I tripped a breaker

[paul b]

So I am sitting in my basement watching my fish as they were watching me and all of a sudden the lights go out.  I was an electrician for 40 years and I can count on one hand how many times my circuit breaker tripped in my house while I was not doing anything like leaf blowing, arc welding or running some heavy equipment.  So I look around and I was mixing up some saltwater and in that 30 gallon tub I have a powerhead and 3 heaters.
So before I turn back the breaker I figured it must be one of the heaters.  It's always a heater.  So I lift one and it is fine, I lift the second one and it is fine.  Then I remove the third one and it is all black and scurvy inside and it is full of water.  As I am looking for a crack on the glass, it dawned on me.  The crack wasn't in the glass, it was in my head.  That heater was "not" a submersible heater.  It used to have a bracket on the side to hang it on the side of the tank.  Like Duh.  I have like 8 heaters and I just pick out a few, plug them in and throw them in a tub of water.  I should have realized it wasn't submersible when it floated.  I even got a big 1/2' nut and rubber banded it to the thing to keep it underwater.
It's just great getting old.
So now I have a spare, large test tube that I can make a really small Nano tank out of

[AlanM]

Too funny.  At least you don't have to remember not to toss a hair dryer in there to warm it since it seems likely you don't own one.

[paul b]

The water got warm right away.  That heater was from my freshwater days and was kind of old.  I even have older ones that worked by steam.  I still find marbles in my tank as some of that stuff has been in my tank from when it was freshwater in the 50s and 60s.  Remember my tank was not started as salt.  It was fresh, then I added salt and it was brackish, then saltwater fish came out and I added more salt to make it a reef.  If I look under my gravel I may find some 45s from Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons.  Probably "Big Girls Don't Cry" or one of the other top tens.

[Glenn]

>> I still find marbles in my tank <<.

 

aha - so now we know where your marbles went !  LOL

[mr.x-ray]

Do you still have fish from your freshwater days that can be changed over? Mollies and such? As old as some of your fish are I wouldn't doubt it.

[sen5241b]

Plugged in an extra heater the other day and minutes later all my pumps, lights, everything goes off and I smell burning plastic. I blew the circuit behind my tank and now I have a big extension cord running across the room. Thoses heaters really pull a lot of electricity.

[paul b]

They pull plenty of power especially when they are flooded like mine was.  It did work for quite a while before it filled up and burned out, but the water inside it was warm and toasty.

Mr.X-Ray, no I don't have any fresh water fish from then but my last, kind of fresh water fish I had was a figure 8 puffer.  I bought it in fresh water, then put more salt in until it was full salt and that fish lived about 12 or 13 years there. 

It even survived major surgery when it had a tumor inside it's belly and I opened him up to remove it.  After almost a week of recovery he started to eat on his own and was one of my favorite fish.  I am still trying to collect from his ***.

I still occasionally put bumblebee gobies in my reef and they grow to get almost an inch and live for over a year.  Very cool looking in a reef and they cost like 4 bucks.