I experience a near tank crash yesterday!

[Gouldian]

Hi guys,

Being a working guy, I left my laundry in the washing machine while I am working so that by the time I am back the laundry will be washed.

But yesterday was a nightmare. I went home after a hard day's work and when I reached my carpark I noticed sometime diffrerent, I did not see any familiar blue light coming from my living room window. When I opened, the door, all I saw was darkness and what I hear was total silence, it then dawn on me that I had a power trip! I immediately reset my power supply and rush to my tank.

This is the scence I saw:

* Cleaner shrimps x 3 all dead

* Pepper shrimps x 5 all dead

* Xenia x 1 shrink and withered

* Leather x 1 withered with figered blackened

* Barbouri x 2 lying at the bottom of the tank gasping

* Bubble tip Anemone x 1 shrinked and withered

* All fish stock (1 x Maroon, 2 x purple firefish, 2 x firefish, 2 x high-finned banned goby, 1 x blue streak goby, 1 x yellow prawn goby) gave me the look that reduces me into a puddle!

With this incident it makes me very angry with the WM manufacturer, I always thought that being European made, it will be a better choice due to the integrity in the manufacturing process but I am very wrong. ( I only bought the machine for two years with 2-3 loads of washing per week). The best thing is that after one year the machine stopped at one of the cycle and I have to get the services person to rescue my laundry for $95!

The reson of my writing this to to share with you guys my predicament and at the same time get some inputs on how I could have prevented this catastrophe.

Please feel free to comments.

[Acanthurus pyroferus]

Let me get this straight...meaning that the laundry was being done while you were at work... And it tripped because the machine was giving trouble already? It's sad what happened but have your livestock recovered since?

[roidan]

probably the main reason is the lack of circulation...the livestock and corals can do without lights for a few days in nature during those overcast thunderstorms...

but lack of circulation will be a real killer

the cheapest way is to get an AC/DC air pump....but it uses air bubbles to circulate the water slowly with battery power once AC is out...not very efficient to move water...and you get lots of salt spray

wat i am using is a power back up supply to provide power to my tunze stream...can last only about 5 hours....anything longer...probably have to stir the water myself with a paddle

maybe you leave as few appliance operating as possible before you leave home so chances of a trip caused by them will reduce....

but i have experienced a rainy day where a lightning strike took out power in the whole block and had to reset the power box in my unit...

[silverfish]

Need to ask why lack of circulation will kill LS? Even with everything off, shouldn't there be enough disoloved air to last the LS for at least 1/2 a day?

thanks : )

[roidan]

coz the corals in nature need a never ending blow of current, gentle or strong, to carry waste/slime off them...and without circulation...they suffocate or choke in their waste/slim and this cumulative effect in the whole enclosed tank will be a vicious cycle that rapidly deteriorates the water quality and takes up dissolved oxygen faster than you can imagine....

if its just a FOWLR tank without corals...the effect of no circulation may not be that great....

dunno if i am right or not

[roidan]

and not forgetting the bacteria in the rocks/sand which need the current to bring oxygenated water to them....in a non-circulatory tank....the bacteria take up oxygen around them and soon they do not have oxygren around them and start to die and that's where probably you get a crash when all these start to die

and it comes back to depletion of oxygen also and the fishes suffer/stress especially in overstocked tank ...wah liew...whole scary cycle of events may happen....

tat's why i'd buy a diesel generator if i have to

[Acanthurus pyroferus]

have experienced a blackout before but livestock immeadiately bounced back even though it was a whole day without circulation. So I guess it depends on the state of ones reef system. As my apartment isn't very new , overloading the main has to be taken into consideration or a separate power source is needed.

[Gouldian]

Let me get this straight...meaning that the laundry was being done while you were at work... And it tripped because the machine was giving trouble already? It's sad what happened but have your livestock recovered since?

The washing was do ok when I left the house.

I have already fished out the dead but the rest of the livestocks are recovering. They were out "welcoming me" when I approached with their breakfast this morning.

Hope that all goes well. Today, is long day and I really hope that all is well at home.

[Gouldian]

tat's why i'd buy a diesel generator if i have to

Hi roidan,

want to post at the bulk purchase section to see anyone wants too.

[roidan]

hehe..the diesel generator wun switch over if power fail...gotta be home yourself to do the transfer..in other words.. no point if you are not at home also..hehehe

[Gouldian]

[Cookiemunster]

Gouldian,

if you need a UPS, you can get them from Sim Lim tower. These should be used to power your streams (TUNZE) for water circulation only. And if used for that purpose, it can power them continuously during power trips for at least 5 to 8 hrs. (provided the 12W stream is used).

[roidan]

er..another point...get the pure sine wave UPS only...

i tried normal UPS (modified sine wave) before, the pumps...either eheim, tunze, sicce...all rotate with noise and water output is less than 1/3 of the normal strength...

dunno why they are so sensitive to the waveform...but...i have been there and tried it...so dun get the normal types

[weileong]

hehe..the diesel generator wun switch over if power fail...gotta be home yourself to do the transfer..in other words.. no point if you are not at home also..hehehe

Get a UPS with 300Ah deep cycle backup battery, confirm can run one tunze for many days

[roidan]

hehe....

bro weileong, yeah...tot of it..those massive truck batteries...

but i asked my frens who know a tiny bit about those UPS....the discharging part using the car/truck batteries may not be a problem...but it is the charging part....

coz once the AC is back on, the UPS will not be able to charge the car/truck battery properly and this will cause some problems in the charging circuitry....so better dun spoil the UPS lor...hehe

[weileong]

errrm.... actually I've a statpower charger for those deep cycle batteries (rated for 20amps) and the instruction says you could parallel it to charge the batteries as well as power your stuffs.

Doesn't the Tunze runs on 12V for the lower flow models? Can always bypass the transformer then no need a rectifier already.

[roidan]

steady leh...means it's an inverter/charger together....

but is the inverter portion pushing out true sine wave or not? statpower have some true sine wave models that does what you say...charge battery and power device together..but quite expensive i think...their prosine series start around USD2000plus

where got carry statpower products in singapore ah

go do it and if it works...more of us can follow you and u get kopi treats from us

[weileong]

I freight it directly from the US, it was like 7 years ago.

Mine is not the prosine series, just the charger only.

I know there's another brand of invertor that has true sine wave but much cheaper. I'll have to go look again

[Gouldian]

I freight it directly from the US, it was like 7 years ago.

Mine is not the prosine series, just the charger only.

I know there's another brand of invertor that has true sine wave but much cheaper. I'll have to go look again

Bro,

must share leh. keep us posted OK.

[weileong]

checked already, abt US$300. Add shipping etc end up around SG$600.

But if really electical failure then it will save all your LS. I think it is a must.

[roidan]

wat is the brand and model of it? let's go check it out..hehe

[kschew1498]

wah...so disasterous!!! I didnt know that water circulation is so important!!! For half a day you already have so many casualty!!!

DANGER.....

Rodian and Weileong, was wondering if you guys can share with us on your finding?!

Thanks.

[kschew1498]

hmmmm.....was wondering why is this thread posted in this forum title? (The sea horse and Pipefish Forum)...

Anyway thanks for sharing.....

[weileong]

Try this, I found a cheaper one but from UK. In the US mostly their units are for 110Vac and 230vac ones cost a lot more.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.as...202&modulecode=

[alanseah]

hmm seem not bad.. if anyone interested in bulk order.. let me know also...