So the last 2 years in this hobby have. Even a testament to my ability to be bull headed and of give up. Let's start with my initial move to Massachusetts 2 years ago. I had a simple 20g with 15 g sump a decent skimmer and an ATO. The tank flourished minus a flatworm and aptasia outbreak everything grew and grew and grew. So I saw a tank at an local LFS about 3 months before I moved that I fell in love with. It was a 60 marineland cube. My halide would fit on top of it all I needed was a new skimmer. So I had a friend at a local Petco and he ordered the tank and stand for me 3 months in advance. Well here is where it all started. The stand came in but not the tank. He promised me it would arrive before I packed my house and moved 200 miles away. He said it would be delivered to the Petco near where I was moving so I didn't need to move it myself. I called them and it was all set. So I move get the stand in the house and all my livestock and go to Petco. Well someone sold my tank. So now I am stuck with all my coral inverts fish etc in bags in a state I don't know. They ordered me another tank but not being able to set up a proper tank I lost a good amount of life. 2 weeks later the tank arrives. I go set it up and realize the stand is trashed once I remove all of the cardboard etc.. So now I don't have a stand. Back to Petco I go. Another stand is ordered and 1 week later I set uP my tank.
All is well for a month until the impeller on the new cone skimmer I purchased dies. Not an losses just a pain. Everything was growing and happy so I Place an order with blue zoo aquatics. Colonies of sps fish and inverts all comes in great. I had a clam I got 3 years before it was big and awesome. I go remove the lid from the tank and it just breaks. A huge sharp shard of glass stabs and kills the clam. It also puts a huge chip dead. Enter of the tank. Marineland says its it's my fault. Well that was a bunch of crud .
So everything is all good for a bit until I come home one day and smell soup. Well it wasn't soup it was my tank cooking due to the stealth heater that was recalled and I had no clue. 70 percent of everything dead onus some of my easy to keep corals.
Too be continued....
So marineland wanted receipts and or pictures well minus the order from blue zoo I didn't have receipts for coral I purchased frags of from local guys in ny and nc . Pictures I never took pics of my tank until then. So I lost almost everything and almost quit. Instead I sold the cursed cube and lights and built a 20 l got a reefkeeper and tried to plan and prepare for anything that could go wrong. In the meantime I saw a sweet foam rock wall and decided to build an all in o e with the 20. It looked awesome. But I didn't over the cut picea of foam good enough I guess and it started to break down killing a few zoas so I tore it down and just set up another 20 l with a sump using all stuff I had. This was going good until my wife bought me my current 40 breeder . Set it up smoothly got 2 AI lights over it it was doing good. Until my 2 year old got ahold of some magnesium and copied daddy and dumped a whole bottle in my tank. This was 1 month after I had purchased a crump load of sps and Lps frags from a guy 2 hrs away. Well that didn't do well for the tank. So I restocked with cheaper frags.
Last week I ended up in the hospital for 5 days each day anoying my wife about my tank. Can I see pictures what's the temp and ph and salinity ? All is well until she calls me and says nothing is on not the rkl not the pumps and it smells like something is burning. Well one of my BRS dosers sprung an internal leak and fried itself and reset my rkl emptied my ATO reservoir of 4 g of fresh water in the tank overflowed my full skimmer cup and put a punishment to all my sps and just about everything except a few corals . So you think it can't get worse right. WRONG. The short fried my temp probe and when I got home from the hospital Sunday my tank was at 88 but the rkl was registering 78. ***
So do I give up ?????????
Hell to the No I just have no idea where I'm gonna get cash to restock my tank. But I know that in a year it will all work out and I'll have a full grown mixed reef. Just remember that there are lots of variables that can go wrong but all these setbacks can be overcome.
Man I feel for you. This sounds just like how my year started, but without the tank crashes. My stuff was all other expensive failures making a dang good tax return go poof and the majority of my savings and credit card available credit along with it. When it rains it pours but keep your head up. It will get better in time.
If only you lived closer I'd bring you a good chunk of coral to get you started again. I have tons of SPS, LPS, and zoa frags so I could get you going again in no time. Mass is a bit of a drive though . There are many other great members on here that are probably closer and can hook you up with better stuff than I could anyway. Someone will jump in and help.
I did find a great LFS about 25 minutes away. And at that point in time that Petco was alright. They had a nice frag tank
With a pretty nice selection.
So I guess my RKL caused my doser to explode cause it turned my heater on all on its own. That cooked my tank the only survivors were my 4 fish and some Palys. Digital aquatics says that is very weird. I'm so p oed right now. My blasto I've had for 4.5 years was huge. Now it's dead . I'm at a loss Digital Aquatics is responsible in my book. When I called them they want me to return my RKL. So th they can test it. Lol I now have an colorless tank. For the most part all colonies of SPS and LPS are dead.
Geesh that stinks! Don't give up. One thing that may help is to do some more research on products before you buy them. I've heard of not putting the ATO on any reef keepers because some have had problems. I've heard that some people just use a regular ATO. I personally don't have the money for lots of equipment so I only rely on a good skimmer, return pump, bio-pellet reactor, lights, and wavemaker. IMO the more equipment you have, the more problems you will have. Maybe try a low-tech tank? Good luck!
I don't think bad luck is what you have anymore. I think it's time for the Ghost Busters or an exorcist... A local car club gives out a hard luck award for the single person who made it to the show but it seemed like everything was working against them. I have heard nothing that compares to the luck you have had recently so I think you'd take it for sure if there was a R2R Hard Luck award...
I am missing something though... How does the doser affect the heater or the heater affect the doser? More info on this would be helpful to better understand what happened.
I don't think bad luck is what you have anymore. I think it's time for the Ghost Busters or an exorcist... A local car club gives out a hard luck award for the single person who made it to the show but it seemed like everything was working against them. I have heard nothing that compares to the luck you have had recently so I think you'd take it for sure if there was a R2R Hard Luck award...
I am missing something though... How does the doser affect the heater or the heater affect the doser? More info on this would be helpful to better understand what happened.
I wish I knew. My guess is one of the pc4 were jacked up causing my doser to have a problem. When the doser went it did something to my head unit and that is what I'm guessing caused the malfunction of the heater. I have no clue really. BRS said it was the reef keeper and DA is saying it was the doser. Both companies say that nothing like this has ever happened. Well tell that to my blasto and SPS and my my Miami and pink ******* and skittles acan etc....
Ouch... But I can say I think I have a collection like that somewhere too
The chances of one piece of equipment interfering that specific is very rare, but so is the fluke chance of two failures at the same time... I have a feeling it will be lots of finger pointing nd not much of a solution for you. Hopefully one of them steps up to help as I have heard both are good with customer service.
Did you happen to have your heater thermostat set to a point just slightly higher than the RKL shutoff point? If yes, the heater should have turned off even if the RKL port is stuck in the On position... This is assuming the thermostat in the heater isn't fried which is the typical failure point of heaters. Have you recently checked to make sure the thermostat in the heater was still functioning? I know I check mine about once a month.
The outlets are isolated relay/triac controlled so the chances of one outlet frying another is really slim. However, the chances of the head unit losing connectivity to the outlet strip is more likely. If the heater outlet and the doser outlet were both in the ON position when the controller lost contact, they would freeze in that position, causing what you have experienced. This is really the only way this should have been able to happen which would honestly put it on the RKL head unit, outlet strip, or comminication cable in between. All DA parts...
This is how my AC3 and DC8 work so if I am wrong on the RK product let me know...
. There are many other great members on here that are probably closer and can hook you up with better stuff than I could anyway. Someone will jump in and help.
