Going on Vacation is so stressful
 

Even when nothing goes wrong things still go wrong. I've left the care of my tank in the hands of my girlfriend and another friend while I've been out of town for a week. Immediately I start receiving messages from the Apex stating that the pH in the calcium reactor is too high a day after I've left. Not a big deal, I just text the caretakers to ask them to turn up the CO2 slightly the next time they feed the fish. So then the girlfriend turns it up too high, so high in fact that its dumping CO2 in to the point where the pH now drops too low before the solenoid can shut off the flow. Well this is annoying because I'm getting messages again from the Apex stating whats happening. But no big deal, this time I ask the tank sitter to turn it down slightly.

Heres the part which is now keeping me up at night. He texts me back to say that he's made the executive decision to swap out the CO2 cylinder (which still has enough gas for probably a few months). I tell him please don't, just try to get the bubble count close to 1 bubble every 2 seconds, the pH controller and solenoid will do the rest. Too late, hes already pulling things apart, flooded the CO2 regulator with saltwater and now something is leaking... AHHHH! Now I'm completely stressed out because I don't know WTF is happening at that end.

Several years ago when I first began to use the Ca Reactor I had a problem like this when I went out of town for a week. A different friend was looking after things and accidentally turned up the CO2 regulator and emptied the entire 20lbs cylinder into the tank/basement. Since then I've made a lot of changes and added several safeguards so that that wouldn't happen again. All a person needs to do these days is occasionally (once a month maybe) turn the CO2 up slightly... I need to get home. :redface:

Apex should build a remote feature where you can send a charge through the tank sitter :) Good luck!

And this is why my tank is a hands on tank. When I go away I mix up water for change. Dosing is premixed and instruction on what day to add said amount. The only thing I may worry about is over feeding.

All the tech stuff is great but only you know how to run it properly. I hope it all goes well for you

I wouldn't worry about it, it's just the CA reactor, pretty hard to crash your tank with that. If it was me I'd just tell her to disconnect the CA reactor completely, problem solved.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a overdose of co2 weather to tank or sump area have adverse affects. I've never had a ca reator

My tank depletes about 1 DKH of Alkalinity daily so the Ca reactor needs to keep running. If nothing was done from the time when I received the first error message the tank could conceivably drop to 3 DKH by now. At that level things likely would start dying. Another way the Ca reactor could crash a system is what happened a few years ago when the tank sitter bumped the dial on the CO2 regulator and emptied 20lbs of carbon dioxide into my tank/basement. CO2 will displace oxygen and acidify the water, both are deadly conditions.

While I may be the only one with a complete understanding of my system that shouldn't have been a problem in this instance. The error messages from the Apex have kept me informed with exactly what was going on up until the tank sitter started to pull apart things. All I needed them to do was turn up the CO2 slightly, and when they turned it up too high: turn it down slightly. However I should have quantified how much 'slightly' is, that was my fault. For the record: no flow is not enough, a torrent of bubbles is too much, almost anything in between would have been fine but 1 bubble every one or two seconds would have been optimal.

I don't your think your tank will drop down to 3 dkh in what I assume to be less than a week. It's certainly not a linear relationship and your corals don't just suck a certain amount of calcium and alkalinity not matter what is available. Your levels will be low when you return but not deadly as you assume. Your pH controller should also prevent your other scenario, even if I opened my needle valve all the way the pH in the reactor would still not drop that low before shutting off the CO2 off and then it would simply stay off or longer, how you can dump 20lbs into it is beyond me.

Anyways just something to consider for next time, I've had a fully stocked SPS tank before that ran on a CA reactor that required more attention than I was comfortable giving a tank sitter. I would shut the CO2 off before I left and adjust levels when I returned. Even after two weeks nothing was critical.

Why not shut the reactor off and have your sitter dose some Ca and alk manualy? I have mine just dump some in in a pre measured amount. It might not be perfect but at least it will keep your levels up.

That just sounds scary :) Me, I tweak my reactor a couple days before I go and nobody touches nuthin' until I get back!
I pre-measure food for my daughter to add and that's it. I leave a phone number for a pro in the event something more than feeding is required

I follow this as well. Everything is premeasured and tweaked or cleaned a day or two before I leave. The only thing they have to top up is the RO reservoir if it's a long vacation. And I also keep a pro on standby

The CO2 dumping problem that I had was back in 2006 before I began controlling the pH within the reactor. How my tank sitter managed to bump and turn the dial on the regulator baffles me as well. For the longest time I blamed the manufacturer of the regulator but I was wrong. With my current setup the lowest it has dropped is 6.2 The controller closes the solenoid at 6.5 and warns me at 6.4 but if a lot of gas is going through it will still go as low as 6.2

Three years ago I had the alkalinity in the tank go to 5 DKH and the pulsing xenia that I had had for several years died. That only took 3-4 days to occur so I'd prefer not to push it and test your theory or mine. At the opposite end of the spectrum I've also had coral die at an alkalinity of 20 DKH.

Does it honestly sound simpler to you to have your tank sitter manually dosing every day while you're gone? All mine had to do was turn up the C02 slightly... once. Then it would have been problem solved. Maybe I'm the odd one here but that sounds pretty quick and easy to me. The real problem arose when I didn't quantify how much 'slightly' is (1/8 of a turn of the needle valve would have been good) and when he began ripping my system apart.

1dkh a day over a week will add up and is going to be pretty linear till the corals are stressed...IMO.

I wouldnt leave my tank with out alk,ca supplementation for a week with out being worried crap less. I would pretty much assume that it was going to be bad....real bad.

I guess for me, I just don't trust people to follow directions, so I'd be careful to ask someone to tweak my regulator/valve. But I adjust mine so infrequently I don't worry about it (I don't measure pH or anything in mine, it just runs).
I don't usually go away for more than 2 weeks at a time, and I know that I leave my tank alone sometimes for that long other than feeding, so I trust it to run itself. Of course Murphy always messes with that, my skimmer shut off last vacation. First time ever. Go figure.
But if someone started tearing stuff apart, I'd be pretty ****ed off.

Well I guess every system is different but that has certainly never been my experience. My reactor now seems to run flawlessly but my previous one would always get clogged and often not add anything to the tank for a few days before I noticed, I couldn't imagine having a system so sensitive that it would crash if everything wasn't perfect. No wonder you can't relax, I guess some people shouldn't go on vacation :razz:

If you a have nice beautiful SPS tank.....I guess you don't have a choice.

Perfect is nice by the way......and yes I take vacations.:razz: In fact
no one looks at my tank for a week.

Oh well I guess this trip has still been better than my last one. My old tank sitter locked himself out of my house by breaking off the key in the front doors deadbolt. So everything was left to fend for itself for a couple days before I got home. Murphy's law indeed. After this I'll have a few new precautions to take at Christmas time.

Hope everything turns out good Russell. I no longer ask anybody to look after my tank after the last guy took it upon himself to clean my glass and scratched the hell out of it and when he cleaned my skimmer he left the hot water cranked full blast on my fish sink for two days. To comment on those who have posted about having a pro come over, well Russell is the only real pro around in these parts and the other couple of guys in town that have any knowledge are most likely to busy in their own lives.

One of my all time favourites was the second time when I left my old room mate in charge (this CO2 dumping guy). He neglected to put the entire package of silversides away after feeding one day. When I got home the house reeked of rotting fish, he was sitting in the living room and didn't even notice.

I hate to inconvenience people, especially if they don't owe me any favours and I know how busy George, Doug, Lonnie and yourself can get.

I'm supposed to go away in March for 8 days. Now I'm thinking of having my mom take my tickets and I'll just stay behind.

Hope all goes well Russell. The "frags" btw are doing great. Thanks again.

Anthony