Warning - Thought We Were Covered - We Were Not !
HI all,
This is just a warning, if you think your tank is protected you may not be.
We have 3 power board on our tank, an electrician, wired all three boards into 3 separate clipsal switches. So each board had a switch,
In theory if one piece of equipment failed or tripped, the clipsal associated with that particular board would flick and the other 2 power boards would continue to run.
We have a 2 heaters on separate boards, each gyer on separate boards and so on. So one board trips, tank will have heat and flow at all times. Until you notice and fix problem
Went to bed last night, as usual sump light is on.
Get up this morning and no sump light, no temp gauge.
Suddenly realize tank is dead. Nothing running at all.
Switched lounge light on, purple and yellow tang are laying on their sides in the front corner of tank not moving.
All the corals are slime covered, slime every where.
I scream at hubby to grab generator. stupid really as the rest of the house had power. Panic reaction.
Hubby works out that 1 and only 1 of the clipsals has kicked in and flicked.
So we flick that back up, nothing, dead.
My fish are now panicked with light on in lounge, they are trying to swim away, bumping into rocks and clams, cant swim.
Please bear in mind its 5.30 in the morning, hubby half asleep.
He races outside in his jocks (yes in 2 degrees) and the fuse for the back of the house had tripped too.
This should not have happened.
So the whole back of the house had lost power but not the front were we sleep. So we had no idea tank was dead.
Got it running again, and only thing not working is return pump. It had blown that socket on the power board it was on.
We were lucky and did have a spare pump. had to use double adapter as the one socket was rooted.
We are now replacing that particular power board completely.
Tank was at 20 when switched back on.
When doser came back on, the clock said the power had gone out at 1.10am. so 4.5 hours.
Over the next few hours, fish picked back up and have all survived.
All corals are ok, some open some not but about 90% seem normal
So poor @Sam Parker got a very early message from me, asking if there was any way to avoid this happening again without running an apex.
YES there is a simple, cheap and easy way. NO i don't need an apex was his answer .
So Mr Parker is once again putting together a little device that will sms and sound an alarm if power is cut to the tank for any reason at all.
I honestly believe that our volume of water is what saved our corals and fish.
We now need to work out why our tank clipsal actually tripped the house fuse, that should not have happened.
We believe we had done everything possible to prevent this happening, but clearly not.
So I suggest if your worried about this possibly happening to you, ask @Sam Parker
Sorry Sam !!! (about early wake up too )
And thank you too !!!! :)
This is just a warning, if you think your tank is protected you may not be.
We have 3 power board on our tank, an electrician, wired all three boards into 3 separate clipsal switches. So each board had a switch,
In theory if one piece of equipment failed or tripped, the clipsal associated with that particular board would flick and the other 2 power boards would continue to run.
We have a 2 heaters on separate boards, each gyer on separate boards and so on. So one board trips, tank will have heat and flow at all times. Until you notice and fix problem
Went to bed last night, as usual sump light is on.
Get up this morning and no sump light, no temp gauge.
Suddenly realize tank is dead. Nothing running at all.
Switched lounge light on, purple and yellow tang are laying on their sides in the front corner of tank not moving.
All the corals are slime covered, slime every where.
I scream at hubby to grab generator. stupid really as the rest of the house had power. Panic reaction.
Hubby works out that 1 and only 1 of the clipsals has kicked in and flicked.
So we flick that back up, nothing, dead.
My fish are now panicked with light on in lounge, they are trying to swim away, bumping into rocks and clams, cant swim.
Please bear in mind its 5.30 in the morning, hubby half asleep.
He races outside in his jocks (yes in 2 degrees) and the fuse for the back of the house had tripped too.
This should not have happened.
So the whole back of the house had lost power but not the front were we sleep. So we had no idea tank was dead.
Got it running again, and only thing not working is return pump. It had blown that socket on the power board it was on.
We were lucky and did have a spare pump. had to use double adapter as the one socket was rooted.
We are now replacing that particular power board completely.
Tank was at 20 when switched back on.
When doser came back on, the clock said the power had gone out at 1.10am. so 4.5 hours.
Over the next few hours, fish picked back up and have all survived.
All corals are ok, some open some not but about 90% seem normal
So poor @Sam Parker got a very early message from me, asking if there was any way to avoid this happening again without running an apex.
YES there is a simple, cheap and easy way. NO i don't need an apex was his answer .
So Mr Parker is once again putting together a little device that will sms and sound an alarm if power is cut to the tank for any reason at all.
I honestly believe that our volume of water is what saved our corals and fish.
We now need to work out why our tank clipsal actually tripped the house fuse, that should not have happened.
We believe we had done everything possible to prevent this happening, but clearly not.
So I suggest if your worried about this possibly happening to you, ask @Sam Parker
Sorry Sam !!! (about early wake up too )
And thank you too !!!! :)