Eric Borneman's Tank Wipeout

[Lurchin]

Has anyone read about this? Truly tragic He suspects it may have been sabotage He had rare Acropora's in his tank.

I got a chance to meet him and sign my copy of "Corals" when he came to speak at UMass a couple of years ago at a BRS meeting....(no heat for those who remember!) I was a total newbie but took the time to chat. (Does anyone know if that copy of the talk is still around?) He's a class act and an asset to the hobby.

http://www.marinedepot.com/FORUMS/Topic32610-9-1.aspx

 

[jovreef]

Wow... I truly feel sorry for anyone who's tank crashes like that! but... his post sounds very childish to me, maybe its just the way I read it.

"oh my tank crashed... sabotage possibly (because I'm a coral god and this could never happen by its self) thats it "thows down toys* I dont wanna play anymore!"

How many of us have had a crash and picked ourselves back up and carried on in the hobby?

 

[reefphreak]

Wow..... Thats heart stopping.....

 

[Armando]

Wow... I truly feel sorry for anyone who's tank crashes like that! but... his post sounds very childish to me, maybe its just the way I read it.

"oh my tank crashed... sabotage possibly (because I'm a coral god and this could never happen by its self) thats it "thows down toys* I dont wanna play anymore!"

How many of us have had a crash and picked ourselves back up and carried on in the hobby?

LOL jovreef you're tough!

I know very well the feeling of getting home and seeing a dying full established tank with lots of coral$. It's not easy.

But the whole sabotage thing is kinda weird.

 

[Michael Mota]

I agree with Jovreef,
Seems weird to think that some one would break into his house to sabotage his tank, h'm. I would think it would be more of a mechanical problem than anything else.

 

[RichConley]

Has anyone read about this? Truly tragic. He suspects it may have been sabotage. He had rare Acropora's in his tank.

His salinity was down from 35 to 15. That means thats approximately 60% of the saltwater was replaced with freshwater. Either it was a collosal topoff failure(like RO hooked directly to the tank, and it just kept pumping water in) or he did a waterchange and used fresh instead of salt (he is getting older ) or it was sabotage.

I have a hard time believing sabotage.



Whatever happened,

 

[Armando]

At Macna he mentioned that his wife takes care of the tank when he is away (obviously he travels a lot).

So she is the suspect number 1

 

[Richard]

At Macna he mentioned that his wife takes care of the tank when he is away (obviously he travels a lot).

So she is the suspect number 1

Instant divorce

 

[Greg Hiller]

FWIW, I'm writing some articles for the online magazine ReefKeeping. The subject is tank crashes and how to avoid them. I've heard already of a large number of ways to crash a tank, but I'm going to start a thread to see if there are any bizarre ways I've forgotten about.

 

[jovreef]

I dont mean to sound mean... my heart goes out to him! I've watched 90% of my tank die off with nothing I could do as temps reached 90-95 in my tank once. but his reaction to it just screamed for me to comment on it.

I'm sure he's just probably devastated right now and will come to his senses in a day or 2.

My guess is macanical failure too...

 

[Bidadari]

His salinity was down from 35 to 15. That means thats approximately 60% of the saltwater was replaced with freshwater

The only reason someone will do 60% WC is if there's something wrong with the tank water. Anyone knows how big is his tank?
If it is an outsider, someone must have spent quite a bit of time inside his house to do a 60% water changes, not to mention cleaning up the mess afterward. If it is a sabotage, I am leaning toward someone who lives in the house as well.

 

[Kevin McG]

What a shame no matter how it happened

 

[Liquid]

I agree completely with Jovreef. Knowing nothing about the background, sabotage sounds completely ridiculous to me. Sabotage? Someone would break into your house, do a bunch of water changes with fresh water, clean up, exit without leaving any sign of anything just to kill your tank and corals? I struggle to think why someone would have a motive to do that.

I bet he accidentally did a water change with fresh water, as was previously mentioned. That is the most logical answer, followed by a mechanical failure of some sort.

 

[agent6473]

That's such a short period of time to get that much freshwater into the system given it was of a significant size. very odd.

 

[fishieness]

it is extreamly sad that that would happen to anyone.
but i must say, i HIGHLY doubt it was sabotage....... First of all, why would someone bring the salinity down to kill everything in a tank? Wouldnt they do something undetectable if they realy wanted to ruin the person? If someone realy wanted to hurt him that much, then they should have done something that oculdnt be detected.
and if they did something that wasnt detectable, then he couldnt have thought of it being sabotage because as eric says, his auto top off still worked.
and last and the argument that most makes me doubt it being sabotage...... why the hell would anyone bother to change 60% of his water?!!!! First of all, in a tank that big, it owuld take a lot of water and a lot of time. Why would they take all that time and effort to do it and span it over a long period of time when dumping 2 cups of bleech in the tank would take not even 5 seconds and have the same affect?! It woudl be less effort and less of a chance of getting caught.

Dont get me wrong, it sucks completly, but i dont think i will ever believe it was sabotage, even if they auto top off is working now.

 

[RichConley]

Sounds like the tank is 400+ gallons or so. He said it took 350 gallons of salt to bring it up to level, and that hes done 600 gallons of waterchanges ...

He also said his skimmer drains outside, which makes me think the skimmer overflowed, and just kept overflowing and the topoff kept topping off.

To bring the salinity up alone required 350 gallons of salt. My skimmer drains to the outside, so there would have been a pool of some 400 gallons of water if the skimmer was overflowing and the skimmer was at a perfect skimming level that evening when I got home.

I still think its some sort of equipment malfunction. If you were gonna sabotage a tank, this is way too labor intensive. A bottle of cuprasafe would have done the job just as effectively, and been easier to do, and harder to fix/diagnose.

 

[jovreef]

Ditto! skimmer can easly correct themselves and be running normal by the time someone returns home (happened to me at work)

 

[RichConley]

Ditto! skimmer can easly correct themselves and be running normal by the time someone returns home (happened to me at work)

Aye, once it got down to that low of a salinity, I have a hard time believing it would even be able to get water out of the cup.

 

[Lurchin]

I was cruising the boards on RC and Eric has been a proponent of reef conservation and how our hobby is destroying the reefs and the fish populations...the need for better controls, etc. He published a paper to that effect. There were flaws in the study and it came under heavy attack, especially by those in the marine ornamental industry. If action were to be taken, then that would restrict importation...I think some people would lose serious money. Motive?
I believe this was in the forum "Behind the Industry in RC"

 

[heavydc2]

I bet he accidentally did a water change with fresh water, as was previously mentioned. That is the most logical answer, followed by a mechanical failure of some sort.

How can you guys say he would do that, this is not an amature who would make a supid mistake like that, now I am not saying it was sabatoge, but would actually make a mistake like that? Instead of saying he is childish or saying he screwed up how about just saying that it is a tragedy and prey that something like that does not happen to you.