tibbsy07 IM10

[reefernanoman]

Awful awful... Somehow my ato flooded my tank some time while I was at work. Even though I have drip loops, the water drips caught the fabric sleeve of the nanobox wires and my storm controller is totally fried. I have no idea if the light still works or not. The fan was still on but the controller is shot. Ugh... The ATO switch was submerged in water AND the float switch was up but it was still pushing water. Lucky nothing else was damaged. Have to switch back to the coral compulsion bulb for now I guess.

Man sorry to hear that. What ATO are you using again?

[tibbsy07]

Jbj ATO. I'm crushed right now

[natalia_la_loca]

That's horrible is your livestock okay?

[da1001]

That makes me leery as hell of my brand new Tunze I just put on mine, I might run my ATO container with only half water for awhile until I feel safer with it on. Im sorry to hear about your losses Tibbsy, maybe you could start a go fund me page to replace what you lost? Id send you a few bucks, teeny.

[tibbsy07]

thanks guys. fortunately I didn't lose any livestock, I only lost the storm controller and possibly the driver box

 

what I think happened was that the filter floss and chemical media caused the water to stop flowing into the rear chambers forcing the automatic top off to come on and flood the tank. I'm not sure and I have no proof. this is the only thing I can think of

 

just bummed that this happened when I was getting things on track. now there will be a lot of work to do to get the tank back to normal in to adjust the coral to my old light while I figure out what to do and how to fix the tide

[natalia_la_loca]

I could see that happening. I have to set my filter floss just so to prevent it blocking flow to the back chamber.

[CJJon]

That sucks! At least you didn't lose any livestock. Controllers are easy to replace and no acclimation or quarantine needed.

 

My next tank, a 20g L mantis mansion, will have a gravity feed rabbit water bottle ATO system. If set up correctly, should be way less prone to failure than any other method. Heading to the farm supply tomorrow for parts.

 

It will be in the fish cave, and I am the only one who goes in there so esthetics does not matter. Gonna bolt the bottle to the wall!

[teenyreef]

Oh no, that's terrible! I hope the inhabitants are OK.

 

My Tunze Nano on my 4g has had issues getting stuck on when snails get in the float, but it does have a timer that eventually turns it off. Unfortunately by the time it gets around to doing it the water starts overflowing. My full size Tunze on the 10g does it right by combining a timer with an overflow detector. Belt and suspenders

 

I have to admit I hadn't seen why an ATO should have a timer if it has an overflow detector, but your scenario just showed me why, unfortunately

[tibbsy07]

I could see that happening. I have to set my filter floss just so to prevent it blocking flow to the back chamber.

The interesting thing is that when I got there, the ATO was still pushing water into the tank, yet the float switch was totally submerged and was in the "off" position for the ATO. Maybe there was a short somewhere? I don't know.

 

Oh no, that's terrible! I hope the inhabitants are OK.

 

My Tunze Nano on my 4g has had issues getting stuck on when snails get in the float, but it does have a timer that eventually turns it off. Unfortunately by the time it gets around to doing it the water starts overflowing. My full size Tunze on the 10g does it right by combining a timer with an overflow detector. Belt and suspenders

 

I have to admit I hadn't seen why an ATO should have a timer if it has an overflow detector, but your scenario just showed me why, unfortunately

Nothing was stuck in it. I have the timer set to 3 minutes, but that means it will only run for 3 minutes at a time, right? When does it reset?

 

I slapped the coral compulsion bulb back on with a gooseneck. I've got it on a timer from 11am until 9:30pm. Should be ok for now. I'm mainly having to do small incremental water changes as the additional water from the ATO reservoir brought my salinity to 1.020 I took out 2 gallons or so, added salt to those 2 gallons to ~1.030, put 1 gallon of that 1.030 into the tank, pulled out another gallon, added the final gallon. Got up to ~1.023-1024. I had to remove some extra water, about a gallon, during the equilibrium process to bring the water to 1.024. I have added some salt to that water so hopefully tomorrow I will swap some more water around and get back to 1.026.

That makes me leery as hell of my brand new Tunze I just put on mine, I might run my ATO container with only half water for awhile until I feel safer with it on. Im sorry to hear about your losses Tibbsy, maybe you could start a go fund me page to replace what you lost? Id send you a few bucks, teeny.

Thanks, fortunately no livestock lost that I can see (yet).

 

I checked out the driver box and it seems ok. the power cords for the controller and the light itself are good and dry, the light still had its fan on when I came into the room, so I think it's ok, too. So far, as far as I can tell, I only lost the Storm Controller. I guess this is the thing that pushes me to get a bluefish?

 

I had everything with drip loops just in case, and the controller was actually off to the side with a drip loop, but the braided sleeve on the wires wicked the water away from the dripping point and pushed it into the controller. It's all slimy and there is a lot of crusty stuff in the controller, presumably from the water, salt, electricity resulting in some acidic product. Makes me want to go back in and put all my power cords ABOVE the tank so that nothing can get fried.

[Eisernes]

It ran with the float switch open and it was on a timer? That's bad luck right there. Multiple hardware failures at one time. Might be worth getting a RKL and a non float ATO.

[metrokat]

Hi Doc, was thinking about you little tank. Hope you're doing okay through the malfunction.

[tibbsy07]

Hi Doc, was thinking about you little tank. Hope you're doing okay through the malfunction.

Thanks.. Did the other water swap this morning about 10 minutes ago. Tank seems ok. Light doesn't come on for about an hour and a half. Corals are all closed up, but without light for 18 hours, and the drastic drop in salinity with a slow rise in salinity over a few hour period... I'm not surprised they're unhappy.

 

I popped open the driver box last night and all seemed dry inside. I left it open just to let it dry out more if it was wet at all. Now that I have it open, I wonder if I can redo the wiring for multiple channels instead of just 2? I'll have to ask Dave.

 

If I could redo the wiring to allow for the bluefish to have more control, that would be great, especially if I'm going to have to get a new controller anyways.

[da1001]

Thanks.. Did the other water swap this morning about 10 minutes ago. Tank seems ok. Light doesn't come on for about an hour and a half. Corals are all closed up, but without light for 18 hours, and the drastic drop in salinity with a slow rise in salinity over a few hour period... I'm not surprised they're unhappy.

 

I popped open the driver box last night and all seemed dry inside. I left it open just to let it dry out more if it was wet at all. Now that I have it open, I wonder if I can redo the wiring for multiple channels instead of just 2? I'll have to ask Dave.

 

If I could redo the wiring to allow for the bluefish to have more control, that would be great, especially if I'm going to have to get a new controller anyways.

Good luck with that, tibbsy. You sound very electric-capable. I would be too worried about frying myself to try anything like that.

[DaveFason]

Sorry to hear Adam. I need to get up with you and get you over this spring. Grind out days.

 

Let me know what you need. I can sell you a Storm controller and have it out Monday. For the time being, take the storm case off and then put in rice. After that use a q-tip to wipe off salt.

 

-Dave

[tibbsy07]

Good luck with that, tibbsy. You sound very electric-capable. I would be too worried about frying myself to try anything like that.

Thanks - my guess is I'll probably just do the 2 channels plug and play into the bluefish. Ben says that the LED board I have is a 2 channel board, so I'll go this route.

 

Sorry to hear Adam. I need to get up with you and get you over this spring. Grind out days.

 

Let me know what you need. I can sell you a Storm controller and have it out Monday. For the time being, take the storm case off and then put in rice. After that use a q-tip to wipe off salt.

 

-Dave

Hahaha, thanks. Yeah we DO need to get together. I've got some work to do

 

I'm figuring out if I want to do another storm or if I want to give the bluefish a try. I'm lucky I still have my old coral compulsion bulb, so I was able to at least stabilize the tank. I should have kept the cords in different places. Cable management is way more important than I thought.

 

As for the controller, it's totally fried methinks. The salt "creep" is green, pink, and blue. The board itself is looking kind of melty. I think I caught it kind of early.

[kimberbee]

That really sucks... Glad your tank seems ok, though, and you're getting things back on track.

[tibbsy07]

Just fed everyone some LRS reef frenzy for the first time to help recovery. Everyone is still a bit angry as they haven't had lights on for 18 or so hours until about 10 minutes ago.

 

Tank seems ok. Phew. Wasn't sure last night

[jbb]

Nothing like a little stress to keep things exciting

[TigerLily]

I'm glad everything seems ok - other than the storm controller. Scary!

[ninjamyst]

sorry to hear about the ATO issues. happened to me a few times so i know it sucks. glad nothing was lost besides the storm controller and you have a second light available.

[Steensj2004]

I'd donate to a gofundit account

[owenj]

Eeep, hope the controller is ok. It's stories like these that have me way too chicken to try an ATO.

[tibbsy07]

Nothing like a little stress to keep things exciting

Right? This hobby is never calm

 

I'm glad everything seems ok - other than the storm controller. Scary!

Thanks

 

sorry to hear about the ATO issues. happened to me a few times so i know it sucks. glad nothing was lost besides the storm controller and you have a second light available.

Useful and yet so dangerous, right? lol

 

I'd donate to a gofundit account

Haha I appreciate that - I might have if this was a major catastrophe, but I escaped disaster.

 

Eeep, hope the controller is ok. It's stories like these that have me way too chicken to try an ATO.

Controller is definitely done for, but I would definitely recommend ATOs. Especially for small tanks. I was thinking of a new way to do it, though. Put the ATO on an actual timer for about 15-30 minutes every few hours, then have the 3 minute timer internally on it, so that way it can still do its job, but then the power is off for most of the day so this doesn't happen.

[teenyreef]

Wow, I'm glad everything seems to be OK. I'm still trying to figure out how it happened. I don't have a JBJ but as I understand their specs, you have the option of using the second sensor at an overflow detector. Is that how yours is set up? Did both the overflow protector and the timer fail?

[tibbsy07]

Wow, I'm glad everything seems to be OK. I'm still trying to figure out how it happened. I don't have a JBJ but as I understand their specs, you have the option of using the second sensor at an overflow detector. Is that how yours is set up? Did both the overflow protector and the timer fail?

I don't have space for a second switch, so I only have the ATO switch, not the overflow switch. Somehow the 3minute timer failed (though, it's only 3 minutes at a time, it can come back on later so who knows the interval?) and the float switch was up, in the off position, submerged underwater, but the ATO was still pushing water into the tank. Crazy crazy.