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end of tank disaster!

Stu Worrall

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UKAPS Team
Joined
7 Sep 2008
Messages
2,000
Location
Flintshire, North Wales
woke this morning to a loud buzzing sound in the lounge which sounded like a failed dimmer. Unfortunately i quickly found that it was my FE dumping its load into my tank with the bubble counter squealing like a little piggy :(

My entire shoal of high spot rasbora are dead (about 30 fish) and and two of the four blue tetras were still gasping at the surface upside down. I also lost most of my red cherry shrimp which have been breeding, got about 10 left that I can see, picked out about 20 that were cooked :( :(

After chucking the FE through the window (joking) i did a big water change and left the outlet out of the water to try and get some o2 back in the tank.

The odd thing is its never happened before and ive been through about 4 FE's now on that tank with the SERA reg ive got which is quite a good one. Before now theyve just gone from 50 bar to 0 but this one dropped to about 20 bar and the outlet pressure jumped from 1 bar to about 3 and must have fizzed away all night (i leave it on 24 hrs with a nice surface ripple from the filter)

Im picking up a proper 7lb co2 bottle (a bargain £10 deposit and £10 refill) later from a gas supplier in connahs quay which dave found (cheers dave) so will see how I get on with that but is there anything else I can do to limit an end of tank dump happening again???

im so gutted as the rasboras had grown well from the skinny fellows i bought plus I lost a load of pregnant and baby shrimp :(
 
Oh mate, that sucks :( I bet your wounded, i gassed a load of fish and felt terrible.

I've heard of the final dump from an empty bottle but i've never experienced it and i've used well over 10 bottles.

Thats a real shame mate, i hope you can your remaining inhabitants can bounce back :)
 
God how awful

I hope you can get over it…although its hard, you can always replace the fish, but the sleepless nights thinking it might happen again…doesn’t bare thinking about :( :(
 
I have gassed my fish at least on 4 ocations :( twice with the when using DIY yeast and twice with the pressurized CO2.
when using the yeast solution I run an air stone during the night, and twice that failed due to me leaving it unplugged and gassed the fish :( with the pressurized system once turn it up too much on a day I wasn't going to be in (bad idea) and another time left it on 24/7 by mistake! :bored:
 
thanks all. feeling a bit more positive now. just need to get the tank stabilised and do some more water changes as im expecting some amonia spikes as there must be more dead fish in there that I havent got out unless the shrimp got to them first.

im going to put a solenoid on now so at least if it happens again theres more chance of me being there to see it and I wont be tucked up in bed :(

Paulo you got a PM ;)
 
Im picking up a proper 7lb co2 bottle (a bargain £10 deposit and £10 refill) later from a gas supplier in connahs quay which dave found (cheers dave) so will see how I get on with that but is there anything else I can do to limit an end of tank dump happening again???

hey dude soz to hear about your losses

i have found that when getting low on Co2 the output pressure changes from a stable 1 bar up to 4 bar and that pushes the BPS from 2 for me to god knows what

the best thing i find to do is wait untill you see the pressure in the bottle drop from 55 bar to about 45 and start seeing the output pressure on the reg change. I then just turn the gas off and empty the remainder out side save risking any potential problems.

been going to bumble bee garage in connahs quay for the past 2 yrs for refills now and not had a prob with the gas from there. best thing is its 2 mins drive from my college too lol so just pop there in my dinner time when i need to. :D

raz
 
While I am not working I have the 'luxury' of monitoring the bottle emptying and can adjust it as it gets to 0.

While I was working a dodgy needle valve released a whole 600g into the tank in one day. Urine coloured DC and all dead livestock (except for the MTS) of course.

I feel for you and I actually felt like giving up at the time but after a few weeks it probably started me on the 'real' learning curve rather than the half hearted. Not saying you are being half hearted at all. I mean that something like this can make you even more determined :)

I hope you can see some positive too :)

AC
 
Razor927 said:
been going to bumble bee garage in connahs quay for the past 2 yrs for refills now and not had a prob with the gas from there. best thing is its 2 mins drive from my college too lol so just pop there in my dinner time when i need to. :D

raz

I think N. Wales plantheads have been keeping that place going. :lol: One word of warning, though. I took a botlle home from there recently, and when I connected it up it read 120 Bar. Thinking the regulator had broken, I connected it to another, only to get the same reading. It was at this point that introducing the bottle to the warmth of the house took the pressure up to the point where the relief valve went, and filled the room with a CO2 cloud.

I dread to think what could have happened had it gone off when I was taking it home in the car. Get them to check the pressure for you before you take it away. Anyway, I am off to buy some new underwear. :lol:

Dave.
 
lol not had a that happen yet each bottle i had filled normally ends up at a pressure of 60 bar

i know the fella at the garage doesnt like small bottles as its harder to fill them right so he trys to sell bigger 3 kg bottles but last time i was down there he was on about getting 2Kg bottles in with standard connectors fitted. Dont know if he has got them in yet or not.

just to be on the safe side i think this next bottle may be sitting in the shed over night lol 8) dont fancy been woken up suddenly. :lol:
 
just checked mine and its sitting at a nice 50 bar after being in the boot all morning. Got a 7lb bottle, 51cm tall which fits snugly into my cabinet plus its a lot heavier than the FE's ive been using so should get some more out of it. just need to get the solenoid wired up before i turn it on as im moving away frmo having it on 24/7.

will update the "where to buy in wales" thread later
 
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