I HATE VACATIONS!!

[vetteguy53081]

I just got back from a near two week vacation and as I always do, I had a trusted and experienced reef club member stop each day on way home from work and feed my tanks (4) and visual check them. Either I was gone long or the tanks never looked better.

Best is to have someone stop each day to check on and feed for you. I always compensate him and well worth the $$ I give him.

 

[ScottB]

E-V-E-R-Y time I leave for a week or more something weird does happen. Nothing catastrophic (yet?), but only because somebody was stopping by to check on other pets that need a daily visit.

Split reactor nozzle
RO leak
Return pump came loose from sump floor, partially starving
A couple strange RTNs
Clogged ATO
Clogged ALK doser line
Power surges/outages that goof my wifi router so my APEX goes nuts
Dryside of my MP10 or MP40 letting go

I leave very detailed instructions for each tank and check in with the pet sitter at least 3-4 times a week.

 

[Mattj815]

Sorry to hear OP. I just got back from my first real vaca since I got into reefing. This is my 2nd tank and the most "automated" ive ever had anything. No apex or anything like that, just ato, a real light with a program etc.

I just did everything I could before I left and put some food in 4 different cups for my Mother-in-law to drop in. I gotta say it looks better than when I left. I just started running gfo in a reactor a few weeks ago and have to say the rocks and sand are starting to look better.

One frag got kocked over but no biggie. Just did a water change and changed out gfo and looking good.

Also got the qt tank going bc I told my wife Im getting a new fish right after vacation. So will be hopefully getting something this week.

 

[P-Dub]

That sucks! Ya' know, I already have night terrors and moments of sheer nausea and I don't leave for vacation for another 20 days... I shouldn't have opened this thread...;Drool

 

[Bob Weigant]

This is the reason my LFS comes over. This is something I don’t care to expierence

 

[wsoldier]

That's a bummer. Does the experience make you want to change any part of your system, or do you think it was just bad luck with malfunctioning equipment?

 

[Randyp79]

Apex and wifi cameras have saved me several times. I've gotten Apex alarms and then checked the cameras to see everything working just fine.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Sorry to hear, its a risk we all face. I just went on vacation, had my sister house sit. But my tank had no live stock and was finishing a long cycle. I have a Reef Keeper so it runs the tank and ATO. I just filled the ATO res and told her not to do anything to the tank unless it leaked or something really bad the to call me. In the past I have had a friend with some saltwater knowledge come feed and check on the tank. Funny when I get back after a week vacation my tank seems to look great as well. Bad stuff always happen while you are gone, looking at you Murphy.

 

[Mr.Rocc]

That's a bummer. Does the experience make you want to change any part of your system, or do you think it was just bad luck with malfunctioning equipment?

Yea... Go bigger! I have an AIO 40 gallon so the smallest thing ruins everything haha.

 

[d2mini]

the smallest thing ruins everything haha.

So true. I hate nanos! lol

 

[reefruss]

I feel your pain. I just got back from a 9 day camping trip and both my Wav pumps went "missing" while I was gone as well as my return pump going off. I did loose a couple coral frags and everything was covered by red cyanno, probably from no water movement. Luckily the temperatures were tolerable so in the long run it wasn't as bad as it could be. I live in a small community so I'm lucky if I can find someone reliable to feed the fish, let alone monitor the tank. I do have an Apex but there was no internet where I was camping so that really didn't help.

 

[Scott Hawaii]

Even on Maui, we have traveling fish keepers. Usually not from LFS but in the yellow pages. If travel longer than a week, they are a good idea. Big water change, fish big meal, and top everything off before leaving. Some dosing equipment turned off. Two returns are a good idea as that is your heart of the system. Never had any chiller or heater problem but 2 Heaters per tank. Nothing is 100% safe.

 

[kswan]

I’ve only been in the hobby a little over a year but travel frequently. The best thing I learned was not to touch anything right before you leave. For example I would do a water change a few days before leaving instead of the night before. I found that is where I was making mistakes.

 

[Lhall9187]

300$ is expensive.... I just don't trust my water. I live in an apartment where they add so much stuff to the water that we don't even drink it. I know a 6 stage will do the job but not until I buy a house. By the way I have a Apex jr I got for 75$. Doesn't break the bank.

In case you're interested for the future i just bought an RODI buddie unit from chewy.com for i think $55 i used it for the first time today and it's great, it has a sink attachment so i just hooked it up for a couple hours, made my rodi water and put it back in the basement until next week...its a 50gpd output which i know is not much if you have a large tank but its budget friendly for sure and very convenient

 

[jordan9095]

on a three week vacation away from my tank while reading this. i have a cam and the apex setup so i can monitor it but i'm still worried something will go drastically wrong

 

[LDH]

It's painful to read about stuff like this; I feel bad for op and everyone else who has experienced an untended tank catastrophe.

For 20 years or so I traveled a lot, mostly on dive trips which could last 2 or 3 weeks. I frankly wouldn't have wanted to have aquaria back home in that situation. Dive vacations can be stressful enough, with travel logistics and problems, and getting to know each new boat, dive operator, other divers, and dive sites. And I always felt a bit apprehensive leaving my well-secured but empty house for that long. Having a reef aquarium thousands of miles away to also be concerned about would have detracted from my enjoyment of the actual ocean and its life. And you weren't able to pull out your phone and check your Apex while anchored in Milne Bay PNG (maybe you can now, haven't been there in 10 years.)

I don't travel as much now, as a preference and for other personal reasons, and so getting back into this hobby was a perfect match. When I do leave home for 2 or 3 days, I have a 'vacation mode' checklist of things to adjust to minimize the chance of maintenance issues and other problems while I'm gone. I also temporarily set up port forwarding for my Apex which I normally don't have as it's a big security risk. One problem with the Apex is that, if it fails for some reasons due to software corruption, a reboot might fix it, but you generally can't reboot it remotely because you can't talk to it. With port forwarding there's at least a chance that it will still respond to a telnet command.

That is my single biggest complaint about the Apex ! When my power goes out I have to physically reboot it or it says I am offline. Not easy to do thousands of miles away.

 

[Wen]

I’m on day 17 of a 3 week vacation and can’t wait to get back to my tank!

Have a LFS friend visiting 1x per week for 30 min, and the tank is surviving- not thriving.

So far a BTA decided to move (not moved in 2 yrs), I saw it on the nest and friend moved it to the fuge till my return.

Alk dropped to 5.7! It’s been a pretty stable 7.7. (LNS) This is the biggest problem, cause I’ve been working so hard to keep it stable.
Dying to learn parameters tonight!

Top off volunteer keeps leaning on movable wall/baffle in trigger sump which messes up water level.

Friend dripped water on one of apex floor water sensors, which is always a treat.

Travel would not be possible without the apex, nest camera and friend’s visits...all of which I’m thankful for.

Nest camera view.

Visual directions.

Nem on the move pic. ;Nailbiting

4 more days till I’m home!!!

 

[ReefWithCare]

I hear so many stories of APEX failures I don’t really see the point of them given the price.

The best controller is a human. I have multiple people trained in the house on what to do, get cameras, hire an LFS if one is available, and get reefing buddies or Reef clubs to check on your tank everyday.

20-50 a day to check is nothing comparable to what many of ya’ll spent on corals [emoji848]

 

[EJReef]

Well, that title is decently dramatic but here is why.
So I just came back from vacation and hit a tank crash while I was gone. My ato shut off, my cheato reactor leaked, my skimmer shut off, this caused my phosphates to rise which eliminated a blue milli and my pink lemonade, my strawberry shortcake and blueberry fields are "RTNing". All this happened when I got back on Monday. Last but not least, my fish store is closed until Wednesday so I can't get RO water.....
I expected this to happen since that is how it works in this hobby. Once you leave for vacation you are gambling. The best part was, right before vacation my Apex shut off! I spent the whole day dealing with that!
Unfortunately, I lost 3 out of the 4 corals I bought from @BSA Corals a few months ago, But all and all I didn't get too burnt and my fish are alive.

I am posting this so no one feels that they are the only ones who deals with a tank crash. In March was my 16 years in reefing anniversary. It happens to everyone but your learn more and more how to prevent and fix the issue the more it happens.

Happy Reefing.

Buy an RO/DI system

 

[jtl]

It is always interesting and at times depressing to view these threads. We have only had this tank up for a year after a few year hiatus but vacations are definitely going to happen. One thing I have gleaned from threads like this is that automation is not necessarily your friend when you are not around. Personally, I go for simplicity. Just an ATO with both a high and low water sensor. No auto dosing or auto feeding, the later being a big problem for some people. When we do take a couple of week vacation my plan is to add a second return pump and dial it in so if needed a person can just flip a switch. I have two power heads so that mixes up the water pretty good. I have a cam but will probably get a battery backup of some sorts. I also have a generator but that is a lot of work to fire up. Most importantly I hope a relative or neighbor or both can check on things daily. There is only so much we can do. If I did have a total system crash I likely just exit the hobby rather than spend thousands of dollars replacing my live stock.