Left for a 5 day cruise. Come home to a dead tank

[R1ant04]

Condolences on the tank...it’s a bummer but could always b worse! Was wondering who is your light rack made by?

 

[Fringe09]

Same here. Didn't know we live by each other.

I recommend getting a smart lock that can run without power. Setup a guest code before you leave.

Family's first vacation is coming up since having my tank. I have a EcoTech Battery Backup for each MP60. Want to make sure I have things in place incase of a long power outage or return pump fails.


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[eamike261]

Would you mind sharing what caused the crash to help people like me avoid it?

I know the power went out but I assume 5 days evaporation didn't cause the salinity to get high enough to kill everything. I've gone nearly that long in my little 30 gallon. What actually happened to the tank? Surely a lack of water flow wouldn't cause that much damage so quickly?

 

[d-man]

Would you mind sharing what caused the crash to help people like me avoid it?

I know the power went out but I assume 5 days evaporation didn't cause the salinity to get high enough to kill everything. I've gone nearly that long in my little 30 gallon. What actually happened to the tank? Surely a lack of water flow wouldn't cause that much damage so quickly?

Sure it can. All the organisms use O2 and produce CO2. When the O2 gradient gets depleted it doesn't take long with heavy breathing to be gone. Plus add stress and death and Ammonia will greatly increase too. It's a very fast snowball effect.

 

[Pslreefer]

Left for a 5 day cruise. Come home to a dead tank

Absolutely. I lost 90% of corals and all fish died to a gfci trip when I was gone for the weekend in a 180g. No power for 2.5 days. This was in July and tank took a few months to recover and it still hasn't fully recovered yet.

 

[Jet915]

Sorry to hear about your loss. I had my tank trip the circuit breaker when is was 115 degrees out. I was lucky and home at the time when it happened. It really scared me so I had a dedicated 20 amp circuit installed, bought an apc battery and hooked up a wavepump to it, bought a small portable generator and a wifi webcam. When I went on my 9 day vacation, I had someone check my tank every other day. Best of luck.

 

[Subpilot]

I work at sea for 4 months a year and have just gotten back into the reef scene. I have a web cam looking at the tank and sump, a RoboTank controller with custom add-ons, skimmer neck cleaner and collection reservoir, roller mat filter, ATO plumbed direct to RO and set of keys stashed in case of emergency. I check things several times a day and have had to call for backup twice. I really sweat being away but no loses so far. Knock on wood.