A mess. With followup.
- Thread starter MnFish1
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OP
OP
MnFish1
10K Club member
Update - The tank is going to be dismantled tomorrow - and the inhabitants sold. Due to an immunosuppressed condition, I cannot dig in to the tank. The fish survived (no issues) - the leather coral survived (no issues) - the GSP which has been a limited bridge in my tank for years - did not come back - except partially on one end. There are mushrooms that survived. Its interesting though that all fish survived a week at 64 degrees
Northern Flicker
Valuable Member
Yep - I know. It was my thought - that paying $50/day - for a house sitter - and $800 for a controller that should alert me was enough. it wasn't. This was literally my mistake - entirely - 1. No fussing with the tank when you're not going to be around (the day before). 2. Relying too much on the controller. it was my own stupidity - so I was also advertising that as well
Apex?
Lbrdsoxfan
5000 Club Member
Sucks totally!
Had a similar apex experience last week as the return pump was left off for about 54 hours (sat night through monday night) and display got down to 66f (cheap thermostat probe in display & luckily lowest overnight room temp). The sump where the temp probe is stayed at 76-77 via apex, as normal. All fish were fine and no die off of sps (so far), just an "me your a dummy" moment (much more vulgar) when I realized what was happening. I didn't even realize what was wrong immediately because the wavemaker had plenty of movement at the surface of the tank.
Had a similar apex experience last week as the return pump was left off for about 54 hours (sat night through monday night) and display got down to 66f (cheap thermostat probe in display & luckily lowest overnight room temp). The sump where the temp probe is stayed at 76-77 via apex, as normal. All fish were fine and no die off of sps (so far), just an "me your a dummy" moment (much more vulgar) when I realized what was happening. I didn't even realize what was wrong immediately because the wavemaker had plenty of movement at the surface of the tank.
TangerineSpeedo
2500 Club Member
Recently I took a trip to Chicago, I had a friend who is a partner in an aquaculture company take care of my tanks. I am also use "said" controller and some of you remember my issues with it when I first set it up. Still have issues, but I did have a failure while I was out of town. My salt was creeping up and I noticed my ATO sensor was not telling the controller the water was low. I confirmed this with my friend and was able to run my ATO remotely.Yep - I know. It was my thought - that paying $50/day - for a house sitter - and $800 for a controller that should alert me was enough
The point is, I was so nervous about leaving my tanks, that I checked my app every hour for the first couple days. Then probably 4-6 times a day after that. Although I am confident my friend would have caught the issue because it was on his checklist. But it might be too complicated to explain the fix since he was unfamiliar with this system. I guess I am saying this $800 outdated system probably saved that much and more, even with all its faults.
I feel everything will be fine, the transition was probably slow enough. I also feel @brandon429 does have a good point about the lights if it is not too late. The zooxanthellae may be producing nutrients faster than a slowed metabolism of the corals, so that in theory could cause the expelling of zooxanthella, in which could lead to bleaching.
OP
OP
MnFish1
10K Club member
So - all of the hard corals died. The soft corals (a large leather coral) - did fine. My 20 year old GSP rock which bridged between my 2 towers died - except for a small patch. The fish all did fine. My tank is taken down - after doing some changing around - will probably get a new one!
Gumbies R Us
Certified Noob
Sorry about all of your losses!
ca1ore
10K Club member
Excellence Award
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Worth repeating ….. never make changes to your tank right before going on vacation/business trip/etc.
OP
OP
MnFish1
10K Club member
The house sitter did not realize. But - I agree with you 100%. The funny thing is that I didn't get an alert - even if I had been home, I'm not sure I would have noticed for a couple days. i.e. I don't manually log into the internet to check things every day as long as things look 'ok'. When the water was cool - everything still looked 'normal'. after re-heating though I did it over 3 days or so - the coral all died (mostly)
