jskeen
Guest
Had an interesting accident with the tank a few weeks ago, and thought I might get around to sharing. I had taken the hood off to do some cleaning, and when I put it back on I didn't notice that a secondary switch from the light fixture had pulled loose, and was dangling from it's wire enough to go into the water when I put the hood back on. (I know, really should pay attention). Anyway, a couple of hours later my son wanders by and mentions "hey Dad, there's a wire in the tank and it's making a sizzling noise." Hmmm, I probably should go check that out. Opened the hood up, pulled the switch out and tucked the wire back into the fixture so it wouldn't get in there again, and didn't think much about it.
I don't think I noticed anything amiss before the lights went off a couple of hours later. The next morning, about half of the xenia in the tank was closed up tight after the lights came on. The GBTA's weren't opened up either, but they usually take a while to wake up, so didn't think much of it again.
I came in around lunch and what caught my attention was that the xenia's that were opened at all were much smaller than usual, were not pulsing, and the crowns were bleached paper white, while the trunks were dark purple, vs the normal light pink with purple edges all over. The nem's were fine, but the light bulb over my head finally turned on. The xenias that were effected the most were all the highest ones, more or less in a direct line between where the wire had been on the left, and the overflows on the right. Lower colonies and the ones farther to the front, were less effected, although none looked great.
Sigh, grumble, grouch and grimace. Have to make up some fresh saltwater so that when I need to siphon out the disintegrating bodies, I can top it back off. Somewhat to my amazement, they all eventually came back, opened up and started pulsing. "Great, now they are going to slowly starve to death for lack of algae. A week later I noticed that the borderline ones were actually turning pink again. Now, around a month later, didn't lose a single colony, and even the hardest hit are back to normal color and almost back to full PE.
Only real effect was that some of the colonies that had been rotated down to the lower sides and bottom of the rock last time I moved it, went ahead and pinched themselves off and started looking for some new real estate. This process was already started when the shock occurred, so at most was accelerated some. Anyway, picked them up, rubber banded them to some LR rubble, and ended up with so many that I had to build a small frag rack to put them on.
Some pretty darn hardy weed coral, ain't they?
I don't think I noticed anything amiss before the lights went off a couple of hours later. The next morning, about half of the xenia in the tank was closed up tight after the lights came on. The GBTA's weren't opened up either, but they usually take a while to wake up, so didn't think much of it again.
I came in around lunch and what caught my attention was that the xenia's that were opened at all were much smaller than usual, were not pulsing, and the crowns were bleached paper white, while the trunks were dark purple, vs the normal light pink with purple edges all over. The nem's were fine, but the light bulb over my head finally turned on. The xenias that were effected the most were all the highest ones, more or less in a direct line between where the wire had been on the left, and the overflows on the right. Lower colonies and the ones farther to the front, were less effected, although none looked great.
Sigh, grumble, grouch and grimace. Have to make up some fresh saltwater so that when I need to siphon out the disintegrating bodies, I can top it back off. Somewhat to my amazement, they all eventually came back, opened up and started pulsing. "Great, now they are going to slowly starve to death for lack of algae. A week later I noticed that the borderline ones were actually turning pink again. Now, around a month later, didn't lose a single colony, and even the hardest hit are back to normal color and almost back to full PE.
Only real effect was that some of the colonies that had been rotated down to the lower sides and bottom of the rock last time I moved it, went ahead and pinched themselves off and started looking for some new real estate. This process was already started when the shock occurred, so at most was accelerated some. Anyway, picked them up, rubber banded them to some LR rubble, and ended up with so many that I had to build a small frag rack to put them on.
Some pretty darn hardy weed coral, ain't they?
