Why do bad things happen every time I leave town?

[rcmike]

Hi everyone. My wife and I were able to get a few days off last week and decided to take a long weekend and head to Chattanooga with the boys. We planned to ride the River Gorge Explorer on Friday and take a train ride on Saturday and then head home after that since my wife had to work on Sunday. We got everything packed up and left mid morning on Thursday. Before we left I went to the basement and checked on the tank and made sure everything was functioning properly. About an hour into the three hour trip I got an email from my apex the the temp was 82. I didn't think a whole lot of it at the time since it has gotten that high a few times this summer and figured it would go back down. I got more emails along the way and the temp kept climbing. After we got there the temp was up to 86. I could see that the heater in the tank was off and I have it set only a few degrees higher than the apex in case it accidentally got turned on. I started to worry that maybe the AC in the basement quit working. My wife called my father in law and he went to see if he could figure it out. He said the AC was working and I tried to get him to check things but there was a bad cell connection down there and he didn't know anything about aquariums. I got him to turn down the AC some so maybe it would keep the tank from climbing any higher. By the time we went to bed the temp had dropped slightly so I thought maybe everything would be okay.

I woke up around 4:00 eastern time the next morning and the temp said 91.5! I decided I had to run back home and check on the tank. I took a quick shower and was so groggy I tried to wash my face with conditioner. Lol. I managed to stay awake and made it home by around 7:30 central time and as soon as I looked at the tank I could tell the return pump wasn't pumping. The skimmer running and other filtration equipment had raised the tank in the sump but the tank was fine. I had enough circulation in the tank that there wouldn't have been a problem leaving it that long. Anyway, I finally figured out that the power supply died on my jebao return pump. It would start to run when plugged in but would kick off after a few seconds. I had a spare power supply from a dead powered so I put it on and turned the pump to 1/4 speed since it only supplied half the amps.


I drove back to Chattanooga and got to the hotel about 11 eastern time and the boys had only been up for an hour. We got to ride the boat but weren't able to do the train ride due to reasons I won't get into here. All in all most of the trip was a bust. Hopefully next time will work out better.

Last time we went on a trip my calcium reactor got stopped up and the all drop killed some corals. I have has a heater get stuck on once in a dwarf seahorse tank and fry them all also.

 

[twilliard]

I had a heater fail on last December. Took out a lot of my tank and since then went with external controls.
I feel you!

 

[cginter]

Glad things were ok, but don't you have your apex set up to shut off your heater after a certain temp?

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[Harry_Y]

I recently got called out of town for work and my Calcium went over board and did a number on a bunch of corals.

A bit heartbreaking as some of the corals I had for over 7 years.

 

[rcmike]

Glad things were ok, but don't you have your apex set up to shut off your heater after a certain temp?

The heater was off. It was just the filtration heating up the sump. The tank temp was fine.

 

[rcmike]

I recently got called out of town for work and my Calcium went over board and did a number on a bunch of corals.

A bit heartbreaking as some of the corals I had for over 7 years.

Yeah, when my Ca reactor messed up I lost several corals I had had for a long time.

 

[schooleyosis]

Never fails! Things will be fine for several months and it's always the second you step out the door to go away. Always good to have a fish sitter that knows a little something to monitor while away, even if it's just for a few days.

Sounds like everything is good though!!!

 

[DaveMorris]

My issues always happen when I do a bunch of tank maintenance right before getting called out of town. I always end up having something I forget to reconnect or switch on or switch back to AUTO mode on the controller. Lesson learned for me...don't do the maintenance stuff without having a day to see that all systems are go on the tank.

 

[Bubbles_B]

Here's the best method for ensuring you don't run into such problems in the future. If you have a friend that is involved in the hobby that would be great to have them oversee your tank while away. I went to phillippines and my buddy in the hobby gladly came to my place to feed and conduct top-offs and water changes. It helps to know people in the hobby that you can trust whole-heartedly to deal with your tanks needs. Thats just my 2 cents on the matter. Hope it provides you with some means to elevate theses experiences.

 

[fishdoc11]

How is the tank now Michael?

 

[vladandlilith]

Now I'm really worried. Last Thursday, we loaded the U Haul and moved about 10 hours South to Florida. I was able to bring 5 of my tanks in the truck, but I left the livestock and corals in one of my other tanks. I know that I am going to have some losses, but I hope a catastrophe has not happened. I don't have to tell any you how expensive this hobby is. To add insult to injury, the water company could not come until Monday afternoon to turn the water on. I still have to clean my tanks that I was able to bring, add the new sand, install my RO/DI unit and hope like hell that my wife and oldest daughter can aquascape and get them filled and the correct salinity. I'll set my quarantine tanks up before I leave in the morning, so I'll have a place to put everything while my tanks cycle. Cross your fingers for me.

 

[rcmike]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I don't think I got notifications of the reply so for some reason. Probably because I changed emails around this time.

The return pump dying didn't hurt any of the corals I don't think. I lost several prior to that when my CA reactor messed up though. The tank is doing better now but it needs restocking. I had bought several nicer corals near the end of last year and the first of this year and lost several of them.

I was only gone a couple of days on the Chattanooga trip. Not really long enough that I thought I needed someone to check on the tank. I have a camera and could have probably figured out the problem if it worked but I am having trouble getting it to work with the new router.