Crazy apex alerts on vacation, please help

[GregOyeah]

So we all know how this works, I left for vacation yesterday evening and during the very early hours of the morning this morning I started getting Low salinity alerts on my apex.

From around 2am this morning until now 10:38am, the apex is showing that my salinity dropped from 32.8 all the way down to 18!! My ph is still completely normal, 8.18.

I’ve had my collection cup to my skimmer off for the past few days so I’m grasping that maybe this is just air bubbles getting into the probe.

I have a high level sump float sw that hasn’t been triggered, I looked at the power consumption spikes of my ato and they all seem normal.

I run an auto water change with the dos but I don’t know how that malfunctioning could cause this?? Unless maybe a siphon was created?


If my salinity has dropped THIS low, wouldn’t my ph have at least dropped into the 7’s??

 

[GregOyeah]

My ato is also a Tunze, don’t these automatically shut off after a certain amount of time if they’ve constantly running?

 

[Reefer1978]

Yes ATO should shut off unless the whole tank leaked, which I doubt what happened. Do you have someone close by that can stop by your place to check it out?

 

[Jon Fishman]

Flooded house?

 

[Gareth elliott]

I do not own an apex, but I believe the conductivity probe is one that does go awry more than others(from reading posts here anyway). Do you have the ato attached to your power bar? Or anyother pumps that might be working harder if volume changed. Perhaps you can look at the power consumption graph, if thats the case. Has temperature changed During this timeframe?

 

[vetteguy53081]

If I took a guess , as often as it does, the salinity probe is likely giving a false reading.

 

[GregOyeah]

Temperature has not changed. 79 degrees. Ph is up to 8.23 since the lights have been on a couple hours.

I’m working on getting someone over to the house but it’s the 4th of July, everyone is busy.

The ato power graph on the apex is normal

 

[GregOyeah]

If I took a guess , as often as it does, the salinity probe is likely giving a false reading.

I’m really hoping this is the case, wouldn’t it just drop or rise to it’s crazy level and just hold there though? What’s bothering me is this is a steady decline and still going down, it’s at 14.2 now

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m really hoping this is the case, wouldn’t it just drop or rise to it’s crazy level and just hold there though? What’s bothering me is this is a steady decline and still going down, it’s at 14.2 now

Is there a trusted person that could go to your home and check on tank for you and even text you some pics ?

 

[A-dawg]

How big is your tank. To get down to 14 you gotta add a ridiculous amount of water. The tunze shut off at like 5 minutes or two minutes if you move the pin. My salinity probe after trying to get the air bubbles out last week climbed up to 55 and stayed there for a few days. I had to take it out of the water then put it back. Idk man but i feel bad for you. Probably can’t enjoy vacation.

 

[GregOyeah]

i have a 100gal total water volume. The salinity is down to 5

I’m working on getting someone over the house. I have a webcam that I can pull up of the sump, everything looks normal, but that doesn’t help with a salinity reading. I can just see that the sump isn’t over flowing. Or empty.

Which I guess is a bit comforting. The ato is the only thing that could drive the salinity down this much and the Tunze would cut off after 5 or so minutes. So if there was a tank leak or the Neptune dos created a siphon, then I’d see a low water reading and I’d see low water in the sump on the webcam

 

[GregOyeah]

It’s always the worst case scenario when it comes to this stuff. All the people I have that could come over and check on things are either with me on vacation or have plans elsewhere.

I’m probably not gonna be able to get someone over until tomorrow. Even then, the person I have that could come over is not gonna be able to perform a large water change. So it’s really just gonna be a confirmation of, yeah the tanks flooded and everything’s dead or everything seems normal, but I guess that would at least be able to let me relax

 

[A-dawg]

Since you can see your sump I kinda feel like it’s a false reading

 

[Mical]

+1 on false reading

 

[Entz]

Definitely false reading. A quick check with hamzasreef calculator show you would need to replace 60 gallons of saltwater (at 35ppt) to drop 100g down to 14.

 

[Reefer1978]

Deff seems like a bad probe...

 

[GregOyeah]

Thanks for the help and advice everyone. This has gotta be a bad probe like everyone was saying but you can’t help but let your own imagination get the better of you sometimes.

Oh well, I guess a few adult beverages will take care of that, nothing I can do about it anyway

 

[MnFish1]

i have a 100gal total water volume. The salinity is down to 5

I’m working on getting someone over the house. I have a webcam that I can pull up of the sump, everything looks normal, but that doesn’t help with a salinity reading. I can just see that the sump isn’t over flowing. Or empty.

Which I guess is a bit comforting. The ato is the only thing that could drive the salinity down this much and the Tunze would cut off after 5 or so minutes. So if there was a tank leak or the Neptune dos created a siphon, then I’d see a low water reading and I’d see low water in the sump on the webcam

How big is the reservoir on your ATO? unless its 100 gallons it couldn't drop the salinity anywhere near that low? I hope its a probe error though - I've been in your shoes - on vacation with problems - and its incredibly frustrating - and I had a house sitter....

 

[ScottB]

My conductivity probe acts up often. Be glad to pay more when someone engineers something better.

With Temp, Ph and sump level normal, I agree with the consensus. @Entz math work also nails it. ORP also normal I presume?

@GregOyeah lets get an LDK on there too before next vacation Saved my butt > once.

 

[GregOyeah]

Leak detection kit sounds like a great idea after this