Bad 2 weeks that want to make you cry

[G Santana]

When it rains it pours!!!
The family had planned a vacation to Vegas for relaxation and meeting the new granddaughter so I was gone last week.
All was going well but before we left my mother in law had a bad seizure and had to be hospitalized and shortly on the heals of her malady my dad had to be hospitalized for something less serious and then one of my best friends wound up in the hospital because of a heart issue he was unaware of.
All this happened a week before vacation.
My sister who always flies up from Florida while I'm away because my folks are elderly came up and as always I gave her feeding instructions for my parrot and fish tank along with instructions on topping off my ato, again she has done all this before.

While in Vegas dad had to be operated on, he's OK getting out tomorrow, my mother in law took a turn for the worst and may have difficulty walking from here on in and I got a text from my friends daughter while on vacation that he passed after a heart procedure.

I was pretty devastated during what should have been a great family vacation.

I come home this morning and went to see the tank, my sister forgot to fill my ATO!!!

I only had a couple of inches of water in the sump, the ATO was bone dry, the temp in the tank was high because my pump was running almost dry.

I was FURIOUS, but because of my dad's situation I said nothing.
I know I have losses in the tank but I was too depressed to take stock plus I had to go to two hospitals to visit the family.


I will handle it tomorrow.
I am just dreading cleaning the algae off the glass to take a close look.
I did feed the fish and they're all alive but I know it's bad.

Sorry to drag people down but as many of you know, unless you have a reefer taking care of your tank during away time, it's a HUGE GAMBLE!!!

Be careful with who you leave your precious reefs with.

 

[Geebs19]

Sorry to hear about all this

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

Dang my friend. So sorry about all that. Thoughts are with you and your family.

 

[Miami Reef]

Oh no!!

I can’t imagine the pain you must be going through, especially with your father!

About the reef ATO, that really sucks. It’s crazy that the years work we put into our reefs can easily be erased with one quick mistake.

I often think about how someone can easily pour bleach or muriatic acid in my tank and kill everything in a second.

 

[kingoftheHiLLpeople]

How was grandbaby tho? Thats awesome and congrats there!

 

[G Santana]

Oh no!!

I can’t imagine the pain you must be going through, especially with your father!

About the reef ATO, that really sucks. It’s crazy that the years work we put can be erased with one little mistake.

This is SO TRUE!!! I have a chalice that I bought that was receding badly at the LFS and over the year and half I have had it made a huge comeback. I saw it and the skeleton is showing.
I felt sick and just couldn't look at any more.

 

[G Santana]

How was grandbaby tho? Thats awesome and congrats there!

She is beautiful!!! Thank you!!!

 

[ZoWhat]

I don't know how to delicately put this other than to say having an Apex and the ability to get texts on your phone to out-or-range alarms and the ability to monitor your tank 24/7 with the Apex App on your phone is priceless

Would I go spending $2000 of a new Apex system? No

But I would look on ebay for a good $500 setup on a used Apex equipment like an Apex Jr with an 8outlet energybar.

You don't need an Apex with all that Trident bullcrap.

You need an Apex used setup to monitor:
* Salinity
* Temp
* pH

What happened shouldn't have happened... but it did. Only thing you can change is how to prepare NEXT TIME

FYI.... I managed my 180g display tank fir 2 straight weeks from Destin FL, 12 hrs away from tank.

I managed EVERYTHING via my Apex except for fish feeding which I paid a neighbors kid to come over and dump food in the tank every day a single 3oz pre-made plastic cup with pre-measured food. Made up 15 pre-made cups.

Neighbor kid would just dump 3oz content, throw away container, leave and come back the next day and repeat

Hoping your loses are minimal buddy....



.

 

[KrisReef]

Sound like Job's situation. I will pray that your reef & family, and friends improve, bounce back, and that you stay strong and calm.

 

[MERKEY]

Very sorry to hear about this...thoughts are with all!

 

[Gatorpa]

Hope the family members are well foremost.

Hope the tank isnt too bad.
How warm did it get?

I was gone for a week to AZ and rigged and extra large ATO reservoir plus and extra 2.5 gallons just in case on a float valve.

We had someone staying at the house but their only job was to feed the fish and care for our dogs.
Had friend on back up if something went amiss

 

[Betex]

That sounds like a crazy 2 weeks man hang in there and sorry about all this . How was it seeing your granddaughter that had to perk you up !!

 

[G Santana]

Sound like Job's situation. I will pray that your reef & family, and friends improve, bounce back, and that you stay strong and calm.

Oh I was calm, it took every once of calm to keep me from wringing my sister's neck lol
She has taken care of the tank several times with no issues for as long as two weeks. I guess my dad being in the hospital really threw her and that is the only reason I said nothing.

 

[G Santana]

That sounds like a crazy 2 weeks man hang in there and sorry about all this . How was it seeing your granddaughter that had to perk you up !!

Best part of the trip was that smile, melted my heart!!!

 

[ZoWhat]

Shop around for used systems like this:

Neptune Systems Apex 2016 WiFi Controller Base Unit Brain Apexng for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Neptune Systems Apex 2016 WiFi Controller Base Unit Brain Apexng at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Billys_reef]

I don't know how to delicately put this other than to say having an Apex and the ability to get texts on your phone to out-or-range alarms and the ability to monitor your tank 24/7 with the Apex App on your phone is priceless

Would I go spending $2000 of a new Apex system? No

But I would look on ebay for a good $500 setup on a used Apex equipment like an Apex Jr with an 8outlet energybar.

You don't need an Apex with all that Trident bullcrap.

You need an Apex used setup to monitor:
* Salinity
* Temp
* pH

What happened shouldn't have happened... but it did. Only thing you can change is how to prepare NEXT TIME

FYI.... I managed my 180g display tank fir 2 straight weeks from Destin FL, 12 hrs away from tank.

I managed EVERYTHING via my Apex except for fish feeding which I paid a neighbors kid to come over and dump food in the tank every day a single 3oz pre-made plastic cup with pre-measured food. Made up 15 pre-made cups.

Neighbor kid would just dump 3oz content, throw away container, leave and come back the next day and repeat

Hoping your loses are minimal buddy....



.

^ +1

Having an apex on the system would prevent a lot of problems.

I have all these safety features to prevent anything major from happening to my tank while I am away:

- float switch in dt to notify me if the tank is flooding and to shut off return pump
- float switch in sump to let me know if water level is changing
- float switch in protein skimmer to prevent overflowing
- float switch in ato reservoir to let me know if it is getting too low
- float switch in saltwater reservoir to let me know if it is getting too low
- temp, pH, and salinity monitoring
- leak detectors
- can detect if power goes out
- can control every single piece of equipment while I am away so the caretaker would not have to be plugging in/pulling out a bunch of cords

 

[G Santana]

Shop around for used systems like this:

Neptune Systems Apex 2016 WiFi Controller Base Unit Brain Apexng for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Neptune Systems Apex 2016 WiFi Controller Base Unit Brain Apexng at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Going to shop around for a new sister lol