panels of glass collapsing and shattering and the tank imploding.

What exactly IS a crash?

How do you know when it's happening?

Any early signs?

What causes a tank crash?

What to do before it gets out of hand? 911 procedures? What is the FIRST thing to do?

Any input here would be appreciated!!

G'nite.

 

[jetchris]

a tank crash is when you come home and your tank looks like a bowl of soup and everything is dead except for a few snails and hermits. Also smells like pure sh*t

 

[suasati]

Shattering glasses is one way, and I have read it happen, most time sudden crash is when things goes out of order real quick... lot of time, power failure, I once lost all but 3 fish due to a breaker failure..... failed pumps leaking fluids in the tank, or voltage leak, air bourne chemicals, exploded sea apple.... dead chiller or mal functioning heater are a few causes.....
The also refer to old tank syndrome which is a slower process where your DSB slowly dies and the start to throw your tank in to imbalance, you start see algae growth to a point it takes over your tank....

Unless there was a failure of any mechanical or electrical device, don't make sudden changes.
Always have about 20-30% of premixed water in hand in case you need to do w/c's.... Never add any chemical in haste to fix a problem.... Keep good husbandry and routinely check water parameters so you can catch a downward spiral before it takes off.... spending just about 15-20mins a day on the tank will save you a lot of time and trouble.... And keep a log of all you do to the tank, sometime the simplest of things can cause issues....

 

[sprayin70]

I had a float switch stick and kalk my tank. It almost crashed everything looked like poop for a week and I had 2 fish die. RIP buddies.

 

[dakota9]

Linda, from what I've seen and read, tanks usually crash due to mechanical failure, rarely ever biological issues (biological crash does happen though).

Remember one very important thing I've learned over the years; Frankie Say Relax!

If you suspect anything wrong in your tank, test the water and check your equipment. Barring that, good maintainace should reveal any problem before it becomes a big issue.

As far as additives go, PLEASE throw your buffer away! There's no reason to use it on a tank the size of yours. With as good of maintainance as you provide for, regular water changes eliminates the need for many additives (continue to dose calcium, or any two part soulution you currently need) but think twice before you throw in additives. A good rule of thumb I have always used is to dose half the recommended amount, and then test for results to see what efect that had before dosing the other half (if its still needed). Liquid foods I always dose half the recommended amount if I don't know how the tank will react.

I'd say the number one reason tanks crash is because of human error. It seems it's always the "tinkerers" and the ones that trick out equipment that suffers the most. Putting a Kalk Reactor on a 29g tank is just asking for trouble it seems.

We as hobbyist tend to make things more difficult than they have to be. I wish Pam (fancyfish) had time to post on this opinion, as she has a beautiful tank that was designed to be low maintainace. We all could learn a lot from Pam!

 

[jessezm]

Linda, what happened last night???

 

[linda lee]

This was my line of thought last night. It was late, I was tired and probably not thinking logically.

Initial observation: Anemone appeared ill. Clownfish seemed frantic about his sick anemone.

Further observation: everything else looked *off*. Tank was full of what looked like cobwebs. Thought everything was dying.

Conclusion (jumped to): Anemone dying. Dying anemone very bad thing and killing everything else. Thought I read somewhere that a dying/dead anemone can nuke a tank?

Actions taken: checked water to see why anemone might croak. PH appeared very low (7.4). Added buffer to adjust PH level. Still low. Added more buffer. Snowballed from there. Woke Loren in a panic and discovered I'd misused PH pen. PH now appearing high 8.8+++ Loren doing rapid/repeat tests of params in his skivvies. Alk off the charts. Quick water change. 15 gals/55 gal tank. Forum posts. Quick and informative replies from some wonderful and informed night owls. (Ain't this club grand!)

Epilog: Tank wasn't awake yet when I left home this a.m. Anemone has moved from the top of the tank to a rock on the sandbed and looked sort of normal. Blue damsels that seemed like little white ghosts last night have regained their color. Inverts (shrimp, snails, hermits, emeralds) still active and okay. Rock anemone is no longer inside-out.

Probably everything is fine. I just don't understand all those long, stringy cobwebs. It looked like an underwater haunted house. Do corals celebrate Halloween?

 

[tnyga]

Webs are snails...forget the name...I woke up to them one day...pretty sure I got most of them out...