Not a good way to start the day

[lvpd186]

This morning I got back from the gym, went downstairs and noticed "silence." Like most people this is a sign of trouble. When I looked at my tank I saw that everything was off. It seems that I set my skimmer to skim too wet and when it filled up the cup it started sending spray out of the lid vent holes. This tripped the GFI that was close by. Not really a big deal, all I had to do was push the little button to reset the GFI and turn everything on. Here is where it got a little ugly! A couple of seconds after reseting the GFI the plug between my float switch and my dosing pump short circuited and flamed out. I guess the way I had the plug some spray got on it. I guess you can call it a lesson learned; possibly an expensive one since I need to replace my dosing pump now and a float switch :thumbdown. On a positive note everything looks fine livestock wise..

 

[alanmorehead]

That sucks, but glad the livestock is ok. What kind of dosing pump was it?

 

[lvpd186]

Re: Not a good way to start the day

It was one of those aqua-medic ones. I've actually been looking at replacing it anyway, but I didn't want to have to .

 

[huskerreef]

I think we all tend to overlook the water and electricity mix, I know I've been buzzed few times because of it. Glad hear it seems to have turned out OK. Isn't it funny how we can hear that something not right because it so quite.

 

[tom obrecht]

As I have often said...Reef Keeping is where Murphy's Law and your bank account collide! Hope everything livestock wise makes it through! This is the part of the hobby I DON'T MISS!

 

[lvpd186]

Re: Not a good way to start the day

I checked over lunch and everything seems fine, I guess I was lucky this time.

 

[hankclaussen]

I've been meaning to get the outdoor covered gfci receptacles, will be at lowes tomorrow! You may want to consider them too...

 

[Hartdude]

When I set up my current system, I placed my stand just to the right of my main plug in for this very reason. All of the electrical in the stand is far right on a shelf I built, while the sump and stuff is on the left of the stand. Hopefully this will prevent any mishaps.

I'm glad that none of your livestock was hurt in the ordeal, though Brad!

Isn't funny how we all become accustomed to the normal hum of our systems. I know I am. Just the other night, we were watching TV (my tank is in the same room as my TV), I asked my wife if she thought the tank sounded funny. Of course she thought I was nuts, but when I checked, the air dryer on my skimmer air intake tube was partially occluded with salt creep, causing it to be a bit more loud than normal.

 

[lvpd186]

I've been meaning to get the outdoor covered gfci receptacles, will be at lowes tomorrow! You may want to consider them too...

I was thinking about getting one of those, might have to do that this weekend.

 

[lvpd186]

Some good news and some bad news

Some good news and some bad news

It must be my turn to have some problems :thumbdown! First some good news; my brother had an extra power chord and my dosing pump is back in operation after hooking up my extra float switch. Now the bad news: I came home tonight after going to my daughters musical and one of my vortechs was flashing red/green. A quick check on line said that it was a jammed propeller. No big deal I thought.. It turns out though that a plastic ring inside the wet end snapped off. So now I need to get a new wet end. Btw here is what my plug looked like (there is also some black marks on the wall under my tank and a scorch mark on my skimmer's collection cup):

 

[jd474]

Honestly, Brad, we got 2 Vortechs last year for a free trial (research purposes), and had nothing but problems with them. Both had to be repaired. Twice. Ended up putting them on a shelf.

 

[lvpd186]

I've actually had fairly good luck with mine. The one that broke was one of their first models. I had to replace the magnet but they didn't charge me anything for that. I've had it for a couple of years now. I know Jim had some problems with his and ended up going back to tunze pumps. Right now its cheaper to buy the wet-end, but if the pump dies all the way I might consider a different direction..

 

[huskerreef]

Ive got a spare wet end you can have

 

[lvpd186]

Re: Not a good way to start the day

You da man Jim! Thanks!