Made a HUGE rookie mistake, almost disaster!

Yeah, picture a topless guy with his head under a fish tank at 11:15pm, contemplating hollering for his wife (who is in bed) to quickly get a hose and a bucket to drain some water from the tank, at the risk of waking his 20 month old son and visiting parents.

I have had a few spills, but no more than a gallon or two. THIS could have been alot worse...

 

my 60g shattered atthe bottom cuz i didnt place the rocks on the glass first nor place an eggcrate under the rock, even my ato was empty, luckily i had my stuff in the garage and all i did was open the garage door and all the water spewed into the street and i wiped and fan out m garage

 

Happens to the best of us. I've added float switches to my controller to shut off my return pump if the main display ever begins to overflow. Can't be too cautious. Just one of probably many "live and learn" situations.


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It wouldnt be my wife I would be waking up..it would be a grizzly bear!

Glad you resolved your situation and nothing to serious happened.

 

Couldn't have described it better myself. I've been there, feeling like the blood is draining from my body, mind racing trying to figure out what to do before it happens. Nothing gets the heart pumping like sheer panic .

 

How long after that did it take you to get back to sleep? lol
It is good to post these type of things. You are right someone will have this post flash thru their mind before they drop that snail.

 

ah yes... Flood stories. My first, i had been re-arranging some of the plumbing from the DT overflow. Walked away, got ready for work, walking towards the door and as soon as i stepped next to the tank i heard/felt that unmistakable "squish" sound! Apparently i didn't secure the drain pipe properly and it shifted, pumping out a good couple gallons onto the floor. Mind you i was on my way out the door to work when this happened.
Second, much worse... I can't remember what exactly caused it this time, i believe it may have been a pluming and or design failure of my DIY overflow which drained my sump completely (aprox 10g), burned out my pumps, and darn near spelled the end for me... Was broke at the time and about 4-6 months later when i realized my damsels were still pulling strong (with 0 flow mind you) finally decided to rebuild. Had i think one more minor spill since then but barely worth mentioning.
Oh, and that second one there... found out by getting a call from the apartment maintenance saying your tank is overflowing... Was out of town and i knew there was nothing i could do. Amazingly they never charged me for damages. Wonder if their pet policy has changed since then...

 

Guess i'll share this one too... My employer at the time had decided to put in two 125 in wall tanks at the office. I suggested that they install an ATO of some sort to handle the evaporation when i noticed that it wasn't part of the current plan. So they did, unfortunately, the pressure was to high for the type of tubing that they ran to it. (i didn't install it!) During the night, one of the fittings gave way and it started spewing water allll over the place. Spraying over the top of the tank, some how not causing an electrical nightmare, and more remarkably not affecting the SG of the tank by too much.

 

Haha, thanks all, you're making me feel better. It definitely did take a little while for my wife and I to fall back asleep...

 

Try this: http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/diy-display-tank-overflow-return-pump-kill-switch-105442.html

Saved my butt once again last night when a snail found its way where it shouldn't have been. The best $40 I've spent yet.