What to do when the tank is crashing from failed gear, metals, & plastic
- Feb 25, 2024
- Anshika Mishra
- 106 0 0
Old Rusy Gear
It's not uncommon for magnet cleaners to explode in the tanks, heaters to crack or explode, plastic gears to melt, and seals and pumps to fail. But do these gears, including plastics, leech over time? It's not directly related, but it's true that small hands drop coins or something undesirable into the tank.
We don't have the answer to whether plastics leech anything harmful over the years. Water is the universal solvent, so it's possible on a long enough timeline. But it also has some low-grade gears and plastics.
Both are likely a moot point with any reasonable water change schedule. The rest of those major equipment failures can result in a catastrophic pollutant. It is the type of thing where the tank can have hours to days from even before it's a total crash.
The best option here is preventative as well. That is bi-annual maintenance. Set the gear up in a manner where it can be manually removed and run in a bucket of citric acid without messing with the cords.
It cares for the gear that's not caked and precipitated. Working into these is much less likely to wear, leak, or break catastrophically. Second, it's a natural inspection point. If you have something suspect, it's time to replace the gear and not try to squeak a few more months out of it.
Those who prevent these types of events have a much higher success rate. No one wants to buy replacement powerheads, returns, or heaters. But we all want crashes less. And the fact that everything is run 24/7 submerged in corrosive seawater has a usable life.
When something goes wrong?
What if, despite best practices, something significant still likely goes wrong? If you can see immediate adverse effects in the corals, change out as much water as possible. More substantial changes if the problems are aggressive. One of the biggest challenges is heating water can be slow, and temperature is essential to match.
For less aggressive instances, a 35% change is a more reasonable size for most people to produce, heat quickly, and less likely to cause any stress.
Sometimes, water changes are not an option. In that case, you can use the poly filter. However, you can also use resin-based filter media.
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