I am so frustrated that I want to quit...

[esmithiii]

I went out of town last week for business and my wife took the kids to Florida. We paid the usual kid to come by and take care of the tank, but he did a half-*ss job and I have lost about 8 of my favorite SPS. Here is what happened:

First problem was that (even though I reminded her) my wife left the AC off (she had the temp set right, but it was set to heating not cooling)

Second, my float switch got stuck in the up position, and so top-off water was not added for several days. The kid never noticed that there were tons of bubbles being blown in the tank (something he was specifically instructed to watch for) or rather he noticed but didn't care to call me. The water line dropped below the sensor of my temp controller and the cooling fans never kicked in.

On Friday, the kid's older brother came over to fill in for the kid (he couldn't make it) and noticed the problem. He fixed the float switch, which dumped in 12gal of kalkwasser, and then had to add another 10gal of fresh water. Now most my SPS is dead or dying. I am sick to my stomache.

To make matters worse, we are trying to sell the house, and so it is listed with an agent. They showed the house on Wednesday, and someone turned off the water source to my RO/DI unit, so I don't have any water to do a water change.

Anyway, hope someone can learn from my loss.

As for the float switch, it has gotten stuck like three times in the last two years. Why it chose this time is a testament to Murphy's law.

Ernie

 

[LA-Lawman]

Ernie,

I am sorry for your loss and frustration..... it is times like these that fellow hobbyists chip in to give you a hand..

If u need a frag let me know.... i will send ya one.

sorry bro

-ben

 

[Kendall]

Things always go wrong when you are away!!! Sorry to hear about it. When I go away I add extra water to the sump. If I am going to be gone for more than a week I will have a friend come by and add water, that's it. I always set the A/C or heat myself and NEVER leave that up to my wife or anyone else. As for float switches, reactors etc. it is a good idea to just shut them down till you get back. Float switches, auto top offs, things on thermostats etc. always malfunction, and to me are not worth the convenience. Actually, you can shut down everything except lights, and whatever wavemaker you may have. Shutting down skimmer, calcium reactor, kalk reactor, etc. will not harm the tank for 2 weeks at least. As long as there is flow in the tank and light you will be fine.

 

[esmithiii]

Kendall,

I have as much as 5gal evap in a day so turning off the auto-top off is not an option. I travel for work almost every week and the wife does a good job while I am away. We have left the tank many times without incident. All this would have been avoided if the kid had simply done what I paid him to do instead of just the minimum he could get away with.

Here is what I have lost so far:

A. millepora (neon purple, 4" in diameter)
m. digita (purple, 10" in diameter)
Acropora (tricolor, 5" in diameter)
Acropora (tricolor, 3" in diameter)
A. millepora (bright yellow, 4" tall)
Acropora (neon yellow, 4" in diameter)
Acropora (bright pink/purple 4" in diameter)
A. millepora (blueish grey, 6" tall)
A. Valida (blue tips, 4" tall)

anyway, I may move soon so I won't replace anything until I move.

Thanks for the kind words.

Ernie

 

[danmhippo]

heh, I know how you feel, I've been there.

But trust me, once you moved and settled down, you will want to pick up this passion again.

Since you are moving, I think it's a good idea to do some preparation now. (eg. stop spending anymore $$$).

 

[fishpoo]

sorry to hear that. Its tough when you have to go away for a week or two. Whenever i go on vacation i have no one to check my tank. I have to rely on my float/switch and automatic feeder. Usually for two weeks. So far so good but i know it's a chance. i do all my maintenance a few days before hand. Change tubing in the peristaltic pump, fill the can with 32 gallons of makeup water, double check the feeder and timers. Still it's a scary chance.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry Ernie. I think Damn is onto something here....


Good luck with the move!

Louey

 

[t gallo]

youre best bet would be to join a local reef club, i wouldent trust my tank to anyone who dident have a passion for reef system's there is just to much to understand,besides dumping water in in youre sump. maybe next time you can hire a proffesional sw service company it would be cheaper then replacing all the corals that you lost.

 

[jimbo327]

By the way, may I inquire what kind/brand of float switch you are using? I'm paranoid now after hearing your story. I'm very sorry for your loss. Perhaps, you may want to switch to another float switch since it has shown it is not reliable.

Jim

 

[esmithiii]

youre best bet would be to join a local reef club,

I am the founder of the Knoxville Area Saltwater Enthusiests Club.

As for the brand of float switch, it turns out that the float switch did not stick, but rather the pump did not kick on.

UPDATE: I now have a FOWDC tank (Fish Only With Dead Coral) All SPS are dead except montipora species.

All Softies and LPS are fine.

Ernie

 

[ReefVan]

esmithiii,

I get real nervous about leaving my reef for a week or two when we go away as well. 8O

Real sorry to hear about your reef disaster, perhaps after the move you can be-design the system to be redundant so that if one thing fails another will kick in. :wink:

Perhaps a regular thermostat, reverse-wired, under the light hood so that if the water level drops at least the secondary will still kick-in, but at a higher temp.

As for the float, add a secondary as an alarm that will activate a pager and/or an audible alarm. At least if you're away you'll know when to ring someone for help and those entering the house will hear the alarm buzzer.

I've even seen people put X10 cams on their tanks that read the ph and temp, that way they can remote login with X10 software to a web server when away and check out if everything is all right. The cam is located at one end so you can see light, water level, instruments, etc. It also can e-mail you a pic every 6 hours or so.

It's always easier to suggest solutions after the fact, but your lesson warns us all about the caliber of person to whom we should entrust our reef when we are away for extended periods.

p.s - A lot of people suggest to shutdown KW dosing and Calcium reactor during away periods to avoid problems like this. The effect over a two week period is almost nil apparently, just MHO.

Van 8)

 

[Kendall]

I understand your situation. 5 gals a day is alot. Again, sorry for the loss.

 

[fishfarmer]

I feel your pain. It's tough finding a competent person to take care of your tank, especially when you have lots of automated things that you *think* will work right.

My system has fully recovered from the heat wave of last summer, but I am very hesitant about putting more corals in it. I just have a few frags now. I'm doing some travelling in May and July so I'm already thinking about preparations and not adding any difficult corals. My system is fairly automated with regard to lighting and water topoff, but the more bells and whistles you add the more chance for failure :roll: . I'm starting to put together a maintainance guide for my tank with pictures of the wirings, switches, etc. I will have the basic do and don'ts listed next to the pictures. I also will have all the wires labeled to what they go to so if something needs to be unplugged the right thing gets unplugged. I will also do a thorough cleaning of all the pumps, switches, etc. a week before I leave just so I don't rush things at the last minute.

I will also knock on lots of wood :wink: .

It makes me wish I just had a cat.

 

[Anonymous]

A. millepora (neon purple, 4" in diameter)
m. digita (purple, 10" in diameter)
Acropora (tricolor, 5" in diameter)
Acropora (tricolor, 3" in diameter)
A. millepora (bright yellow, 4" tall)
Acropora (neon yellow, 4" in diameter)
Acropora (bright pink/purple 4" in diameter)
A. millepora (blueish grey, 6" tall)
A. Valida (blue tips, 4" tall)

Man, thats sad.

I use a litre-meter to replace evaporation, and am thus only limited by the size of the water container. Couldn't a really big container combined with reducing evap somewhat eliminate the need for a float switch? My sumps in the basement, so I guess I have more flexibility that way than some people might...

 

[t gallo]

i dont get it, your the founder of the club and did you get a member to supervise your tank or someone not in the hobby.

 

[esmithiii]

i dont get it, your the founder of the club and did you get a member to supervise your tank or someone not in the hobby.

Its not as easy as you might think. As I said before, the kid had taken care of the tank many times, and he was warned to look for bubbles in the tank, but was too lazy to call me.

Our club is in the infancy stages of development right now. Probably the only member who I know well enough to ask to drop by lives 35 minutes away and just started his own LFS/tank maintenance service so I feel weird about asking him to drop by.

Thanks for all the support.

Ernie

 

[t gallo]

i know how it is, trusting someone with something you love so much. i think the best thing i did in this hobby/ obsession was to join a local reef club the members are great and extremlly giving. www.wamas.org

 

[dgasmd]

I feel so bad for your loses. Like it was said before, crap will happen only when you are aaway. You ahve planned for some things in the event of your absence, but redundancy is te key.
My wife could care less about my 360 gal tank. To her, it is all the same and would probably be happier if the thing wasn't here at all. If I have to leave town, I tell her what to do precisely like giving instructions to a 4 year old. I label everything and leave nothing for her to do but to dump some food every other day and then call to amke sure she has fed the tank. If I am going to be away for more than a couple of days, I even ask one of my local buddies to drop by specificly when she is not going to be home so he can double check things. Redundancy :lol: Like you, I feel kind of weird and actually bad about asking anyone to take some time out fo their busy day to come to my house to check on my tank, but I would do the same for them and stress this so when the time comes they feel good about calling me. These are also the same people I get and will share frags with, so it is a win win situation for all of us. I'll give you a prime example. tgallo above lives about an hours from me. I am sure if he needed to be away for a few days or weeks he would feel kind if weird asking me to come by and look after his stuff. I would do it anyways knowing he would do the same for me if the tables were reversed. Anyways.......
I would hold of on getting anything else for now and just plan for expansion and improvements when you move to the new house.

Alberto

 

[ChrisRD]

Sorry to hear the bad news Ernie.

 

[Joe DeSantis]

sorry to hear about your bad news. Sometimes simplicity in our systems can prove to be the single most important thing and is usually overlooked. Dont give up :lol: