I got very lucky

[dschflier]

Well things have been going very well for my tank lately so I guess it was about time for an emergency. I was up in NY this past weekend and my parents left to go to Florida when I was leaving to come back to VA.

 

The plan was my parents would stop at my place for a couple of days and then head south. They left first and got to my place about 2 hours before us. My Dad wanted me to watch his choclate chip star fish for him while he was away. My Father is a bit older and his balance isn't great anymore. He went downstairs before I got home and went to put the star fish in my sump and tripped. He used my 40 gallon frag tank to stop his fall. when this happend he cracked one side of the tank. He called and told me that it looked like it was just a crack along the top. I was pretty worried becuase all of my tanks are attached and it equates to about 320 gallons of water.

 

When I got home I saw that the side of the tank had numerous cracks and was leaking a good deal of water. I turned off the pump, bought another 40 breeder drilled it and set it up. Emergency averted.

 

The next day I went to look at my main tank and it appeared to have a bunch of debris in the water. I wasn't sure why, considering I had a brand new tank in the back and had changed a descent amount of water. I went in the back and didnt see any problems. I then looked in the sump and saw the star fish had gotten 2 of his legs eaten up by my mag pump that feeds my skimmer. Well the star fish is now healing in a seperate sump. I hope it survives. I think they are pretty tough.

 

Alot was learnt from this experience. First of all the most important thing is that no one got hurt. When my dad first told me about this I was so concerned with the situation that I didn't even ask if he was alright. Afterwards I obviously felt terrible about that and appologized. That is the biggest lesson of this is to remember it is just a fish tank, even if it is a big one. People come first.

 

Second I will be adding a main switch that is away from all of my outlets and the water. This will turn off the whole 20 amp circuit. The reason I will add this is if the tank had had a catastrophic break, I dont want anyone trying to unplug anything with all the salt water everywhere.

 

I move forward now with a 3 legged star fish a new tank and no injuries.

[davelin315]

Glad you were able to avert any further damage and that your dad is OK (just do what people do with little kids and hamsters, replace it, he'll never know the difference!). I would actually install a GFCI breaker if your intention is to have the power shut off if water leaks out. You could even put an outlet on the floor so that it tripped the breaker upon any leaking (well, OK, that's not such a good idea if the GFCI fails...).

[dschflier]

Yeah Dave,

 

I had considered installing a GFCI when I put the circuit in but have been told that you can get frequent trips. So I have to weigh the option. I am not sure if it is worth having my Main pump and MH lights getting tripped frequently. It is still something I will consider but have not done it yet for that reason.

[percula]

Congrats on disaster narrowly avoided (seems all too common in this hobby).

 

I took my dedicated 20A circuit and branched it x4. Each branch has a switch and then a GFCI outlet (which protects anything downstream). The upshot is I have four switches that can turn off categories of items; one switch will turn off all circulation pumps/powerheads for example. GFCI has never popped (though it's only been 2 months) but at least if one does, everything isn't shut down. Just an idea.

[dbartco]

Yipes. I am glad there was only cracked glass, and not schards of razor sharp broken glass slicing and dicing.

 

 

Thank heavens everyone ok.

[dschflier]

Good idea perc. I will consider doing it that way.

[Rascal]

Yeah Dave,

 

I had considered installing a GFCI when I put the circuit in but have been told that you can get frequent trips. So I have to weigh the option. I am not sure if it is worth having my Main pump and MH lights getting tripped frequently. It is still something I will consider but have not done it yet for that reason.

 

In my experience at least, I think the concern over frequent tripping is overstated. I have all my stuff (2 dedicated 15A circuits + 1 outlet on a shared 20A circuit) run through GFCI outlets. In a year and a half they have only tripped once when I wasn't home, last April. Of course, as it turned out I was away on vacation for a week, but luckily my tank sitter (fryschool) was able to save the day and got power turned back on before too long. He thought it might have been due to something causing my skimmer to go crazy and possibly some spray got into one of the powerstrip outlets. Every single other time they have tripped there has been a very good reason that I could immediately see - usually because I just did something stupid and caused it. Like the time I dropped a light fixture into the fuge and tried to catch it as it hit the water. Someone recently posted about how they broke their heater and electrocuted themselves. I think it was Martin who juiced himself b/c of a broken powerhead once. As we all know, accidents can happen (especially with kids around). Saltwater is an excellent conductor of electricity, and death is not outside the realm of possibility if something goes wrong.

 

O.K., I'll get off my soapbox now.

[YBeNormal]

If GFCI outlets trip, there is a good reason. It could be caused by a short--and that should immediately be investigated and corrected--or it could be that the GFCI outlet is worn out. If so, replace the outlet. Any concern about the outlet tripping is far outweighed by the added safety provided IMHO.