OK folks, REALLY need your help this time.

[jackthestrat]

Last night the house I live in caught fire.

The wind snapped a 100 year old pine tree in the front yard in half like a twig. When the tree fell it took down the power lines to the house. This caused a massive power surge which started an electrical fire in the attic and kept the house without power for about 18 hours. Everyone made it out safely.

The fire department did their thing and put it out before it spread too far, of course this caused a lot of water damage... the electrical issues wreaked havoc on my system and seem to have wasted a lot of my components. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a generator within two hours of the incident, and kept a heater, powerhead, and the main return running on the tank. I got a battery powered air pump running after about 10 hours. I've spent about half my day testing components.

The good:
CA reactor pump, return pump, one of my tunze powerheads, both heaters, skimmer pump, a couple maxijets, and "part" of my light fixture (the t5s) appear to be working. My livestock *appears* to be fine.

The bad:
controller, all controller components, two tunzes and multicontroller, ATO, all my surge protectors except one (that one is only half working), and "part" of my lighting fixture (cooling fans) appear to be ruined.

Now for the questions.

1) I'm going to assume that I should get two new heaters for the system in case there is a hidden problem, these seem to be a common fail point and without a controller to babysit them I'm nervous. Please confirm.

2) I have no way of monitoring pH or oxygen levels. It is probable that carbon monoxide was infused in the tank for the better part of last night. Suggestions on how to deal with this?

3) Keep the light fixture running without cooling fans? Then, see #4 - will the entire fixture be covered?

4) I have renter's insurance, I'm going to assume that the damaged components will be covered under my policy - what do you think?

5) Does anyone in the Woburn area have a couple powerheads, a TLF reactor, and some carbon I could borrow in the short term? I plan to run this pretty aggressively and just do not have the time to drive all over the place.

6) Anything in particular that I should be on the lookout for livestock-wise over the next few hours/days?


Any input is appreciated. I'm running on about an hour and half of sleep, am completely exhausted, and I am going to bed RIGHT NOW. I will keep my fingers crossed that things run well until the AM, but will check this thread for anyone's guidance as soon as I wake up. Thanks in advance.

Matt

 

[Joel A]

sorry that i can't offer much help.. terribly sorry to hear about what happened though.. what a horrible night. I'm sure there must be others who are having major tank issues after that storm.. i seem to have lucked out here in Easton, we got some wind and rain, but nothing near as intense as other part of the state did.

Good luck, i'm sure someone will step up to help you out.. All i could offer is that you should still run your light fixture without fans (just t5's right?). The light fixture just wont be as efficient, and it will impact bulb life a little.. but all in all there are plenty of t5 fixtures on the market that don't even come with cooling fans.. so that will be fine for a while without the fans.. but just remember that the fans will increase the PAR you get from the fixture as well as the life/efficiency of the t5 tubes.. so you'll definitely want to get the bulbs replaced. As far as the ph/oxygen levels and the carbon monoxide issue.. well i don't really know as far as the carbon monoxide goes.. but i would just focus on keeping the water well circulated and any excess CO2 of CO should just gas off i would think?

Can't help you on the insurance or lending out equipment part, but as far as what to watch out for on livestock, just keep the tank heated...i'd see if someone could help you find a heat controller.. or maybe even buy a RKL which is only 99 dollars just to make sure you're temps stay right, i wouldn't personally trust a heater on it's own thermostat, but in an emergency i guess you can't do much else..? But like most disaster situations, keep the tank water moving.. keep the tank heated, and keep the lights on. If you wanted to cut back on your light cycle a bit to sustain health but not encourage growth that might not be a bad thing... if you keep your light cycle like normal you'll encourage the growth of stony corals and what not that will likely eat through your calcium/alk which is the last thing you need to worry about at the moment.

Water changes and carbon are your friends here too.. don't be to aggressive with water changes, but a little bit couldn't hurt after you know you've had some nasty gasses floating around the house.

 

[Muddskipper35]

I know its alittle ways away but Ive got a couple pwr heads and a small pump you can use. I also have some carbon you can have. I'm in fall river. What else ya need?
Renters insurance "Should" cover the equipment.
I also have a ph monitor you could borrow as well.
As far as the fans on the t5 fixture I could probably wire you up a could pc fans to blow air through there tomorrow. This is rather simple as most of the fans are 12 volts anyway. just need to watch the amperage.

Sorry about your luck thats terrible lemme know if you need to borrow any of it.
Scott
774-319-8337

 

[JohnK]

That's terrible, glad everyone is OK.

I woudn't sweat the PH and DO level. Air the house out and both will likely be fine.

If your livestock looks OK, and you have circulation, I'd say get some sleep

 

[Bruno]

Sent you a PM with my number

 

[mahk]

Jack, Im in Woburn, got a ton of carbon packets you more than welcome too, and any of my extra equipment. Ill PM you my number.

-MB

 

[mahk]

Oh yea, I have a bunch of silenX fans already wired that I was going to put on my next system. Your free to borrow them too.

 

[paulthomas]

Yo Matt,

Now I know what happened. :: I'm so sorry bro. Thank God you're OK. Is everyone else in the house safe?

I've got a few Koralia 3s (IIRC), a spare Vortech 40, a TLF reactor, carbon and you can even borrow my APEX while you work on a new controller, if you like. You're more than welcome to them. Though you'd be a guinea pig in regards to testing the APEX. I could probably drop stuff off tomorrow, too. LMK.

Paul

 

[paulthomas]

Oh, I've got a 150, 200 and a couple 250W heaters too.

*Oops, just realized you stated that everyone is safe.

 

[Joel A]

hahah twofly i'll borrow that apex and MP40 whadda nice guy

 

[naturebatslast]

Sorry to hear that, glad your alright. Hope everything works out!

 

[paulthomas]

hahah twofly i'll borrow that apex and MP40 whadda nice guy

But doo... I. Don't. Know. You.



When your place is hit with a catastrophe, lemme know and you're more than welcome to them. HAHAHAHA.

 

[pillowfish]

Matt, we just went through the fire thing earlier this month. You know everything I have to offer equipment and help wise. I've got spare everything minus the controller, but do have a ph probe if you want to use it for peace of mind. Gimme a call in the am, if need be you can move livestock here again.(Chemicals, filthy hydrant water, saturated insulation/mold and all that comes with it is going to affect your parameters in ways you don't expect) Especially since you have an open tank I would definitely suggest trying to limit the amount of exposure to the air inside the house. I have SW and RO/DI as well, Brian will be right down the road in the am and we're only 5 minutes away.

 

[jackthestrat]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and support.

Though appreciated, I'm going to hold off on borrowing equipment from anyone. I'm not sure I trust our electrical enough at this point.

I was able to find some carbon so I should be good there.

If anyone in the insurance field could give me some insight on question #4 it would be appreciated. At this point it looks like the vast majority of the electrical applicances that were plugged in at the time are either completely nonfunctional or have "issues".

 

[mahk]

If you want fans let me know. I have already wired them up, so they are plug and play. Good luck with everything.

-Mark

 

[daveb]

Wow Matt, sorry to hear this. I dont have much advice to offer about the insurance stuff, but want to wish you the best of luck. Let me know if there is anything i can do.

 

[Jessie]

Insurance should cover any non-functioning equipment you can directly relate to the fire/power surge. As long as you can explain how integral the fans are to the light fixture, they will cover that, too.

They may require you to take the larger value items to an appliance shop to verify they are not working and that the cause is the incedent.

Question is though do you have a replacement cost or actual cost value policy. ACV policies hit you with depreciation. Replacement cost covers the full amount of the new item as long as you provide a receipt for your replacement. You'll want to make up a detailed list of models and current prices for the items. And don't throw anything away until you get word from your adjuster that it is okay to do so.

 

[KSC]

Your best bet is to claim every piece of electric equipment that was running. For example,if 2 out of 3 of your Tunzes are fried, there's a good chance the other one has some damage. If they want them tested offer to send them back to the manufacturer for inspection, at their cost. It is your responsibiity to make the claim, their responsibility to either pay or deny the claim....

 

[jackthestrat]

Your best bet is to claim every piece of electric equipment that was running. For example,if 2 out of 3 of your Tunzes are fried, there's a good chance the other one has some damage. If they want them tested offer to send them back to the manufacturer for inspection, at their cost. It is your responsibiity to make the claim, their responsibility to either pay or deny the claim....

This is what I am worried about, things that are damaged that I just don't know about yet. Like you I think that I probably have more things that have issues than I am aware of right now.

The problem is that I do not have backups of everything, and I am worried that if I claim everything and they ask me to ship it for assessment I'm going to be really screwed.

 

[KSC]

Claim everything. When the adjuster comes have everything on the table for him to see. If you have receipts, show him those. If no receipts, just print a copy of replacement costs off an online retailer. If they deny any of the items, email the manufacturer and explain what happened and ask them if they think they should be replaced. The labor involved in testing/fixing these items is probably not worth the insurance companies time/money. They will probably depreciate the items by 50+%, cut you a check for the depreciated amount, and hope you don't replace them. If you do, you should be reimbersed the full purchase price.