How Do You Prevent Equipment Fails?

[Ryde]

I'm sure most have seen it by now, but a thread is floating around where a guy had lost "most" if not all of his coral due to a heater failure. This now has me worrying, I would be devasted if I lost my creatures to an equipment failure, (something I can maybe avoid?)

So, is there equipment that you consider very reliable? with safety features etc. If so, what is it.
Are there any early signs that a powerhead, heater, skimmer, etc. are prone to a nearby or soon to come failure?
How do you avoid failures? Are there even any ways?
What are your ways to keep equipment in tip top shape to prolong the life of it?

Thanks, in advance as I'm sure most can benefit from this thread!

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I'm sure most have seen it by now, but a thread is floating around where a guy had lost "most" if not all of his coral due to a heater failure. This now has me worrying, I would be devasted if I lost my creatures to an equipment failure, (something I can maybe avoid?)

So, is there equipment that you consider very reliable? with safety features etc. If so, what is it.
Are there any early signs that a powerhead, heater, skimmer, etc. are prone to a nearby or soon to come failure?
How do you avoid failures? Are there even any ways?
What are your ways to keep equipment in tip top shape to prolong the life of it?

Thanks, in advance as I'm sure most can benefit from this thread!

Human/ neighbours / friends and family.. nothing beats a good old check then a set of eyes, like looking after a cat/ dog or chicken, all the above can video call you and show you anything you wish to see, these 'humans' can also test water if needed and you can control them via 'voice'they are cheap to run, maybe a bottle of wine or beer upon your return of holidays and they often pleased they managed to keep everything alive as they know how important it is to you and leaving it in Thier care
(You can also be monitoring your aquarium life electronically, which may make life easier for 'human')
Best fail safe is human. In my opinion

 

[Ryde]

Human/ neighbours / friends and family.. nothing beats a good old check then a set of eyes, like looking after a cat/ dog or chicken, all the above can video call you and show you anything you wish to see, these 'humans' can also test water if needed and you can control them via 'voice'they are cheap to run, maybe a bottle of wine or beer upon your return of holidays and they often pleased they managed to keep everything alive as they know how important it is to you and leaving it in Thier care
(You can also be monitoring your aquarium life electronically, which may make life easier for 'human')
Best fail safe is human. In my opinion

This was too funny! But in all seriousness a real pair of eyes beats any sensor, well... unless you're hitting the 90's.

 

[BanjoBandito]

After the thread that had the guy lose 80% of his tank due to faulty backup heater I'm beginning to question everything. Thank god I only run filter floss, power head and a return pump along with two heaters.

 

[fish farmer]

Anything can fail, you need a backup to the backup and you need the human intervention to implement the backup... one that can wake up when the alarm company beeps you in the middle of the night.

 

[Ryde]

After the thread that had the guy lose 80% of his tank due to faulty backup heater I'm beginning to question everything. Thank god I only run filter floss, power head and a return pump along with two heaters.

Currently in the same boat. I run 2 heaters recommended for half of my tank size, so one single handily can't cook my tank. And planning to upgrade my wavemaker and return pump in the near future.

 

[Brian_68]

Heaters are the obvious ones that will eventually fail, and have taken down more than a few tanks. Start with that. Use more than one heater at a lower wattage for each so one failure will not cook your tank plus have them run on a backup controller that will cut out just in case the temp gets too high if stuck on. I also have two return pumps if one stops or does not restart on a power loss and I am not there. I have an APEX on my tanks too to monitor just in case then have somone run over in my absence.

 

[a.t.t.r]

Human/ neighbours / friends and family.. nothing beats a good old check then a set of eyes, like looking after a cat/ dog or chicken, all the above can video call you and show you anything you wish to see, these 'humans' can also test water if needed and you can control them via 'voice'they are cheap to run, maybe a bottle of wine or beer upon your return of holidays and they often pleased they managed to keep everything alive as they know how important it is to you and leaving it in Thier care
(You can also be monitoring your aquarium life electronically, which may make life easier for 'human')
Best fail safe is human. In my opinion

Unless your human neighbor friend who is told to only call you and nothing else if something is wrong decided to open the garage door a crack to let the stray cats stay warm and that is the story of how I lost about ~$300k in coral while on vacation. Took me 10 years to get back into the hobby…

 

[Ryde]

Unless your human neighbor friend who is told to only call you and nothing else if something is wrong decided to open the garage door a crack to let the stray cats stay warm and that is the story of how I lost about ~$300k in coral while on vacation. Took me 10 years to get back into the hobby…

Obviously, the friend hadn't ment too. As a safe thing to do would be to call every day, just so your eyes can see the tank. Did the cats get in the tank??? Or did it just get too cold for the heaters to keep up?

 

[Ryde]

Heaters are the obvious ones that will eventually fail, and have taken down more than a few tanks. Start with that. Use more than one heater at a lower wattage for each so one failure will not cook your tank plus have them run on a backup controller that will cut out just in case the temp gets too high if stuck on. I also have two return pumps if one stops or does not restart on a power loss and I am not there. I have an APEX on my tanks too to monitor just in case then have somone run over in my absence.

I actually run to heaters at a lower wattage, other than the backup controller. The return pump fail safe is pretty neat, now you just need to find that person you can call at 11:00pm to save your tank.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Did not mean that in any derogatory term, just meant nothing beats a good set of eyes
You all have beautiful aquariums and to see again one fall due to technology, eyes are best, £500,000 aquarium -£100 aquarium, all that matters is the life inside these oceans we create.
For me, like this instance could of been avoided with just a set of eyes..

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

You wait for a pricing error and buy 10 back ups?

 

[n2585722]

I am not as worried about no heat as I am too much heat. Then again where I am at it usually does not get below freezing too often. I have 2 heaters both 50 watts on a 42 gallon tank. The controller controls them and also the heaters have thermostats built in. Those I have set 3 degrees above the controller setting. I did find out that my tank can survive if it gets below 70 degrees. I live in Texas and we had rolling blackouts that lasted almost a week last winter. during that time the tank did get down just below 70 degrees. All fish and coral did survive. A bad heater may have actually save me. I had added an additional 25 watt heater to help. At times the power was on 4 hours and off 4 hours. Anyway one of my 50 watt heater had gone bad. It was not heating at all. At least after the fact I found it to be bad. It took 2 days for the temp to get back up in range after the power was restored for good. It was below 32 degrees outside during the whole week. Unfortunately it did get cold in the house. It is an all electric home and the there is no heat when the power is off. I would concentrate more on a backup to power off all heaters than a heater not heating.

 

[PeterC99]

They make awesome Controllers such as Apex that can prevent and alert you quickly to potential problems. My Apex has saved me a couple of times and I sleep much better since installing. Not cheap but so worth the peace of mind…

 

[ZoWhat]

How Do You Prevent Equipment Fails?​

You research, read, research, read all reviews and buy high quality stuff from reputable Mfgrs.

If you are buying off eBay based on price, well, you get what you pay for.

Have a high dollar piece of equipment you're not sure about?

Post questions here on R2R..... A lot of members with a lot of years know who the high quality Mfgrs are.


.

 

[a.t.t.r]

Obviously, the friend hadn't ment too. As a safe thing to do would be to call every day, just so your eyes can see the tank. Did the cats get in the tank??? Or did it just get too cold for the heaters to keep up?

this was pre (good)cellphone camera days. And everything was redundant. The only thing they were to do is make sure the power is on and make sure nothing was leaking.
The air tempature was in the 40s this was in Florida I came home to 60 degree tanks. Each tank had a small heater and the room itself had a small heater. Neither of which would have ever kicked on if the door was closed thanks to all the MH. Each tank was run off of two circuits and had 3 days of battery backups.

 

[Ryde]

this was pre (good)cellphone camera days. And everything was redundant. The only thing they were to do is make sure the power is on and make sure nothing was leaking.
The air tempature was in the 40s this was in Florida I came home to 60 degree tanks. Each tank had a small heater and the room itself had a small heater. Neither of which would have ever kicked on if the door was closed thanks to all the MH. Each tank was run off of two circuits and had 3 days of battery backups.

Oh my, sorry to hear.

 

[Ross Petersen]

-Remote camera for when I'm away on vacation (Wyze cam) with a trusted neighbor with a set of keys when I need to call them
-AIO tank (no plumbing, no siphons, less failure points)
-Less electronics = fewer failure points
-Water changes weekly
-ApexEL with power monitoring of some devices; keep a wavemaker on a separate circuit in case/when the Apex fails
-Clean Tunze 3155 ato mechanical float regularly / simulate failures; keep a backup Tunze pump on hand
-Dose alkalinity and such away from the ATO optical sensory (to prevent clogging - big problem in the past!)

Still learning... there are lots of amazing systems out there with crazy back-up features.

 

[xcountryx]

I am running everything on an old reef keeper controller. Not sure if anyone uses these anymore but has worked for me so far. I run 2 heaters on it one for main heat and the other to back up if first fails and drops temp to lower. With my new build I will be adding a wifi camera so I can watch in the middle of the night while I'm sitting in my office.

 

[Ryde]

-Remote camera for when I'm away on vacation (Wyze cam) with a trusted neighbor with a set of keys when I need to call them
-AIO tank (no plumbing, no siphons, less failure points)
-Less electronics = fewer failure points
-Water changes weekly
-ApexEL with power monitoring of some devices; keep a wavemaker on a separate circuit in case/when the Apex fails
-Clean Tunze 3155 ato mechanical float regularly / simulate failures; keep a backup Tunze pump on hand
-Dose alkalinity and such away from the ATO optical sensory (to prevent clogging - big problem in the past!)

Still learning... there are lots of amazing systems out there with crazy back-up features.

exactly what I was looking for! Hope it keeps working out.