LandLockedJones
Active Member
This weekend my wife and I were out of town up north of Dallas. Murphy’s law had its way with my tanks. I feel as though some beginners could learn from my dumb mistakes.
I have two black storm clowns in a 20 gallon tank, and a 40 gallon softie lps tank. Both had problems and I nearly lost my entire livestock in both tanks.
The 20 gallon, I am not sure how I forgot, but I had the ato(auto-top off) unplugged for some reason before I left. And managed to leave it disconnected for nearly 3 days before we returned.
The heater in the 40 gallon is connected by an Inkbird controller. It received an E5 error code. Which turned off my heater on some of the coldest days this month thus far. For an undefined amount of time, my tank was sitting as low as 71degF. My normal temp is 78.5.
Luckily my father was home and while not a reefer, is very technically inclined. I also had a heater ready to replace my old one. So it was a simple matter for him to solve the heater issue. He even set up the Inkbird app while he was here so he and I could monitor the temp.
Unfortunately, they were only dropping in twice a day for feeding. Therefore, they did not catch it right away, and I found my royal gramma dead when I got home.
So far the only casualty, though a few corals seem rather displeased. They would not have known to check the water level on the tank, because I’ve told them the ato should keep it correct.
Lessons learned. Always make a checklist before heading out. Make sure your top of reservoirs are full and actually powered on.
Talk to whoever is watching the tank and inform them of basic checks like temperature and and where the water level rests. This will hopefully allow them to inform you if there were any leaks or you forgot to power up your ato.
It also highlights the need for redundancy. And the brilliance of app controlled devices. It’s fine when you are home to rely on yourself to catch problems quick. But when you’re 3 1/2 hours away…a back up heater suddenly feels like a better idea.
If I only lose the one fish from this debacle I will count myself lucky. But still does not feel good to find a wet pet getting drug under my rocks by my pistol shrimp.
I have two black storm clowns in a 20 gallon tank, and a 40 gallon softie lps tank. Both had problems and I nearly lost my entire livestock in both tanks.
The 20 gallon, I am not sure how I forgot, but I had the ato(auto-top off) unplugged for some reason before I left. And managed to leave it disconnected for nearly 3 days before we returned.
The heater in the 40 gallon is connected by an Inkbird controller. It received an E5 error code. Which turned off my heater on some of the coldest days this month thus far. For an undefined amount of time, my tank was sitting as low as 71degF. My normal temp is 78.5.
Luckily my father was home and while not a reefer, is very technically inclined. I also had a heater ready to replace my old one. So it was a simple matter for him to solve the heater issue. He even set up the Inkbird app while he was here so he and I could monitor the temp.
Unfortunately, they were only dropping in twice a day for feeding. Therefore, they did not catch it right away, and I found my royal gramma dead when I got home.
So far the only casualty, though a few corals seem rather displeased. They would not have known to check the water level on the tank, because I’ve told them the ato should keep it correct.
Lessons learned. Always make a checklist before heading out. Make sure your top of reservoirs are full and actually powered on.
Talk to whoever is watching the tank and inform them of basic checks like temperature and and where the water level rests. This will hopefully allow them to inform you if there were any leaks or you forgot to power up your ato.
It also highlights the need for redundancy. And the brilliance of app controlled devices. It’s fine when you are home to rely on yourself to catch problems quick. But when you’re 3 1/2 hours away…a back up heater suddenly feels like a better idea.
If I only lose the one fish from this debacle I will count myself lucky. But still does not feel good to find a wet pet getting drug under my rocks by my pistol shrimp.
