Apex warning (and tank emergency)

[MnFish1]

1. How long are you going to be gone for?

2. Do you feel the best bet might be to just unplug the skimmer while your gone? I do.

3. Are you dosing via the Apex, if so how critical is that dosing?

Until Saturday late. Yes I was considering that but wasn’t sure if that was the best idea. I thing is attached to the apex currently. All of the equipment uses its own controllers dosing pumps lights heater. Etc. so hopefully everything is working ok now. It was as of 8 pm last night when the house sitter left

 

[Amoo]

I would have your neighbor give you an idea of the current skimate locker level and make a call from there. If it's got a bunch in there and back to operating normal, let it ride, if not pull it.

Either way you may consider putting whatever is in that locker back in the sump for salinity reasons I mentioned earlier.

So we have Flow, Lighting, Heat, dosing, and hopefully Salinity all addressed now.

Do you generally run carbon?

Do you happen top have any spare water already made up?

 

[MnFish1]

Something else worth considering, You're going to want your neighbor to give you an idea of how much water is now in that skimmate locker. I'm assuming you emptied it before you left. Since it's only been a few days you may consider having him dump what is in there back in the sump as depending on the amount it may have thrown your salinity off, which you can't do anything about now, but at least it will slowly come back in lane as evaporation does it's thing over the next few days.

Yes. The neighbor is more technically aaavy than the house sitter. Im hoping I can do more troubleshooting. Possible he can make some more water. Will have another update hopefully soon

 

[MnFish1]

I would have your neighbor give you an idea of the current skimate locker level and make a call from there. If it's got a bunch in there and back to operating normal, let it ride, if not pull it.

Either way you may consider putting whatever is in that locker back in the sump for salinity reasons I mentioned earlier.

So we have Flow, Lighting, Heat, dosing, and hopefully Salinity all addressed now.

Do you generally run carbon?

Do you happen top have any spare water already made up?

I have a little water made there is plenty of ro. Yes running carbon. Of course we usually have someone stay 24/7 at the house when we’re gone. I was convinced by the wife that !’nothing ever happens’

 

[Amoo]

Assuming you already have carbon running I personally wouldn't run prime. Between the tank's natural filtration, the dead bodies removed and things re-stabilizing I would let things run it's course. Your tank is mature enough it should be able to handle any snail/invert losses you might sustain. Secondly my tank ran 71 for 2 days last year during Irma and things pulled through, so your losses may not be as bad as you're fearing.

Don't forget about the skimate locker, and good luck on what you find when you get home.

And for the record, situations like this are why I refuse to keep any member of this forum on ignore.

 

[MnFish1]

Assuming you already have carbon running I personally wouldn't run prime. Between the tank's natural filtration, the dead bodies removed and things re-stabilizing I would let things run it's course. Your tank is mature enough it should be able to handle any snail/invert losses you might sustain. Secondly my tank ran 71 for 2 days last year during Irma and things pulled through, so your losses may not be as bad as you're fearing.

Don't forget about the skimate locker, and good luck on what you find when you get home.

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated. Will get another update hopefully soon

 

[MnFish1]

He is his housekeeper, I think. He said that when his housekeeper unplugged his apex and replugged it in, he got a bunch of messages. Then he said
that he got his first and only alert when he unplugged it himself.

Random guess: bar fell in the water, he had lots of losses and is trying to pressure Neptune to give him something. I cant think of another reason to be making up so many versions of what happened.

He should concentrate on fixing his tank before trying to defame a company

I wasn’t going to dignify this with any response. The one I was going to give you would not have been acceptable. I will say this. I appreciate you initial attempts to help. The rest of your presumptions and assumptions Frankly completely and utterly false.

 

[TheEngineer]

@Amoo is giving you solid advice. Good luck and I hope you don't have any further losses.

 

[MnFish1]

@Amoo is giving you solid advice. Good luck and I hope you don't have any further losses.

Thanks

 

[MnFish1]

Update. Everything is working on extension cords and surge suppressors. The 4 remaining fish look ok. The lps is closed the sps is not bleached that he can see. The skimer did overflow and the total tank water was low. Ie the ato was empty. He mixed up some fresh saltwater and will add in a couple hours. Pictures later. FWIW. . Plugging one of the lights back Into the apex to test what the problem
Might have been resulted in no power to the light though the apex was lit appropriately. Question. Is there some sort of breaker on the ebb that could have triggered??

 

[Aquavaj]

I would suggest a web cam for next time and check it every couple of hours. They're less than $30 now.

 

[MnFish1]

I would suggest a web cam for next time and check it every couple of hours. They're less than $30 now.

Yeah I was expecting alerts from my apex when the temp went below 78. The lesson is not to be gone more than 24 hours without someone that knows what they are doing in the house. Also if this happened Sunday night which is when I think it happened I wouldn’t wake up every couple hours to check a webcam. But it’s a good suggestion.

 

[MnFish1]

Could it be dirty power that is the issue? Knock on wood, I have had the Classic for a long time and its always worked as designed. Really sucks and I hope the best for you. Maybe worth looking into it?

What is dirty power. I also have had a classic for a long time with no problem on a freshwater tabk

 

[srusso]

What is dirty power. I also have had a classic for a long time with no problem on a freshwater tabk

“Dirty power” is an abnormality in the powerquality that is being delivered to a system. These abnormalities can include low powerfactor, voltage variations, frequency variations, and surges. All electrical systems are based on a supply of power at a certain voltage and frequency.

Basically bad wiring, old wiring, issues at your breaker box or even could be the utility itself.

 

[Veetz89]

You literally said "Additionally the apex only disconnected from fusion when I completely unplugged it myself. That’s when I got my first and only alert."

You used the word "myself". And "I" . And "my".
You cant blame this on a typo.

Worry about the tank now, and about making accusations later. You have not even seen the device you are blaming.

He could have typed it that way out of instinct to make sure that what was done to troubleshoot was a a physical removal of the plugs and reconnection. Give the guy a break, hes on vacation and hes losing livestock. You guys are clearly tearing his post apart. This is an easy mistake when you're in distress.

 

[Amoo]

Update. Everything is working on extension cords and surge suppressors. The 4 remaining fish look ok. The lps is closed the sps is not bleached that he can see. The skimer did overflow and the total tank water was low. Ie the ato was empty. He mixed up some fresh saltwater and will add in a couple hours. Pictures later. FWIW. . Plugging one of the lights back Into the apex to test what the problem
Might have been resulted in no power to the light though the apex was lit appropriately. Question. Is there some sort of breaker on the ebb that could have triggered??

 

[MnFish1]

“Dirty power” is an abnormality in the powerquality that is being delivered to a system. These abnormalities can include low powerfactor, voltage variations, frequency variations, and surges. All electrical systems are based on a supply of power at a certain voltage and frequency.

Basically bad wiring, old wiring, issues at your breaker box or even could be the utility itself.

Thanks - actually no - when our generator was installed this summer all of that was redone - and its a relatively new house. Thanks for the answer

 

[MnFish1]

Update: As of 6PM - things seem stable - the temp is back to 80 - Some of the LPS is opening. The goniopora - which Ive had for 2.5 years is about 1/2 the normal size. Will see how things go today. I sincerely thanks everyone - especially @Amoo for helping yesterday. It was and is an extremely stressful situation. FYI - I have no beef with Neptune - or Apex - The reason that I posted this in the tank emergency was both to get help with mine and to try to prevent others. As many have posted when it comes to controllers - it helps to have redundancy - I have always had that in the form of a person in the house 24/7 watching the tank. I skipped it this time and paid a high price. Whether its an apex - or any other company - have a back-up plan. People probably laugh about 'caring' about invertebrates (coral) and 'mere fish' - but the coral have been nursed along for months to years with a lot of work - the fish all have their own personalities and all got along like a big family. As everyone knows the thought of restarting a project like this is an extremely stressful event. In any case thanks for all your suggestions and help - will update further.

 

[Amoo]

It's no problem man.

Small sidebar. I had to make an emergency trip out of town today as I told you via PM and I was able to have dinner with my mom on the way back through Gainesville (her home area). She has a pet Monkey and the only vet she takes him to is in Orlando. Even UF and the few vets in that area that handle exotics won't touch a monkey. She was telling me how one of her biggest sources of information is groups with other monkey keepers.

I wanted to tell that story, because at the end of the day, that's what we're all doing here. We're all here sharing information and all trying to contribute in the best way we know how. I think we all know how stressful it is when you're miles away from home and your tank is having issues. I honestly believe there aren't many long term members in this hobby who don't care deeply about the things in their tanks. This hobby is expensive and time consuming and when you're watching or hearing about it unfold from miles away it's very difficult to even think straight let alone conjure a rational thought or plan moving forward.

Sounds like things are back on track for you. I'll be interested to hear what happened with the EB8, even if it's via PM down the road.

 

[Dr. Reef]

i have seen this in a very rare occasion where eb4 or eb8 has a trip breaker that needs to be pushed back in due to surge. it dont really trip properly and causes just enough to show leds but no power to outlets. try unplugging the eb8 and place it back in wall outlet and reset the push breaker on the eb8 itself. i hope it fixes it.