Disaster strikes!

[parrotchute]

So I just had a horrible mini disaster. Guess it could be worse, everything could have died.

I was fiddling down by my tank, got snagged, and accidentally pulled out the "output" of my filter. It just started POURING out into my cabinet, and all over my electrical outlets. I leapt back to avoid getting shocked, and stared for about 2 seconds in panic before running to the breaker.
It was all over the power strips and making that weird electrical noise you hear in movies/tv shows when they show people getting electricuted and everything was pulsing. Then it went dark.

Luckily, it doesn't seem that my tank got any shocking, just my power strips.
I unplugged everything, dried it all off, and plugged in the vital stuff once I was confident eveything was dry. Luckily everything is working....
Doing an early water top off now to replace all that lost salt water.

I'm an IDIOT! Glad nothing died, I figure if they got a shock with all that juice, they'd die right away.

UGGGGHHHHHH. Can't believe how stupid I was. I need a drink.
Alex

 

[RAYRAY]

sorry about you delama but just incase you are still freaking.... dont just top off with freah water!!!!! You probably know this thought......

 

[parrotchute]

Yeah, whipped up some quick salt water with my RO reserves!
Just got the skimmer back up, only thing I didn't plug in yet was the lights, going to bother with that tomorrow.

I think I was stressed out more than my fish. My clown was sleeping less than 3 minutes after it happened, and my heart rate was through the roof!!! (he always scares me when he's sleeping because he hangs there)

Can't find my damsels, but they hide pretty darn well eveyr night any way.

 

[dustin_P74]

good thing you started acting and not just staring or it could have turned bad, quickly

 

[yote]

Dude,You got lucky YOU didnt get fried.
One of THE best safeties for that,is to use GFI outlets.
And like Ray said,you'll need to replace the lost water with salt water to keep from dropping your salinity.

 

[RAYRAY]

I left the top off my skimmer and alomst fried everything too !!!! LESSON LEARNED RIGHT
good luck with everything

 

[Smitty]

Glad to know that you and your fish are safe, don't feel bad, any one of us would have panicked in that situation...you did a good job! and kept a level head during a crisis.

 

[parrotchute]

Yote, sure are right I'm lucky I didn't get fried. I jumped like a kangaroo!
GFI outlets are a great idea - I should install some. Good thing the parents own a hardware store, next time I see them, I'll hit them up.

My heart is still beating hard...that's a lot of voltage.

 

[yote]

Just make up a couple of drop cords with GFIs on em.Thats what I did.That way if one trips,it dont kill power to the whole tank.

 

[parrotchute]

Hmmmm, sounds like a plan to me. Will do. Weekend project after drill!

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Smitty!

 

[messiah023]

Hey, I just saw on Fox News that 1/3 of Boston has lost power due to a mysterious brown-out.....

Hmmm? :-)

 

[Smitty]

that sucks! hope the fellow aquarists have back up power, if not, grab a straw and start blowing bubbles in their tanks.

 

[Bifferwine]

I've been shocked a few times pretty badly by my tank. I eventually figured it out, it was a bad power strip that was all melted and fried. Of course I found that out AFTER standing barefoot in a puddle of saltwater while fiddling with the wet power strip... OUCH!!!