sps advise with quite a bit of travelling coming up

[marthin]

long story short from the UK.. Thursday night.. all well, Friday morning, coffee.. bad smell... light on... semi heart attack.. all fish dead, corals stripping fast!! (RTN on steroids)

Cleaned out all the dead fish, dead corals (sick) and found a dead sea cucumber in the primary skimmer intake (We know they are toxic, but 20/20 vision ain't going to help me now)
There was 27 fish in there ranging from rescued pipe fish and goby to the most in your fast HUMONGOUS copper band that I got as a skinny, nervous import.
I was so shocked, seriously thought I was having a heart attack.. This tank content were for sale due to reasons that is following and twice I declined a sale as the buyer was not experienced enough (Pompous arse but I got most of these back from the brink.. may as well make sure they have a great future)

Born South African and living in the UK.. I have made a career move to spend more time with the family in SA (Mom getting older, surrogacy.. bla bla bla)

The deal was going to be:
same tank or smaller, although 5x2x2 is a good volume of water and it will create stability. . it's not pretty and sleek, but it's working and giving me my reef fix while not having to spend money on a new system.
going from ATI hybrid (I have serious issues with this light, but thats another story) to LED's
calcium reactor
DSB with plenum filled with siporax (well.. might as well try something new), this has been running for many weeks and before the crash I was reaching level of awesome only seen on reef central reef gurus.
few choice corals and watch them grow (the best friend is already on a frag-o-thon to stock my tank)
Great friends that is willing to pop in every few days and my best reef friend (this guy is just about the most amazing reefer you can imagine) on standby for emergency.
few fish, no schooling anthias or chromis and really just about a tang (favour a convict) and maybe a copperband (I always kept aiptasias in the weir for filtration and my copperband was an aiptasia killing machine. possibly a goby and a wrasse for nasties.

Then the crash happened and well.. I am completely devastated.

If there is sps keepers that travels a lot, please could I have some input. I love my reef, I love my family and at the moment I am happy to put a hammer to my tank out of pure frustration, but at my age, I prefer to try and be mature (for now)

 

[Bpb]

Did you figure out what caused the crash? Having a controller like an apex with plenty of fail safes written in is really the best way to avoid such situations.


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[marthin]

it was a sea cucumber in the first skimmer.. toxins.. huge F)*$)(*@£ up.. I guestimate that the next lot was toxins, ammonia, toxins.. excess tissue expelled, toxins.. you get the drift.

I thought about an apex, but maybe it's my age, but I want humans involved, so thinking of keeping it simple.

I will be looking at the apex again

 

[Bpb]

Elaborate. The apex doesn't do the work for you, just prevents catastrophe that you personally would be unable to prevent. It's temp control and ph control measures are worth it alone


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[marthin]

temperature control is done by a temperature controller.. fairly good and a new one
I have a ph controller on the calcium reactor and the calcium controller has been upgraded in the last 3 months.. kh has been very stabil

 

[Bpb]

Yes there are good enough stand alone units out there. I like how the apex gives you the ability to see those values on cloud based software from anywhere you have internet, as well as control over outlets to impact them if necessary. Also the ability to receive alerts if something fails is nice also.

But I digress.

Having someone physically check on things in your absence is really the best way to do it. If you trust the person. Provided you have no malfunctions or power outages...ph controls, temp control, reliable auto topoff, and reliable light timers are really the extent of what you can do to keep things running stable in your absence.


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[reefwiser]

You are best to keep things simple and keep animals like sea cucumbers and sea hares out of our aquarium. I have seen this happen over and over again in the thirty years I have been in the hobby. A controller would monitor for water leaks and such. Using good quality equipment is another thing. When you are far away you want quality pumps that work. I would find a maintenance company that would come in while you are out of he country to check on things. Having friends is great but who knows they might be out of town when you are too. Just some thoughts.


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[marthin]

thanks for all the advise chaps..
the guys I am referring too are quite reliable.. the idea is to keep the system simple.. sps, no noms (i would love to but they walk), no more sea cucumber (man I love them) and few fish (fish-poo limitation). oh yea.. lps too, but KISS type aquarium

 

[nashorn]

Wow...... I understand the feeling.
I crash my tank more then once but look at the bright side .
You start with a blank canvas to play with.

I added a couple of remote cameras to monitor tank when I'm away. One has sound so I can hear what's going on with pumps, blocked over flow and water running onto the carpet ,etc.
You will still need someone to go by if there's a problem.
Not sure if this would be able to save what happen to your tank.

I uses to have a controller but it was more for the lights and pumps etc.
Guess the ph and redox probe is cool.

 

[marthin]

Thanks Nashorn

as it happens I found the last of the 5 cucumbers I had and well.. it seemed this one was at death door and this morning I am seeing the last of the struggler handling another toxic crash...

another huge water change coming up

 

[ladynavyvet]

Thanks Nashorn

as it happens I found the last of the 5 cucumbers I had and well.. it seemed this one was at death door and this morning I am seeing the last of the struggler handling another toxic crash...

another huge water change coming up

I feel your pain about the tank crash. I had it happen in my 40 gallon live stock tank, but it was completely my fault. I had turned off my pump, and recirculator to target feed my 2 plate corals. Long story short, I plugged everything back in except for the pump/filter. It was off for about 12 hours. I lost several of my fish, both of my plate corals and a number of the others were sickly for weeks. It took a number of weeks to cycle the tank again. That's a painfully lesson I don't want to experience again. I'm just now starting to reintroduce more corals to my reef.
If we're going to be away for more than a few days, my tank maintenance guy will be coming in twice a week to check on all my tanks(I also have 3 freshwater), and to feed them. It's worth it to pay for the peace of mind.

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[marthin]

Thanks LadyNavy..
I have friends that usually pops in every day, but as I may be away for a month at a time, they are ok to pop in every other day to check, so I am fortunate there.

Limiting fish will be the answer to some extent.

I rebuild the scales and will now have to sit back waiting for the cycle

 

[ladynavyvet]

I wish you all the best as you rebuild your tank. Oh yes, and I hope you have safe and happy travels.

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