Disaster Strikes

[SkiFletch]

Over the past 6 months of so my reef has been doing very well. Corals happy, a few new frag additions here and there, but all in all a nice stable tank over the winter. I just made a horrendous error that I hope you all can learn from. If your tank gets hot depends on air conditioning to stay cool in the summer, do NOT neglect to turn it on . We've had an unusually cool spring here and as such I was lazy on using the AC. I didn't pay attention to the weather to note that today it was going to be nearly 90f and HUMID (a disastrous combination for a reef tank coold by evaporation).

Came home to find the tank temp at 88f and the room air at 90! . None of my deeper water hard corals are looking well, some are even melting away from their skeletons. I'm probably going to loose my two favorite acanthastrea colonies and my neon green torch. Might loose a 3rd acan, my green/purple australian hammer, orange torch, favites brain, cynarina, duncanopsamnia, blastomusas and worst of all my elegance coral are ALL showing signs of retraction or melting away to some degree. Bout the only unaffected corals are my SPS (go figure), palythoa (shallow water carribean, surprise surprise), and my derasa clam (again, shallow water species).

I've pointed as many fans as I can squeeze over the water surface, dropped in some frozen RO water, lights off, non-essential powerheads off, and have the AC cranking with the room down to 77f as I'm typing this. Tank temp still 88f, won't budge. Thermal mass is an unforgiving mistress that cannot be beaten quickly or easily. Crossing my fingers things look better tomorrow...

So the lesson, watch your temp, things get dangerous beyond 83f for some corals. And DO NOT forget to run your cooling system when necessary.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Oh.. that's horrible.
It's a good reminder though. We're about to have a heat wave, 96 degrees all weekend.

 

[kj23502]

OMG, SkiFletch. I'm soooo sorry to hear that As a newbie to sw, I will take note when I get my tank set up.

I have a bad habit of leaving windows open and not turning on the air until I get uncomfortable

 

[CFC]

Surely with all the money and time invested in a large reef tank having a chiller plumbed in to keep the water temperature stable all year round come sun or snow would be the best practice?

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

gees really sorry to hear about this Ski

I had this problem big time with the last nano and just used a fan over the surface but i wasn't home sometimes and the temp would just shoot right up

Goodluc i hope it doesn't turn out too bad

 

[BecciMac1987]

Just to change the subject- IM FED UP WITH LIVING IN BRITAIN WHILE YOU AMERICANS ARE BASKING IN SUNSHINE!!!! Its still miserable here

 

[BigC]

WOW!
Sorry to hear the bad news Ski, There's not much room for error on the salty side is there. Which inturn can end up costing the earth. I can see now why so many enthusiasts give up when disaster strikes. You really need to cover all the bases when dealing with marines.
Lets know how you get on with the rescue. Hope its not too serious.
CFC's suggestion would seem to be the way forward for the future.
Regards
BigC

 

[bitfishy]

OMG Ski - really feeling for you. unforgiving mistress? Marine feels like a catholic mother to me........... one slip gives rise to endless guilt and never feeling the end its scorn and punishment!! and I thought this would be fun lol. Good luck with the tank, fingers crossed for a comprehensive healing of your charges.

 

[andywg]

Surely with all the money and time invested in a large reef tank having a chiller plumbed in to keep the water temperature stable all year round come sun or snow would be the best practice?

For the most part it isn't necessary, and chillers are ridiculously expensive to buy and run (as in £400 and above for anything above the 30 gallon mark) and you are often working against the temperature of the room. Better is to get fans for the top and to (if necessary) air condition the room (similar theory to why you just heat your fish room rather than each tank).

However, when heat suddenly strikes it can catch you unawares. I lost my nem to (I think) heat and it nuked the whole reef system so I am with you Ski, however I have now got a great FOWLR tank

 

[jeasko]

thought id post this here as it seems kind of relevant to Ski's horror story (hope it works out for you SKI )

Sounds odd but i have always had 2 2ltr bottles of normal water in freezer from when I had goldfish as when the tem got hot the water temp went up and i was always feeling guilty that they may be suffering, so used to keep the bottles in the freezer and used to float one in the tank before i went to work then when i get home used to take that one out put it in the freezer and place the fresh frozen one in the tank, worked a treat, and i always guessed as long as the bottles are clean before i use them i could do the same with my reef if it ever started to get an issue, maybe a thought for any others that have a temp issue, obviously with a bigger tank one bottle wouldnt do a great deal so may need 2 at a time in there.

 

[andywg]

2 litres of ice at about -18 degrees compared to (in Ski's example) a 45 gallon (170 litres) tank which, ultra conservatively will have about 100 litres of actual water at 28 degrees C (83F).

I make that enough to bring the temperature down by something like 1.3% or 0.364 degrees C. In truth, floating ice in the tank is not the best of ways to control high temperature. 2 bottles would manage to bring the temperature down by just over half of on degree C, and that is without taking into account the heating effects of pumps, lights and the room itself.

 

[Musho3210]

Chillers use a lot of electricity, and heats up the room, the heated up room causes the air con to turn on which also uses a whole lot of electricity that brings the heat outside. Unless you make the chiller vent the hot air to the outside, you'd be wasting A LOT of electricity.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Wow SkiFletch, I am very sorry to hear about that. All the time and money put into the reef.

I too am experiencing this heat coming today. I live in Connecticut. I have kept all my windows and blinds shut for the morning. So far it is keeping it somewhay cool inside, but that won't last for long. I plan on turning on the A/C here in a bit.

Well good luck with your tank. I hope that it woks out well and your hard corals survive the heat wave. Keep us posted.

 

[SkiFletch]

Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot. Tank temps back down to the normal 81f with the AC unit set at 74f. Lost both my frogspawns, two acanthastrea colones (my favorite two), and half my elegance coral (it had split in two). Still touch and go are my other two acans, both my favites brains, torch, hammer, bubble, and duncanopsamnia. Keepin the fingers crossed on those guys. Everybody else is doing fine though including the survivng half of elegance coral (phew).

Andy, agree on both points about chillers and ice. The thermal mass of ice is just too small compared to that of the tank. And btw, I'm runnin a 65g with a 20g sump whose total volume after rocks I'd guess to be about 70g. That much thermal mass laughs in the face of ice, evaporation is really the only method of cooling for a tank this size . And you're right about the chillers. Things are horribly inefficient, prone to failure of the condenser, and heat up the room the tank is in. Not a great investment. What I should have done is have a controller like an Aquacontroller to turn the AC on if it sensed an overtemp of the tank... Lesson learnt

 

[kj23502]

Glad to hear that many may make it! Least it wasn't a total loss.