Main pump is out. :(

["Umm, fish?"]

Well, after a couple of hours of messing with it, it looks like my Dolphin pump has sprung a leak in its bearing seal. Sigh. Always on a Sunday night, right before a day that I really need to work. Stupidly I never got around to getting the backup pump that I need, so it looks like it might be Tuesday before that shows up. It's ordered for overnight delivery.

The basement tanks are good for flow and breaking surface tension. The main tank has the cover off, a large amount of bubbles flowing from an air pump, the flow from the two Tunzes that it normally has, and I've pointed a Nanostream at the surface to break the tension as well.

I turned off the lights to save on heat gain (although that means that I'll gain CO2).

Tomorrow I'll buy some water (sigh) and see if I can find another pump that'll make it from the basement to the main tank and try to plumb it in.

Any other suggestions of things I should do tonight?

Thanks!

Andy

[lion-clown]

The only thing i can think of is to run a fan across the top instead of turning the lights off sorry to here it though good luck

["Umm, fish?"]

Fortunately the temp's still fine for the night at 78 degrees. The fish are still sleeping in their normal spots near the bottom of the tank.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to get some sleep tonight. I just cannot afford to be completely useless tomorrow.

[lion-clown]

Just checkin in seeing how your tank did last night and hopefully you got some sleep. I know it sucks to feel helpless to do anything but watch but hopefully it is ok.

["Umm, fish?"]

I'm up again. I checked it about 3:30 and it was fine. And, of course, I just checked and the fish are still moving around. Woohoo! No repeat (so far) of last time! (And, yes, I am knocking on wood.)

["Umm, fish?"]

I just want to say, "Muir, you rock!"

Looks like everything is still limping along pretty well. Hopefully Marine Depot will ship out today and I'll be able to install the new pump tomorrow morning. Now, as long as nothing decides to carpet-surf before then....

[dworkman]

Hi,

I have a new(er) Dolphin Aqua-Sea 2100 that I am trying to get rid of, should give you what you need for 120gal. I bought it on Ebay for $155, it's yours for that if you want it.

Or if you'd like to plump it in for the night, you're welcome to borrow it...

I am in Boulder too, let me know.

["Umm, fish?"]

Thanks! I really appreciate it, but I run with about 14' of head (I think) and I don't think it'll make it up the hill. (I just checked and the max. head for that pump is supposed to be 12'.) The one I'm running is the 5600.

Thanks again! (This really is a great club!)

["Umm, fish?"]

In other news, salinity change = 1 point over 8 hours. Ouch. Manual topoff accomplished.

["Umm, fish?"]

Christina, I know you hate public accolades, but you rock, too!

I rigged up another pump in the basement just to make sure that everything in the refugiums are happy by connecting them to the oxygenated skimmer water. They seemed to be fine with just bubblers, though. I'm slowly buying salt water from the LFS at 15 gal./trip (all that will fit in the Mini). I hate hauling water.

["Umm, fish?"]

The new pump's been up and running for about 5 hours now. So far, so good. When I first turned it on, some of the corals looked pretty unhappy (and the fish were pretty untrusting), but they're all out now. The pipefish are swimming around and the shrimp still look happy (as representatives of the more sensitive macro-critters). The gorgonian put on a mucus coat, but shed it within an hour or so.

Thanks to all of you who offered help!

[Clown-N-Around]

Aw, shucks.

Glad to hear everything is coming back on line well.