Why Does Stuff Happen When You're On Vacation?

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

My PH has been stable for... well, forever... fluctuating from 8.0 to 8.2 every single night for months.

The instant I go out of town something changes, of course. I left on Wednesday and I checked my Seneye tonight and I see my PH has climbed by .1 point each of the past two days (8.3 yesterday and 8.38 tonight). I'm not going to be back until Monday, and the person at home doesn't know anything about my tank other than how to put food in there while I'm gone, so I'm freaking out a little bit right now.

What could be causing this, and at which point do I need to really start getting concerned?

ScottR · Aug 16, 2019

Every time I go on vacation, something happens! I don’t know what it is but I attribute it to your daily or semi-daily husbandry.

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

I hadn't even been away long enough for a change in husbandry to be noticed! lol

ScottR · Aug 16, 2019

dsinsocal said:
I hadn't even been away long enough for a change in husbandry to be noticed! lol

Lol. It’s strange that your pH jumped that high like that. I wouldn’t be concerned unless it continues to jump up higher. What you can ask your friend to do is easy: just go in the room that the tank is and chill for awhile. He’ll breathe out CO2 and it’ll help bring the pH down. Easiest fix in the world.

Zeal · Aug 16, 2019

I went on vacation for 3 weeks and my ATO stopped working and doser got clogged.

Mind you everything was working PERFECTLY fine till I got to Europe...

Literally

Neptunium93 · Aug 16, 2019

I think the perfect thing to explain it would be Murphy’s law anything that can happen will happen. So usually Illy hire a Lfs to come and check my tank when I’m off on vacation.

Larry L · Aug 16, 2019

That's exactly what you'd expect to happen to pH when you go on vacation - nobody is in the house producing CO2, so the pH of the tank goes up.

You'll see it drop back down when you come home.

Also, a 0.3 change in pH means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things.

Sailfinguy21 · Aug 16, 2019

When i went on christmas vacation a friend was watching my fish feeding them.. she put her hands in with lotion snd killed like 6 of my fish..

When i came back i had to do a 50% water change and carbon.

The ph though i wouldnt worry about.. mine changes alot 8.3 to 8.0 i dont even test the ph anymore.

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

Thanks all. It was just shocking to see something that was previously clockwork-consistent for months suddenly change THE DAY I left. Not being there to monitor it in person is was freaked me out.

rc1626 · Aug 16, 2019

I know your pain. On two occasions I've had my return pump fail while on vacation. 1st time my father caught it while checking on the dog. 5 hour emergency trip home without family leaving at 11pm. Get home and wait for lfs to open. Buy new pump, replace and back on road to meet up with family again next day. Second time tank was in my basement and it was winter. Neighbor watching tank did not pick up on it. Tank temp dropped to around 60 for a few days. Total coral loss (mostly sps). Luckily fish survived. Then two weeks ago while away GFI tripped. Luckily neighbor noticed tank water level was down and called. While on the phone I was able to troubleshoot it back to GFI. Reset it and it was fine for a couple of days. It went probably another 3 times before I got home. Thankfully we caught it each time.....nice to have cameras on the tank and sump.

It does sound like your ph jump is from lack of CO2. I notice this every time my family and i go away. As mentioned you are ok unless it continues to climb but as mentioned I understand your fears.

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

rc1626 said:
I know your pain. On two occasions I've had my return pump fail while on vacation. 1st time my father caught it while checking on the dog. 5 hour emergency trip home without family leaving at 11pm. Get home and wait for lfs to open. Buy new pump, replace and back on road to meet up with family again next day. Second time tank was in my basement and it was winter. Neighbor watching tank did not pick up on it. Tank temp dropped to around 60 for a few days. Total coral loss (mostly sps). Luckily fish survived. Then two weeks ago while away GFI tripped. Luckily neighbor noticed tank water level was down and called. While on the phone I was able to troubleshoot it back to GFI. Reset it and it was fine for a couple of days. It went probably another 3 times before I got home. Thankfully we caught it each time.....nice to have cameras on the tank and sump.

It does sound like your ph jump is from lack of CO2. I notice this every time my family and i go away. As mentioned you are ok unless it continues to climb but as mentioned I understand your fears.

Sweet baby Jesus, what a nightmare. lol I don't think I'd ever leave the house again for more than 3 hours, with luck like that!

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

It looks like it stopped climbing today. Topped out at 8.39 at lights-out, so pretty much identical to where it was yesterday (8.38).

ihavecrabs · Aug 16, 2019

Th

Larry L said:
That's exactly what you'd expect to happen to pH when you go on vacation - nobody is in the house producing CO2, so the pH of the tank goes up. You'll see it drop back down when you come home.

Also, a 0.3 change in pH means absolutely nothing in the scheme of things.

This!

You not being there lowered the homes CO2 therefore raised your pH. I agree and would be interested to see it drop when you get home Monday.

Keep us posted!

dsinsocal · Aug 16, 2019

It's amazing how quickly external factors like ambient CO2 can effect the water chemistry. I'm always learning in this hobby.

Jensworld · Aug 16, 2019

You may want to ask your house sitter if they have a window open or if the door is being opened for longer than normal times. This along with you not being home might be a contributing factor.

aqua_code · Aug 16, 2019

dsinsocal said:
It's amazing how quickly external factors like ambient CO2 can effect the water chemistry. I'm always learning in this hobby.

Yep ran into the same thing recently when no one was in a house with one of my tanks. PH skyrocketed above 8.6 and realized I had to re-calibrate the probe.

rc1626 · Aug 17, 2019

dsinsocal said:
Sweet baby Jesus, what a nightmare. lol I don't think I'd ever leave the house again for more than 3 hours, with luck like that!

Yeah tell me about it. This is with over 14 years of keeping a reef tank. Stuff happens I guess. My biggest lesson out of this is when you're away make sure you have someone good watching the tank.