Chiller went crazy

[imsqueak]

I thought I heard the chiller running when I went to bed, and again about 7 when I woke up the first time, and still when I decided to get up about 11. But the whole time I figured it must be the CaRx pump since there's no way the chiller should run that long. Well, insted of going out for brunch I was boiling salt water for 2 hrs because my tank was at 60!!! I'm not sure what I've lost yet but havent seen 4 of 5 cromis, baby clarki, f.perc, the other royal g'ma (one of them confirmed dead). What it did to the corals is yet to be seen but doesnt seem to have bad effects at the moment.

It was an awful site. All but the y tang were laying on their sides or in rock cracks, looking dead. Tank's at 75 now.

 

[Chris_Campbell]

dang just glad you caught it when you did! could have been a 2ton ice cude if you didnt. Sorry about the losses though.. that just sucks ( for lack of a better way to put it!)

 

[EvilMel]

Holy crap. I had not read this when I responded to your PM.

Man...it's just one thing after another.

 

[gflat65]

Hate to hear that, Don.

I think our hobby is the leading cause for stress I our lives... It has to be true love, though. Otherwise, we'd divorce it and move on to something younger and lower maintenance (if such a thing exists).

 

[Runner]

Good grief, Don. Just when you get things going, something like this happens. Let me know if you need my sump to house survivors...

 

[Angela Short]

Hopefully stuff will bounce back for you! I forgot to plug in my heaater in my nano once after a cleaning. Went out of town with the house heat set on 65!! (december) You know 5 gallons dropped like a rock at night with no lights! My candy cane suffered 40-50% die off but looks good as new 6 months later. All the softies were unaffected. Hope everything makes it!!

 

[EvilMel]

So what happened. Is everything ok?

 

[salt newbie01]

Don,
So sorry to hear about the chiller !! Man that SUCK'S!!! As Mel asked - so what happened??
Will you be at the meeting on sat? I am planning on bringing the sump back to ya. Just let me know.

 

[imsqueak]

Well, I actually LOST (never seen dead or alive) 3 chromis and 1 false perc. I found my baby clarki in my cleaning powerhead.

Scott, if you have time to come look at my thermostat it would be great. I checked the chiller and it was running before I went to bed but the tank was 75 and the chiller was set to come on at like 78. When the tank hit 78 yesterday I adjusted the thermostat to kick on (not trusting what the knob says) Seems it gets stuck on. I have a dual rancho controller but no "good" way to use it to control the chiller as it's powered by a dedicated circuit Scott and I installed outside. Definitely some disadvantages to chiller being outside. I may resort to putting it on a timer that only allows it to kick on btwn 4-10pm.

 

[imsqueak]

Outdoor timers are limited to 15amp <$30 They have some mechanical things about $80-$100. You know which I chose, the one that didn't work (after the fact, I found out my chiller pulls 16A at full load). So I gave it a good cleaning inside and out to see what that does before I spend $100 on a temp controller. We'll see if it shuts off by itself tonight. Getting up at 12-1am to unplug it is really getting old.

I did find I had LOTS of calcium build-up in flakes that had built up in the return line but it was still flowing - just probably not 500gph min recommended. "my" Logic says this would just make the reservoir in the chiller stay colder so it should have shut off sooner so it's more than likely the temp controller.

 

[skwirl]

so how well did your corals do? did you lose anything, or did everything bounce back?

 

[Runner]

If you want to go with a cheaper thermostat or timer, I have a contactor that can switch 30 Amps sitting around. You'd just need a 24 VDC power supply to power the coil and pull in the contacts. And, of course, a box to put it in.

 

[imsqueak]

Update, when I cleaned up the chiller I sprayed WD40 all over the temp controller and cleaned off most rust. WD40 is supposed to inhibit water which will buy me some time to find a controller that is rated to be outdoors. So, chiller has been working correctly for a couple weeks.

Many of my corals were weak from my inability to get detritus out of the BB tank. You wouldn't belive how much detritus a sandbed must take in and break down - comparing to trying to blow it out a barebottom tank. I only feed reef mush 1xweekly now but I feed pellets and flakes daily in small amounts a couple times a night (anthias need it).

I'm going to try to do some things with my penductors (or possibly adding seios or something similar) so I'm blowing more of the top of the water towards the overflows.

So, for the most part I'm starting over on corals as soon as I get a good configuration/flow to keep the detritus under control.