sad day on the reef

borderreef · #1 09/30/2007, 01:15 AM

Came home last night to find one of my 250w de mh mini pendants sitting in the tank. Apparently the heat that transfered from the fixture and into the screws I used to mount the reflector to the hood was enough to "burn" the screw holes larger, and the whole fixture fell into the tank. So far I have lost 4 turbo snails, two cleaner shrimp, a huge xenia colony, a green hammer frag, brain, three brittle stars. Bta released itself and left a slime pile, but it has since reattached to the bottom. It is deflaited, but doesn't look too bad. Hopefully he at least will survive. Just did a 15 gal water change, and will do another tomorrow before I even bother to test. Also running carbon through the phosban reactor. This $***$, especially since I had just begun getting the tank back into shape after the crash during the move to the new house. The light setup is less than a year old from Hellolights, and some of the coral are only a couple months old. The brittle stars came with the new live rock, and before yesterday, the only thing you would see of them was their legs coming out of holes in the rock. I did not even know how many there were until this catastrophy drove them out of the rock.

Scissorhand · #2 09/30/2007, 01:20 AM

darn, so sorry about that.

I should check the screws on mine too, then.

I'm in the same boat, I just screw it straight to the top of canopy.

FOSELONE · #3 09/30/2007, 01:33 AM

big time sucks...

uscharalph · #4 09/30/2007, 02:02 AM

Sorry for your loss.

CruzinKim · #5 09/30/2007, 06:10 AM

Mental1 · #6 09/30/2007, 09:35 AM

Borderreef -- we are not to far apart -- my tank is loaded with brittle stars if you would like to adopt a few ... I am sorry that happened to you.

Hypo · #7 09/30/2007, 12:47 PM

pics?

Engine 7 · #8 09/30/2007, 01:01 PM

Sorry to hear what happened. If nothing else, it gives us all a reason to go check the tank.

filmoholic · #9 09/30/2007, 01:43 PM

your tuffer than me my friend! I'd be ballin like a baby.

hgbarwick · #10 09/30/2007, 02:17 PM

Man thats tough, sorry that happened to you.

A7ESF · #11 09/30/2007, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Engine 7
Sorry to hear what happened. If nothing else, it gives us all a reason to go check the tank.

Exactly. We all hate to hear of problems like this happening, but at least it servers to others as a reminder to go chec those things we might not otherwise think of.

Best of luck with the rest of teh tank, I hope everything recovers.

borderreef · #12 10/01/2007, 09:03 PM

Thanks everyone. Just finished my second 20 gal water change. I sucked out all the dead xenia, and fed the maroon clown. The bta is slowly making it's way back up the rock. It still has not expanded, but there's hope. This afternoon I visited Home Depot and bought an aluminium threshold, you know the type that goes under the door? I am going to mount the reflectors to this using 4 nuts & bolts. This will then be mounted to the hood by drilling through the hood and the threshold and securing with more nuts & bolts. The aluminium should do an excellent job of dispursing the heat. If I get a decent picture I'll post it. God knows it will be the only thing worth looking at for a while. Oh well, third times a charm.