Thunderkat
Wed, 1st Feb 2006, 10:21 AM
I bought a new xenia last night, I was so happy I found one that pulsed at a decent price. I promptly brought it home, I took out my drip acclimator (tubing with a valve at the end to throttle to the point where you just get a periodic drop) and started it up on my xenia in bucket. After an hour I took it out and put it into the main tank (forgot about it while studying) and then I shut the valve to the acclimator. It was glorious finally seeing the coral that originally got me interested in salt water finally in my tank. I had seen it before in stores but folks wanted $40 bucks for small frags so I obviously didn't buy any. The one I found last night was $10 for a big frag.
After seeing the xenia in my tank pulsing I go to bed. I wake up at 0445 and get up, I open my bedroom door and hear the gut wrenching sound of a pump running dry. My fuge and sump were empty with their liquid contents resting nicely on my carpet. I unplugged my pump and protein skimmer (also running dry) and put my heaters in my main tank. My main tank had dropped by 6 degrees. I did not want to put water back into my tank until I found out the cause. I no longer had a giant tiger cowrie so no more plugging of my plumbing and causing overflows. It couldn't have been the power going out, if it goes out nothing happens to the water levels. My pump wasn't clogged, and the skimmer still had water in it so it wasn't leaking. The phosban reactor was still running with no leaks.
Then I saw it, my drip acclimator's valve had fallen off and I had forgot to take it off when I was done so it dripped out water until my sump/fuge were empty.
So far I know my Mag Drive pump isn't pumping as much as it was, I don't know the status of my protein skimmer, it looked like it was running. Pressed for time I filled up my tank and threw some salt in my sump. I know that is bad but no filtration or running water for 9 hours could also be bad. My corals didn't appear to enjoy it, the meat coral looked the most distressed.
Hopefully nothing will die, the little shrimp left in my fuge the crab didn't eat were swimming around when the level in my fuge went back up so I take that as a good sign.
Just a little heads up so that it hopefully doesn't happen to anybody else.
After seeing the xenia in my tank pulsing I go to bed. I wake up at 0445 and get up, I open my bedroom door and hear the gut wrenching sound of a pump running dry. My fuge and sump were empty with their liquid contents resting nicely on my carpet. I unplugged my pump and protein skimmer (also running dry) and put my heaters in my main tank. My main tank had dropped by 6 degrees. I did not want to put water back into my tank until I found out the cause. I no longer had a giant tiger cowrie so no more plugging of my plumbing and causing overflows. It couldn't have been the power going out, if it goes out nothing happens to the water levels. My pump wasn't clogged, and the skimmer still had water in it so it wasn't leaking. The phosban reactor was still running with no leaks.
Then I saw it, my drip acclimator's valve had fallen off and I had forgot to take it off when I was done so it dripped out water until my sump/fuge were empty.
So far I know my Mag Drive pump isn't pumping as much as it was, I don't know the status of my protein skimmer, it looked like it was running. Pressed for time I filled up my tank and threw some salt in my sump. I know that is bad but no filtration or running water for 9 hours could also be bad. My corals didn't appear to enjoy it, the meat coral looked the most distressed.
Hopefully nothing will die, the little shrimp left in my fuge the crab didn't eat were swimming around when the level in my fuge went back up so I take that as a good sign.
Just a little heads up so that it hopefully doesn't happen to anybody else.