Welcome to 2012, I certainly did not expect to start this year off with a bang !
At about 2h30 this morning, I heard a loud cracking noise which sounded like a fire cracker going off, followed by splashing watter. At first I thought we had popped a geyser, but as soon as I arrived in the lounge area, I was met with a stream of salt water gushing from our DT - 1,800x600x800
There was water everywhere, and my first instinct was to save my Profilux 3ex and in do doing, try and cut the power on the Battery backup Power Unit which consists of 2 x 12 Volt Deep Cell Battries connected to an Invertor.
The danger in doing this was that I was sitting down in one inch of saltwater on the tiled floor trying to disconnect the battery supply to the Invertor, because if the main Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker tripped, the Invertor would automatically kick in and supply the system with 230 volt power with no Earth Leakage option available. In other words you can't switch the power source off. Note to self - Build an earth leakage in on the battery backup system on our next installation.
Fortunately I was able to remove the cable from one of the batteries and in so doing, deactivate the Invertor. - Could have been fatal...
We spent the next six hours mopping up the 1,000 liters of salt water. Our house now smells like the seaside !
I managed to get the live rock, corals and fish into the sump below, albeit that it was a rather tight fit. Sofar so good, but I guess time will tell.
At this point in time, I believe we will start all over again, but most likely with a slightly smaller DT - perhaps 1,500x650x650 or so...
I guess we all have a disaster some time or other during this hobby. I just hope that ours is behind us.
I have attached a few pics of the unhappy event...
Have a great 2012 - I am certainly not going to allow this setback to get the better of me...
Take care now
Regards
ATHOL
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Marine Aquariums of South Africa
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Marine Tank Burst !
Posted: January 4th, 2012, 9:33pm CST by athol@irender.co.za