smoleral
New Member
So I went on vacation this past week to Hawaii (which was amazing btw, if you are a reefer I recommend going at least once in your life). I was gone for a total of 9 days. Before I left, I had everything in order - I hadn't changed or added anything to my 90 gallon reef in about two weeks, which is a precaution that the pros recommend for the sake of keeping everything stable and ordinary while away. The only thing that I changed was my ATO reservoir. I had a friend swing by the house every other day to check on the house and to add some frozen food to the tank, but nothing else needed to be done on his part.
Here are some of the specs of my tanks equipment, but more importantly the devices that helped me to leave on vacation without stress:
I switched my ATO reservoir to a 27 gallon plastic storage bin that I got for less than $10 at Lowe's. It's not the most beautiful thing in the house but while you're gone, a container this size ensured that my friend wouldn't have to lift any jugs of water while I'm gone to refill the reservoir. My tank is moderately remote controlled and automated - I have all of my equipment plugged in to a Kasa smart power strip, which is the single best investment you can make if a tank controller such as an Apex is not in your budget. For $50 you can remotely turn equipment on and off, and set schedules and timers for individual outlets, all from a user-friendly app on your phone. One feature that I really like (and is not mentioned enough) is that it gives you real-time and historical data of power consumption for each individual outlet. This feature is great because the power consumption will let you know if there is equipment that is not working properly or not turning on. While on vacation, I made it a point to check the power consumption of my equipment at least once per day, and if I saw that each outlet was drawing power, then I could assume that my equipment was working properly. Other things that helped me keep a peace of mind while away was my inkbird temperature control, which will automatically turn on heaters and fans as needed, as well as an automatic feeder that dispenses pellet food once per day. I have a sensor to turn off my skimmer if the collection container fills up too high, and I even have an air temperature monitor to see what the temperature of the house is (I live in Florida where air conditioning failures are prevalent and deadly to the tank). I have one filter sock that my tank overflows into, and my goal while on vacation was to make my friend's job as easy as possible. He has little experience dealing with reef tanks or sumps, and I wanted to keep his hands out of the tank for the duration of my trip. The filter sock clogs up at around the 5 day mark, so what I did was cut a large hole around the top ring of the sock. The hole was about 2 inches long and vertical. This eliminated the need for him to switch out the sock while I was gone. When the sock clogged up from bottom to top, the water starting pouring out of the hole that I cut and back into the sump. Most sumps are designed so that a sock overflows back into the sump (mine is also designed this way), avoiding any catastrophic spills onto the floor, but I wanted to really make sure that no catastrophes like this would happen, and the hole also helped to ensure that the water flow into the sump would be unrestricted. Most importantly above all else, I bought three Kasa security cameras that can rotate 360 degrees. These cameras all connect to the same app that I control the system's equipment which is nice. Only one camera is actually pointed into the display tank, while the other two cameras were attached underneath, allowing me to remotely monitor everything going on in the sump, which is almost always where something is most likely going to go wrong. The cameras below also allow me to see the LCD screens of my inkbird and house temperature, so I could remotely see temperatures without having to spend extra money on temperature control units that connect to wifi. If you decide to replicate anything that I've done here, the cameras are the life-saver. By installing just one camera beneath the tank, you can rotate it remotely on the app and watch your equipment in HD; it really was the stress saver of all time for me.
All of my equipment has been running for about a year now with zero failures, that was until the reefing Gods heard that I would be leaving for 9 days. On my fifth day of vacation, I logged in to my camera that points at my main display only to see millions of micro bubbles being pumped into the water from my return pump, and immediately I knew that something was wrong. I then logged into my cameras beneath my tank and saw that the water level in the sump was extremely low, and the return pump was partially exposed to the air. Using a separate camera that is in my house, I could see that there was no water on my living room floor, so I cancelled out the possibility of there being a leak. This narrowed the problem down to an ATO failure. Using my app, I restarted the ATO computer a couple of times by remotely switching the outlet on and off, but to no avail, the ATO was not pumping any water into the system. The first thing that I did was remotely shut off the protein skimmer. This was an effective first response - as many of you already know, the skimmer itself holds a couple gallons of water in its body, and by turning it off, this water flushes back into the sump, raising the water level by a couple of inches. In my case, it was enough to submerge the return pump back under water and stop it from running dry. Had I not caught this problem when I did, the return pump would've most likely failed which would have been a catastrophic and costly problem. It wasn't long before I was able to get my friend to make an emergency visit to the tank. After he plugged and unplugged the ATO a few times, as well as cleaning the ATO pump, we determined that some part of the system, whether it be the pump or the computer, was just broken. Before he left the house, I had him put about 3 gallons of RODI into the tank. The slight but sudden drop in salinity might have stressed the tank for a bit, but I needed to buy myself some time of evaporation before I could get a new ATO system delivered. I was able to overnight ship a new system to the house, and I walked him through the setup process via facetime then next day and we were soon back to a self sustaining tank. Normally I would have just ordered a new pump for the ATO or individual parts, but being that I was 5000 miles away for another 4-5 days, I didn't want to take a chance of making a mistake in our troubleshooting and having to wait again for a different part. Instead, we installed an entirely new ATO system.
What did I learn?
I have a few takeaways from this experience.
-The first being that the strange coincidence of things going wrong while you're on vacation is 100% true. Like I said, I have never previously experienced an equipment failure. It wasn't until I was halfway around the world that my tank almost ran dry and collapsed. So my take away is to expect things to go wrong when you are gone. As BRS has stated many times, at some point, every single piece of equipment from your tubing to the silicone seams holding your glass together will fail at some point in time.
-Have a trustworthy, intelligent friend that would drop what they're doing at a moment's notice to help you out. When I called my friend, it was past 12AM EST and he was getting ready to go to bed. He still dropped what he was doing to head to my house. It doesn't have to be someone with reefing experience! My friend has a lot of experience with animals and freshwater tanks, but like I said, his experience with the reef hobby and the equipment involved is quite limited. He was still able to troubleshoot my issue and ultimately solve my problem. There is no amount of money spent on high-end equipment or aquarium computer/controllers that could have solved my issue.
-Invest in high quality equipment and surveillance. However, invest is a strong word. All of the remote-controlling equipment I own was bought piece by piece over time, but pretty much all of it was in the $30-$60 range. So remote controlling your tank doesn't have to be expensive (thanks to Amazon) and can save your tank. The cameras were crucial in identifying what went wrong before my friend arrived, and the smart power strips allowed me to troubleshoot from across the globe.
-Lastly, have a backup plan for your most vital equipment. The key here is "most vital". Determine what pieces of equipment your tank cannot survive without, and invest in replacements. These will be like insurance, where you hopefully never really need to get your money's worth, but when you do, you'll be thanking yourself. For me, the ATO and the return pump is the most vital. If all else failed, the tank would still be limping along with those two items and would survive until I returned from my trip. I have a second return pump in the mail now, so that when my current one ultimately fails, I will be ready.
Here are some of the specs of my tanks equipment, but more importantly the devices that helped me to leave on vacation without stress:
I switched my ATO reservoir to a 27 gallon plastic storage bin that I got for less than $10 at Lowe's. It's not the most beautiful thing in the house but while you're gone, a container this size ensured that my friend wouldn't have to lift any jugs of water while I'm gone to refill the reservoir. My tank is moderately remote controlled and automated - I have all of my equipment plugged in to a Kasa smart power strip, which is the single best investment you can make if a tank controller such as an Apex is not in your budget. For $50 you can remotely turn equipment on and off, and set schedules and timers for individual outlets, all from a user-friendly app on your phone. One feature that I really like (and is not mentioned enough) is that it gives you real-time and historical data of power consumption for each individual outlet. This feature is great because the power consumption will let you know if there is equipment that is not working properly or not turning on. While on vacation, I made it a point to check the power consumption of my equipment at least once per day, and if I saw that each outlet was drawing power, then I could assume that my equipment was working properly. Other things that helped me keep a peace of mind while away was my inkbird temperature control, which will automatically turn on heaters and fans as needed, as well as an automatic feeder that dispenses pellet food once per day. I have a sensor to turn off my skimmer if the collection container fills up too high, and I even have an air temperature monitor to see what the temperature of the house is (I live in Florida where air conditioning failures are prevalent and deadly to the tank). I have one filter sock that my tank overflows into, and my goal while on vacation was to make my friend's job as easy as possible. He has little experience dealing with reef tanks or sumps, and I wanted to keep his hands out of the tank for the duration of my trip. The filter sock clogs up at around the 5 day mark, so what I did was cut a large hole around the top ring of the sock. The hole was about 2 inches long and vertical. This eliminated the need for him to switch out the sock while I was gone. When the sock clogged up from bottom to top, the water starting pouring out of the hole that I cut and back into the sump. Most sumps are designed so that a sock overflows back into the sump (mine is also designed this way), avoiding any catastrophic spills onto the floor, but I wanted to really make sure that no catastrophes like this would happen, and the hole also helped to ensure that the water flow into the sump would be unrestricted. Most importantly above all else, I bought three Kasa security cameras that can rotate 360 degrees. These cameras all connect to the same app that I control the system's equipment which is nice. Only one camera is actually pointed into the display tank, while the other two cameras were attached underneath, allowing me to remotely monitor everything going on in the sump, which is almost always where something is most likely going to go wrong. The cameras below also allow me to see the LCD screens of my inkbird and house temperature, so I could remotely see temperatures without having to spend extra money on temperature control units that connect to wifi. If you decide to replicate anything that I've done here, the cameras are the life-saver. By installing just one camera beneath the tank, you can rotate it remotely on the app and watch your equipment in HD; it really was the stress saver of all time for me.
All of my equipment has been running for about a year now with zero failures, that was until the reefing Gods heard that I would be leaving for 9 days. On my fifth day of vacation, I logged in to my camera that points at my main display only to see millions of micro bubbles being pumped into the water from my return pump, and immediately I knew that something was wrong. I then logged into my cameras beneath my tank and saw that the water level in the sump was extremely low, and the return pump was partially exposed to the air. Using a separate camera that is in my house, I could see that there was no water on my living room floor, so I cancelled out the possibility of there being a leak. This narrowed the problem down to an ATO failure. Using my app, I restarted the ATO computer a couple of times by remotely switching the outlet on and off, but to no avail, the ATO was not pumping any water into the system. The first thing that I did was remotely shut off the protein skimmer. This was an effective first response - as many of you already know, the skimmer itself holds a couple gallons of water in its body, and by turning it off, this water flushes back into the sump, raising the water level by a couple of inches. In my case, it was enough to submerge the return pump back under water and stop it from running dry. Had I not caught this problem when I did, the return pump would've most likely failed which would have been a catastrophic and costly problem. It wasn't long before I was able to get my friend to make an emergency visit to the tank. After he plugged and unplugged the ATO a few times, as well as cleaning the ATO pump, we determined that some part of the system, whether it be the pump or the computer, was just broken. Before he left the house, I had him put about 3 gallons of RODI into the tank. The slight but sudden drop in salinity might have stressed the tank for a bit, but I needed to buy myself some time of evaporation before I could get a new ATO system delivered. I was able to overnight ship a new system to the house, and I walked him through the setup process via facetime then next day and we were soon back to a self sustaining tank. Normally I would have just ordered a new pump for the ATO or individual parts, but being that I was 5000 miles away for another 4-5 days, I didn't want to take a chance of making a mistake in our troubleshooting and having to wait again for a different part. Instead, we installed an entirely new ATO system.
What did I learn?
I have a few takeaways from this experience.
-The first being that the strange coincidence of things going wrong while you're on vacation is 100% true. Like I said, I have never previously experienced an equipment failure. It wasn't until I was halfway around the world that my tank almost ran dry and collapsed. So my take away is to expect things to go wrong when you are gone. As BRS has stated many times, at some point, every single piece of equipment from your tubing to the silicone seams holding your glass together will fail at some point in time.
-Have a trustworthy, intelligent friend that would drop what they're doing at a moment's notice to help you out. When I called my friend, it was past 12AM EST and he was getting ready to go to bed. He still dropped what he was doing to head to my house. It doesn't have to be someone with reefing experience! My friend has a lot of experience with animals and freshwater tanks, but like I said, his experience with the reef hobby and the equipment involved is quite limited. He was still able to troubleshoot my issue and ultimately solve my problem. There is no amount of money spent on high-end equipment or aquarium computer/controllers that could have solved my issue.
-Invest in high quality equipment and surveillance. However, invest is a strong word. All of the remote-controlling equipment I own was bought piece by piece over time, but pretty much all of it was in the $30-$60 range. So remote controlling your tank doesn't have to be expensive (thanks to Amazon) and can save your tank. The cameras were crucial in identifying what went wrong before my friend arrived, and the smart power strips allowed me to troubleshoot from across the globe.
-Lastly, have a backup plan for your most vital equipment. The key here is "most vital". Determine what pieces of equipment your tank cannot survive without, and invest in replacements. These will be like insurance, where you hopefully never really need to get your money's worth, but when you do, you'll be thanking yourself. For me, the ATO and the return pump is the most vital. If all else failed, the tank would still be limping along with those two items and would survive until I returned from my trip. I have a second return pump in the mail now, so that when my current one ultimately fails, I will be ready.
