every time i go to vacation rtn or stn

[arafas]

Why every time i go to vacation i get rtn and stn? only thing i saw was ph at 8.61 highest its ever been. other then that nothing out of ordinary. my apex checked out and i did salifert measurements also.

 

[Jason_MrFrags]

Its happened to me many times. We enjoy our vacations a couple times a year so its frustrating.
Is there a particular time of year that you notice this happening? For me it seems to be march/April

 

[arafas]

Its happened to me many times. We enjoy our vacations a couple times a year so its frustrating.
Is there a particular time of year that you notice this happening? For me it seems to be march/April

i haven't really paid attention to the time frame. but was just on vacation last week for 5 days and came back and a few colonies were stn. Lost one colony completely, few others affected but monitoring, seems like it stopped. Only thing I can think of is Ph going over 8.61 so not sure if that relates to anything.

 

[justjes45]

Vacations are expensive…. Not JUST the vacation…. But I ALWAYS have tank issues to bounce back when I return… ALWAYS lose fish or corals no matter who I have watching it…. Sigh….

 

[MoshJosh]

A lot of people don't know this, but corals need light in the "love" spectrum. The admiring eyes of an avid aquarist are the only know source of radiation in this spectrum. For this reason it is no surprise that corals don't do well when we go on vacation. Obviously.

Sorry I am of no actual help. . . just couldn't help myself.

 

[arafas]

A lot of people don't know this, but corals need light in the "love" spectrum. The admiring eyes of an avid aquarist are the only know source of radiation in this spectrum. For this reason it is no surprise that corals don't do well when we go on vacation. Obviously.

Sorry I am of no actual help. . . just couldn't help myself.

I died laughing

 

[mtraylor]

Is your system fully automated? What changes are you doing when you go on vacation? Are you feeding different foods and amount of that food different than when you are home?

 

[arafas]

Is your system fully automated? What changes are you doing when you go on vacation? Are you feeding different foods and amount of that food different than when you are home?

automated, i didnt do any changes at all. same thing. That is why i am confused. Well I am going in 3.5 weeks for 6 days lets see what happens.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Hmm. Lots of factors. Reagents topped off? Temp changes in house, equipment malfunctioning but not being recorded, reduced attention from vacation prep, etc. If it always happens when you go on vacation, think about what you do with the tank in the couple weeks leading up to leaving

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

When you leave you aren’t breathing co2 into the house and the ph will increase which can also cause alk and ca to drop if there’s increased growth. Get a cheap co2 monitor and then look into co2 scrubbing, outside air line for skimmer, erv/hrv, leaving a window open when away, etc. just food for thought but might not be the answer

Edit. The changes can be drastic if you’re a family of four with a couple dogs that you board or take with you on vacation. Does anyone in the house get headaches when at home? Also if your dosing anything that increases ph to compensate for low ph when you’re home it will magnify when away if you have high co2 in the house normally and low co2 when you leave

 

[mtraylor]

Interesting. I was thinking if you didn't have say an ato or automatic feeder that maybe this might be the change when you go on vacation, but it sounds like you use automatic ato and feeder when your home so nothing changes when you are on vacation.

 

[arafas]

When you leave you aren’t breathing co2 into the house and the ph will increase which can also cause alk and ca to drop if there’s increased growth. Get a cheap co2 monitor and then look into co2 scrubbing, outside air line for skimmer, erv/hrv, leaving a window open when away, etc. just food for thought but might not be the answer

Edit. The changes can be drastic if you’re a family of four with a couple dogs that you board or take with you on vacation. Does anyone in the house get headaches when at home? Also if your dosing anything that increases ph to compensate for low ph when you’re home it will magnify when away if you have high co2 in the house normally and low co2 when you leave

Actually did a one month testing and was surprised my co2 levels. When i am home i run my hood vent for now and my co2 stays around 700 max. when i am not its around 500-550. My alk dipped maybe 0.2-0.3 which is not much . I run a CO2 scrubber and the hood vent on(until i get an erv). My ph peaks around 8.5 and when i was on vacation it peaked 8.63. Next vacation I will be takin off my CO2 scrubber right before i leave the house to see what my levels are.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Actually did a one month testing and was surprised my co2 levels. When i am home i run my hood vent for now and my co2 stays around 700 max. when i am not it’s around 500-550. My alk dipped maybe 0.2-0.3 which is not much . I run a CO2 scrubber and the hood vent on(until i get an erv). My ph peaks around 8.5 and when i was on vacation it peaked 8.63. Next vacation I will be takin off my CO2 scrubber right before i leave the house to see what my levels are.

Do you have a controller? I know you monitor ph, you could control your co2 scrubber by ph, turning it off when ph gets high and back on when low.

 

[arafas]

Do you have a controller? I know you monitor ph, you could control your co2 scrubber by ph, turning it off when ph gets high and back on when low.

yes I have a controller, good point i need to set that up so it opens a valve or shuts my skimmer off.

 

[arafas]

Went out of town for 3 days. One of the colonies started to stn. I noticed when I got back. This time I kept a close attention. Only differences I saw was temp was at 78.5 stable for 3 days vs going from 77.2 to 78.5 when I am home and the ac is on. Obviously my salinity was a little higher by maybe 0.3ppm but stable as rock. Obviously Ph was a little higher but max went to 8.43 and lowest 8.3. Nothing else was different. I compensated for the Alk dip so it didn't dip much around 0.3. Any help would be great.

 

[Mr. Wiggles]

Are any of your parameters riding the edge of the acceptable range? Alk, NO3, PO4?

 

[SPS2020]

This has me thinking that I should do a "trial run" of a vacation. Meaning, don't touch the tank for X number of days to simulate a vacation. Granted that pH will be lower while I am residing in the house, but it would be good to see if anything else is affected.

 

[nothing_fancy]

Interesting topic. I barely touch my tank during the week aside from feeding which for me is fairly basic so my system is sort of untouched most of the time. That being said a few safeguards should be in place if you wanna live like this. For me, a Skimmate locker is essential in case the skimmer gets wild and overflows which does happen occasionally, a Co2 scrubber and skimmer if you're out of town with all the windows shut is IMO important, aeration is important, and some sort of monitoring and auto control of your alk in the very least is essential I would say. If you're hand dosing alk and testing alk and then suddenly not doing that there will be a swing. I wouldn't be able to hand dose alk or do the tests. If I didn't have an apex doing that for me I wouldn't be able to have this as a hobby personally. if your system is used to AC in the summer and then you leave it off there will be a temp swing(s). If you don't have central air, you can use a wifi based outlet plug on a window ac unit to turn it on and off based on temp assuming you can monitor temp from a far. Id say if you're system isn't too complicated you can get it to run pretty autonomously in your absence aside from maybe having someone feed your tank every couple of days. The hobby of keeping corals and marine fish shouldn't rely on the 100% attention of the hobbyist IMO.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

2 things I can think of, mainly from experience. Change in pH due to less respiration in the house and change in nutrients if the amount fed is drastically too low or too high. Change in pH (typically increases, can super charge growth which can then cause alk/Ca consumption to increase) and then increase nutrient uptake which will cause those to drop. so it can be two fold (at least makes sense in my head).

Or there is something building up in the air at home if your not running AC as much. Which could also lead to increase in temp if you AC isn't running.

 

[arafas]

I been in the hobby close to 20 years. Never had this issues ever. The issue is mainly acro related problem not LPS. I checked parameters and they are all within check before I went on vacation. My Nitrate sits around 20ppm Phosphate about 0.03ppm. Ac is set to 77 vs 77 and 73 when I am sleeping. tank temp sits around 78.5 at ac being set at 77, tank temp will drop to 77.4 when my ac is set to 73 at home. On vacation tank sits at 78.5 all the time and my salinity pretty much more stable 35ppm. I have a trident and apex system so I am always checking the app to see if any weird things going on. I use an ecotech doser and I always calibrate the unit. I use salifert kits and calibrate my trident to salifert so I can follow the kit numbers so if i see something weird then I can act on it. last time this happened i used chemiclean to stop the rtn/ stn and it worked. My 2 cents could be some bacteria issue that multiples when there is no CO2 present who knows. My next trip coming up in november I will be running my acc like I usually do when I am home. I am not going to put in vacation mode. I dont care if I waste money but at least i know whats happening and if its temperature related issue. Also i hate usually touching my tank when I am home, just glass clean and maybe feed some other stuff besides pellets, but once or twice a week or so. So wouldnt think that 3 days would make a difference not feeding frozen