Crakeur Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 So, my dad has a 72 gallon reef in his apartment. This tank was loaded and thriving. He had ricordia and purple shrooms growing up the left side of the tank, gsp all over the right side. He had a foot tall colt that had begun splitting into three stalks. he had a clam that was about 8 inches long. The tank was a real beauty. Then things started dying and within a couple of days, all that was left were a couplr of shrivelled shrooms and a couple of fish. We removed the death, cycled the tank, added some new live rock (removed a ton of death covered crap) and yesterday, during aquascaping we found the culprit. One wire from one of the powerheads had decayed a bit and the copper wires were exposed to the water. Electric safety aside, the copper wiring caused the meltdown of inverts, which in turn caused the death of 5 or 6 fish. So, now you have another thing to worry about. Link to comment
Satchmo Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Ouch. On the upside, you'll have another tridacnid salad bowl. Looks like that post-4/15 Jersey trip just became more likely. Sorry bout the tank. Link to comment
kevin brocato Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 As a safe bet I would replace PH's, light bulbs and etc. once a year to be safe. How much is a PH? $15 to 20 bucks? It is worth it. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 oh man, was that the gigas satch was telling me about? that sucks! i'm shocked you weren't shocked by the exposed wire. i've got a colt cutting that ran out of room because of our recent trip to coral depot (i've got frickin' ricordia rocks placed vertical to make room). if you want you can have that colt (it was orginally promised to dave), consider it a passover offering to he great god-Crak. (see attached) plus, i did take your spot for the buy trip anyway. i've got another for dave that i'm waiting for to take root and wouldn't be ready until probably late may or early june imo. sorry to hear about the crash. silver lining: take the opportunity and get a BIGGER tank! Link to comment
Crakeur Posted April 2, 2003 Author Share Posted April 2, 2003 I appreciate the offering and I'll see if the old man wants the colt. The crash happened almost a month ago but we didn't find the cause until we started re-scaping the tank. Fortunately, the exposed wire was spotted and more fortunate still, no electric shock. That is the salad bowl clam shell. He had one in the office that died and one in the home tank that was doing real well, until this little mishap. I doubt it I'll ever see a lfs selling clams that size ever again. A real shame. Yes Satch, that is why the trip with ESPI was going to happen during this hellish time of year. He's dying to get that tank restocked as it is a depressing sight now. Link to comment
freakaccident Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 I wonder if a grounding probe would have caused less death. Link to comment
DeskJockey Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 Damn sorry to hear that crak =( Im sure your dad will have fun restocking it though. Freak- it wasnt the electricity, it was the copper itself. Copper is a BIG no no for reef tanks. Link to comment
freakaccident Posted April 3, 2003 Share Posted April 3, 2003 Ahh I wasn't thinking along those lines. Link to comment
Xwhite Posted April 4, 2003 Share Posted April 4, 2003 Would you mind telling us what kind of powerhead caused this problem? I'd like to avoid that brand in the future if possible. John Link to comment
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