Lost an entire basement's worth of fish

[four_by_ken]

Well, disaster struck last weekend.  Everything I had in the basement is lost.

I have been working long hours and its quite cold outside.  The circuit breaker must have tripped and unfortunately I took a day away from the fish and didnt go into the basement.

No heat in the tanks and no filters running in well stocked tanks... all dead.

So depressing to see them all dead.

Some have had from the start and finally were grown out, others I looked for a year or more to find.

All the fish in my mixed tank... all that were in the wife's tank... 50 Ruby Green fry that were just to coloring up size, breeder group of Peacocks... and worst of all... the Alto Muzi that I we had been growing for about two years.

Dont know what to do with the basement tanks now.

[Steve]

It sucks Ken, I know the feeling all too well myself, it is a really depressing thing to happen. Take a bit of time to decide what you want to do.

[Regalblue]

Just turrible!

[Ron]

I saw that on the MCA FB group - surprised to see it so long before it got posted on here. Sorry to hear about it in both cases. Do you have a plan of action moving forward or are you taking a break for a bit to think about things?

What was the root problem? Too many things plugged into the same circuit?

For everyone else this is a time to reflect on your own setup. For each circuit you've got a breaker which keeps too much current from flowing through a wire (too much and you've got a fire hazard). You probably have a variety of things to plug in, filters, heaters, air pumps, etc. Some of these are running all the time and some are only on occasionally.

What you need to consider is how many of these devices in the worse can instance can all turn on at the same time and how many amps (A) each uses. Typically the fuse is going to be a 15A or 20A fuse. If your total is above the limit of the fuse, if everything turns on the fuse will cut power and then it'll all be off. If you do this with constantly powered items, ex: filters, it'll be quickly obvious that you've got a problem. If you have a variety of occasionally-powered items, you might be fine. You may never have a problem. Or there might be that one cold night where all the heaters and the dehumidifier kick on at the same time and the circuit breaker triggers, leaving them all unpowered until you can assess the situation. Just something to think about for anyone who hasn't.

[four_by_ken]

I replaced two heaters.  They must have pushed me over the limit when everything is on at the same time.  They must draw more than the two they replaced.  Other than that... same setup for two years or so.

Going to rebuild.  Tanks are all up and running already.

Not sure what is going in them yet though.

Have planned on dividing it up on two circuit breakers from the start.  Guess its time.

[Ron]

They must draw more than the two they replaced.  Other than that... same setup for two years or so.

Another thing I forgot to include in my previous post - if equipment were to short out, it can also pull more amps than originally rated, which might unexpectedly put you over the limit of the breaker (which is a good reason to have a breaker in the first place!).

If you're working on electrical, you might consider also upgrading or adding in a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) outlet. They are more expensive, but a good safety device to have around electrical connections near water. You also don't need to replace every outlet - anything "downstream" from the GFCI outlet will also be protected and cause the outlet to trip if an unexpected short occurs.

I'm not sure if there is such a thing, but would expect it exists ... a device that would alert you if power is lost to an outlet (obviously the device would need to be battery powered or on another circuit) .... or if not, you could build something easily with a relay. Maybe a noise-emitting device or a light upstairs that turns on if power if a breaker trips for the fish area.

[four_by_ken]

at a minimum I am adding a temperature alert. As it isn't cheap, I'll do one tank at a time.

[Bremmon]

If you are running a lot of tanks its much cheaper to just heat the room with 1 oil filled floor register than to run 50 in tank thermometers.

[Ron]

50 in tank thermometers.

You can get thermometers that don't need to be plugged in.

[danielratti]

You can also get battery powered ones with alarms.

[Somethingsfishy]

Sorry to hear you lost so many fish!  Good luck with the new start - it sounds like you have a good plan.