I tripped a breaker

[Paul B]

So I am sitting in my basement watching my fish as they were watching me and all of a sudden the lights go out. I was an electrician for 40 years and I can count on one hand how many times my circuit breaker tripped in my house while I was not doing anything like leaf blowing, arc welding or running some heavy equipment. So I look around and I was mixing up some saltwater and in that 30 gallon tub I have a powerhead and 3 heaters.
So before I turn back the breaker I figured it must be one of the heaters. It's always a heater. So I lift one and it is fine, I lift the second one and it is fine. Then I remove the third one and it is all black and scurvy inside and it is full of water. As I am looking for a crack on the glass, it dawned on me. The crack wasn't in the glass, it was in my head. That heater was "not" a submersible heater. It used to have a bracket on the side to hang it on the side of the tank. Like Duh. I have like 8 heaters and I just pick out a few, plug them in and throw them in a tub of water. I should have realized it wasn't submersible when it floated. I even got a big 1/2' nut and rubber banded it to the thing to keep it underwater.
It's just great getting old.
So now I have a spare, large test tube that I can make a really small Nano tank out of :smoker:

 

[cmantis]

Ha I did that the other day! But I didn't have the wisdom or insight to turn it into a nano. I can't wait until I reach that age!

 

[Paul B]

It will make a good nano, for an eel

 

[mrdobie]

senior moment. brain fart. half hiemers. we all have it.

 

[Paul B]

That heater was from my freshwater days and was kind of old. I even have older ones that worked by steam. I still find marbles in my tank as some of that stuff has been in my tank from when it was freshwater in the 50s and 60s. Remember my tank was not started as salt. It was fresh, then I added salt and it was brackish, then saltwater fish came out and I added more salt to make it a reef. If I look under my gravel I may find some 45s from Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons. Probably "Big Girls Don't Cry" or one of the other top tens.