HELP: I don't Know what to Do!

[Adam Stone]

Okay here is the story.

Today I got out of after school help at college and my mom starts telling me our house almost burnt down. That there was firemen and the said " it was just smoke but it could have been alot worse", "that we could have lost our house," and then my mom tells me "I have to BREAK DOWN my tank", so this really sucks only having the tank set up for a few months, and Now I gotta find someone to buy my stuff, Its all in good condition ect; but its going to be worth about half of what i paid; also i put at least 1,300 dollars into the hobby any ideas on where I can sell my stuff everyone?

 

[Moe_K]

Sorry about your luck - that sucks!
Did your tank start the fire or something?
Or is the house in such bad shape that you've got to move out?

 

[~Flighty~]

Was the fire caused by the tank? Maybe give it a little time. I bet your mom was pretty scarred. I would suggest paying for an electrition to check out the whole setup and give it an OK.

 

[Scarfish]

I'd try and part it out. you could probably get more than half than what you paid for it.

start with the livestock/corals...what do you have?

 

[davidrupe]

Ouch...More details...what caused the smoke. I think you can convincer her it won't happen again...

 

[~Flighty~]

I'd try and part it out. you could probably get more than half than what you paid for it.

start with the livestock/corals...what do you have?

Shame on you, jumping on the chance to get cheep stuff before the smoke even clears. Bad pun

 

[jango]

that sucks!!!
if you end up needing to sell post here in one of the selling forums,but was it your tank that was smoking.if it was couldnt you fix the problem.

good luck i hate to see anyone lose there tank

 

[Scarfish]

Lol !

 

[Adam Stone]

My tank overflowed and caused it to smoke, cause alot of water got on the surge protector

 

[Moe_K]

Ah ha.
Do you think there's a chance she'd ease up in time?
It sucks to have to get rid of the tank.

I'm thinking overflowing saltwater caused a short circuit?

 

[Adam Stone]

somehow it overflowed

 

[NateHanson]

Maybe you could have a more experienced reefer come by to look at your set-up, and make suggestions on how to prevent overflows. Getting some help like that might put your mom at ease.

Nate

By the way, did you manage to get the tank running again? If there isn't some circulation and filtration immediately you might not have much surviving livestock to sell in a day or two. It should be ok without lights for a couple days (I would think), but maybe you should sell the corals quickly if you aren't going to be able to keep the tank.

 

[Adam Stone]

Maybe you could have a more experienced reefer come by to look at your set-up, and make suggestions on how to prevent overflows. Getting some help like that might put your mom at ease.

Nate

that would be nice, because she won't even listen to any of my suggestions but I don't really know if she would change her mind though

 

[~Flighty~]

Did this happen with a GFI (ground fault interupt) ? These are a must to have on all outlets that have a chance of wires in saltwater in the event of a catastrophic leak (think tank breaking). It could save your life.

 

[Adam Stone]

I thought it had em

 

[NateHanson]

What do you mean by "it".

Ground Fault Interuption is either in the wall outlet (the kind of outlets with the two buttons, like you see next to your bathroom sink) or in the breaker box. (An outlet in your living room is not likely to be on a GFI breaker unless you specifically put one in.)

 

[Adam Stone]

well my basement has "trip box"

 

[~Flighty~]

They also make gfi boxes that plug into an outlet. I don't know how good these are compared to a wired outlet, but thats what we have on an outlet not likely to get wet in the event of a catastrophy.

 

[Adam Stone]

well my buddy told me to mount a New Surge protector to the side of the stand or whatnot so that water couldn't get to it...The outlet itself is a 2 prong outlet and needs a adapter for the surge protector

 

[NateHanson]

You have a circuit breaker panel in the basement. And each circuit in your house has a breaker which trips if it draws too much current. A GFI breaker or outlet is a special kind of breaker that senses when electricity is shorting to the ground prong of your outlet, for example if saltwater makes an electrical connection between the hot slot and the ground slot on your power strip.

The easiest way to get GFI protection around your tank, is to replace the outlet under your tank with a GFI outlet (about $20, I think). You can hire an electrician, or if you know someone who's comfortable with basic wiring they can do it for you quite simply.