HowardofNOVA October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 I spent the weekend pumping over 600+ GALLONS of water out of my basement!!!! UNBELIEVEABLE! Good thing was I awoke Sat. morning at 5am to go deer hunting and stepped in water in the bathroom. Worked for an hour trying to get it cleaned up before calling my buddy to help out (His mothers house). He showed up around 7am after I already dumped about a dozen 5g buckets of water out and placed a MaxiJet 225gph pump that ran MOST OF THE DAY to keep up with water removal. We BURNED up a $100. 20g capacity Shopvac after about the 10th dumping of water from it! Finally buddy went up to HD and bought a sump and I busted through the concrete in storeroom big enough to drop a 33g size bucket into the ground. I worked from 5am until 8pm that night. Started again Sunday for 6 hrs to finish up the sump. UNREAL weekend! Of course I already had a full schedule planed and got nothing done with it. UGH! :wall: Luckily, We where able to keep ahead with it and substained on minimal damage! The water was coming from we believe a crack in the concrete where the plumbers put in the drain for the shower, so was ground water due to Hurricane Tammy. We figured was the same place now that the 100g+ came in from Hurricane Cindy earlier this year! Damage could have been incredible if I didn't catch up with if then I did. Could you imagen that much water all in a basement! OUCH! :o On another note, I shot a doe deer Thursday and will be cutting it up tonight after I finish putting the place back to normal and before the football game to 9pm. If anyone wants a few pounds, feel free to come over? Howard
dhoch October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 Howard, Wow, and I thought a small leak in my sump was a PITA.... Sounds like you had a fun day. Are you serious about the venision? I would definitly come by and pick some up if the offer is for real... Could bring by the PAR meter as well. LMK. Dave
Caribbean Jake October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 was the pump that broke? was the water spilled from your saltwater tank?
HowardofNOVA October 10, 2005 Author October 10, 2005 Yes Dave, Have about 20+# of meat available. Feel free to stop over from 7-9pm tonight. Jacob, Water came from under the house (ground water) with all of the rain, pressure built up and force in from crack I BELIEVE under the shower. I WISH I had a 600g tank to spill out of!
Caribbean Jake October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 was the same place now that the 100g+ came in from Hurricane Cindy earlier this year! ....have been incredible if I didn't catch up with if then I did. Could you imagen that much water all in a basement! OUCH!
Folta October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 Oh wow! Is it all cleaned up now? Are you going to fix that shop vac you burned out?
HowardofNOVA October 10, 2005 Author October 10, 2005 Shop vac was trashed, motor caught fire and blew hot plastic all over my shower! No fun to clean later!! It just got worst, by buddy had the flu the whole time he helped out this weekend! Yeah, you guessed, I'm feeling like dog do and heading to the house shortly. Sorry, maybe tomorrow night for meat, frags, LR, game, etc? Keep posted! The Howard! :toilet: :lipsrsealed:
HowardofNOVA October 10, 2005 Author October 10, 2005 Oh, One other thing on a side note, while working on my tank Friday night TOTALLY rearranging everything around (Sorry Jacob!), glueing up frags, etc, the MH lights went out and under the Actinics, my pair of Green Mandaran's began mating. Was the coolest thing to watch and wish I had my camera to show you pics! :o They went belly to belly (PG rating), pectorial fins locked and facing the surface and kept going around in circles. Was too cool! Howard
Jon Lazar October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 Congratulations! Maybe you'll find some eggs or fry one of these nights. Jon Oh,One other thing on a side note, while working on my tank Friday night TOTALLY rearranging everything around (Sorry Jacob!), glueing up frags, etc, the MH lights went out and under the Actinics, my pair of Green Mandaran's began mating. Was the coolest thing to watch and wish I had my camera to show you pics! :o They went belly to belly (PG rating), pectorial fins locked and facing the surface and kept going around in circles. Was too cool! Howard 41287[/snapback]
Caribbean Jake October 10, 2005 October 10, 2005 sorry? didn't even last a year and you are already changing rocks around :o , that is an insult ... but for being you... and after saying "sorry Jacob".. I will forgive you.
steveoutlaw October 11, 2005 October 11, 2005 I love it.......Fish Porn! Howard, if you got that on video we can box it up and market it! :D sorry to hear about the basement.
JMsAquarium October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 A reminder to all. Do not forget to ask fellow Wamas members to check on your tank while going out of town. Even if it is for a short period. Why, you may ask? Simply because you will never know when your system is going to crash. Here is a little story... So for the Columbus Day weekend (which is when this hurricane paid us a visit) we went to Florida. We left Friday afternoon and came back Monday eve. As soon as we opened our house door, we knew something went wrong, just the foul smell whas enough to proove it. The usual low humming noise from the pumps and fans was not there. Nor were the lights on (they are on timers). I had a quick look at the tank and everything was turned off. Went to check the circuit breakers and they were popped up. Turned them on and went back to the tank. Loss is obvious, - The 3 cleaner shrimps dead and rotting on the sand, - The coral beauty, floating at the surface rotting as well. - The Deresa clam (was about 7-8 inches), sayonara - Many hermits and snails were out of their shells rotting on the sand - A large colony of xenia (about 15) - A large kenya tree - Bali slimer (was a very healthy and nice frag) - Candy cane, all 6 heads - Green star polyps, 2 colonies gone, the largest one (about the size of three hands, seems to fight for survival) - Orange monti cap (about 5x5 inches, a smaller frag about the size half dollar coin might make it but has lost about 98% of the polyps) - Most of the mushrooms(about 15 of them) a few ones seem to survive so far. - A very nice blue frilly shroom. (a smaller one is doing well) Fortunately I had 20 gal of RO/DI water ready and that enabled me to do an immediate batch of SW and do a waterchange right away. A quick test of the water parameters, just for curiosity showed - Ammonia: 1.5 +/- - PH 7.5 - Nitrites over 1 - Nitrates around 15 - Water temp was 63 After a few other water changes during the following days, all parameters are now back to normal. Given that the fish and softies were starting to rot, it was obvious that the tank was shut down for several days, either on the Friday or early on the Saturday. So no water movement at all and rapid oxygen depletion. And yes, I have three battery operated air pumps in case of emergency, but completely forgot to set them up (they are the ones you plug to an outlet and turn on when there is a power outage). Lesson: always ask someone to pop up and check that every thing is up and running. If I had asked someone to come and have a look, even only once during the weekend, it would probably had been fine. Now, I am not complaining nor ranting nor asking for anything. This is not the purpose of this post. It was my bad, my loss. Just letting you know or reminding you that stuff happens, so when/if you go out of town, just ask for someone to go check your tank. I know next time I will.
HowardofNOVA October 19, 2005 Author October 19, 2005 Glad you posted this, good reminders for us all JM! Chip mentioned that his power went off Friday night, 4 days off was just too much for the gang, sorry to hear and as I mentioned, will help out your come back when your ready! Howard
JMsAquarium October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 Glad you posted this, good reminders for us all JM!Chip mentioned that his power went off Friday night, 4 days off was just too much for the gang, sorry to hear and as I mentioned, will help out your come back when your ready! Howard 42508[/snapback] Thanks Howard, hopefully, and that's why I posted it, other members will read this won't be as dumb as I was.
flowerseller October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 So sorry to hear JM. Howards not far from you and so am I for future. Since your not asking and don't want anything....., would you at least do me a personal favor and take a couple of frags. Please! I beg of you! I have 3 encrusted frags that I must get rid of.
Folta October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 Sorry for the loss JM! It's always sad to read posts like these. :bigcry:
JMsAquarium October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 So sorry to hear JM. Howards not far from you and so am I for future. Since your not asking and don't want anything....., would you at least do me a personal favor and take a couple of frags. Please! I beg of you! I have 3 encrusted frags that I must get rid of. 42517[/snapback] I know, you guys are close by, just did not thought about it. You know, "It'll only be a long weekend, no more. Why bother others, eh?" <_<
JMsAquarium October 19, 2005 October 19, 2005 Sorry for the loss JM! It's always sad to read posts like these. :bigcry: 42522[/snapback] True, however there are way too many worse things in this life. But as far as it does serve as a reminder to others, them it's all good. And Thanks
Lee Stearns October 20, 2005 October 20, 2005 Man JM- And After my last words to you when you left with the blue frilly mushroom- If you need a tank watcher let me know- :idea2: I even placed your phone number on the list of several phone numbers to call beside my sump area if there was ever anything going wrong with my tanks and I could not be reached. JM you know where to come to restock a lot of those things once your system is stable- Really- PM me and we can get the stuff growing in your tank soon. Regards, Lee
JMsAquarium October 20, 2005 October 20, 2005 Yeah, I know, like I said it was really bad judgement on my part Moreover, since I always tell people that they can count on me if they need someone to watch over their tanks when they are travelling. I will now take the opportunity to finally upgrade my lighting while everything stabilizes. Time has finally come to get new MH bulbs.
Ne0eN October 20, 2005 October 20, 2005 Hmm, this is not a good topic to bring up while I am on business travel in St. Louis. I left my tank yesterday afternoon and I should be back Friday night. I got lights on timers, RO/DI water dripping at 2 drops/sec... So far I haven't had any disasters, but I know it's just a matter of time. Perhaps we should start a WAMAS list of members volunteering their time to check up on people's tanks based on ZIP codes? I may be able to write an application and host it on a Web server... Any interest? -Rob
JMsAquarium October 20, 2005 October 20, 2005 I left my tank yesterday afternoon and I should be back Friday night. I got lights on timers, RO/DI water dripping at 2 drops/sec... So far I haven't had any disasters, but I know it's just a matter of time. 42645[/snapback] Rob, that's what I always did. It just took a power outage and there I am. Perhaps we should start a WAMAS list of members volunteering their time to check up on people's tanks based on ZIP codes? I may be able to write an application and host it on a Web server... Any interest? Yes we would all benefit of such a system. Many members already do this with others that live/work nearby. Even I have members with whom I can do this, both ways. But I didn't ask this time and here are the consequences.
Lee Stearns October 25, 2005 October 25, 2005 Hey JM are you down grading your lights to 250's from the 400's or just getting new 400 bulbs. I was absolutely shocked at how much brighter my ligyts were when I replaced new 250 AB bulbls in my system after almost 15 months of burning the old lights. Just go slow In the burn-in phase- Regards,
JMsAquarium October 25, 2005 October 25, 2005 Hey JM are you down grading your lights to 250's from the 400's or just getting new 400 bulbs. I was absolutely shocked at how much brighter my ligyts were when I replaced new 250 AB bulbls in my system after almost 15 months of burning the old lights. Just go slow In the burn-in phase-Regards, 43155[/snapback] Lee, I am just replacing the 400s with new bulbs for now. Eventually, in a few months I will be downgrading to 250s. Somewhat I am starting to believe that 400W is too much for what I am doing. As for the burn in period here's what I have in mind. Right now, the old bulbs are running for about 5 hours. The new bulbs will run for 2:30 hours and after 2 weeks I will be increasing running time by 30 minutes per week til I reach 6 hours of burning time. The remainder of the lighting cycle will still be done by the 2 VHOs. Thoughts?
Caribbean Jake October 25, 2005 October 25, 2005 Are you running the VHO's all day or as supplement during Dawn and Dust?
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