Today on BRStv we going to discuss the top ten most common causes of equipment related
tank failures that can either wipe out your tank or cause serious damage to your home.
At the same time we will cover how we can use the redundancy offered by aquarium controllers
to completely avoid them or at least drastically reduce the risk of a real disaster.
First one I think has to be heater failure.
These little forty dollar pieces of equipment are a source of an incredible amount of problems.
It is fairly common for them to fail in the off position meaning they won't turn on anymore.
In this case you have fairly long time before the tank cools down and most of the fish and
corals can actually survive a cold tank for quite a while.
A more common type of failure is to get stuck in the in the on position which creates a
real disaster.
It doesn't take long for the tank to heat up and everything can be dead within a matter
of hours.
To understand why it's more common for a heater to get stuck on it is best to explain how
they work.
Many heaters use a small bimetal thermostat that use two dissimilar metals that bend at
different temperatures.
As the tank cools they bend towards each other.
When they touch it makes an electrical connection which turns the heater on.
As the tank heats up the contact bends away and sever the electrical connection which
turns the heater off.
Problem here is eventually it is common for the two pieces of metal can get stuck together
permanently which means the heater can't turn off.
As a solution some heater manufactures like this one from cobalt aquatics use relays to
reduce the current running through those two contacts which should significantly reduce
this problem but it won't eliminate it.
An even better option is heaters that control the temperature electronically like the Neo-Therm
from Cobalt Aquatics.
These electronically controlled thermostats are much more reliable and a good heater like
this one should last a long time.
If it does fail it is probably more likely to fail off than on.
The best solution is really to have an external controller that powers the heater which will
solve all of our problems.
Most controllers are not only capable of turning the heater off and on but also setting off
an alarm letting you know the tank is out of the correct temperature range and sending
you an email or text so you can do something about it quickly.
The second most popular cause of tank disasters is also related to the tank overheating but
can be related to different things like a chiller failing to turn on, your homes air
conditioner failing or even really simple things like a family member turning the air
conditioning off and opening the windows at night but forgetting to turn it back on in
the morning.
Avoiding these issues can be a two-step approach.
First you can use the controller to start turning non-essential equipment off in series.
For instance it the tank is getting hotter than your set parameters first turn on a fan.
If it continues to rise turn off the lighting or a portion of the lighting like halides
first and then fluorescents.
If it is still rising, you can turn off everything not essential to life support like UV sterilizers,
reactors or high wattage pumps.
But more importantly the controller takes the second step of notifying you on your phone
or email that there is a real problem here that needs to be solved.
The third most common type of disaster is related to auto top off failures.
Auto top offs are used to replace evaporated water and one of the most common pieces of
equipment on a reef tank because it adds stability and reduces the daily tasks related your tank.
Problem with them is it is super common for them to get stuck in the on position.
Most of them use some type of float switch to trigger the top off pump.
Problem with float switches is they are a moving part in saltwater that can fail because
a snail crawled on it, salt creep or algae got it stuck, a cord is resting on top of
them or the two contacts fused together from a power surge or other problem.
Most use two switches as a fail- safe but the things made one fail are the exact same
thing that makes the other fail so you would be surprised how often they fail together.
When they do fail they will often empty your entire top off reservoir into the tank or
worse if you have it hooked directly up to your RO system with a float valve.
Now this is not only bad for the tank but it can also do serious damage to your home.
It can ruin carpet if the tank is in the basement but if it is on a second floor this can damage
your floors, ceiling below as well as any furniture.
If you have hardwood floors I but you can imagine the expense immediately.
Two ways to help avoid this issue.
First is is invest in a top off system that doesn't rely on moving parts like Elos or
Tuzne Osmolator.
These are much less likely to fail and if they do it is more often in the off position
which is less of an issue.
Second you can use your controller to protect your tank and home.
Most controllers allow you to connect float switches to make your own auto top off operated
by the controller.
There are a few nice aspects to this.
One you can put a float in much higher where it is less likely to have issues as a third
fail safe, controllers like the Apex also have leak detectors which detect spills and
can turn off pumps and notify you.
Lastly advanced controllers also have the ability to monitor salinity so it can also
turn off the top off pump if the salinity were to get too low.
The number four most common cause of tank crashes is kalkwasser over dosing.
There are a variety of ways to over dose kalk such as issues with the reactor not settling
the kalk out properly a mixing reactor but the most common is related to using kalkwasser
in your auto top off and it failing on.
The result is the pH sky rockets which can wipe out everything in a very short period
of time.
Luckily a controller has a super simple solution for this based off an internal pH controller.
Simply turn the top off pump off if the pH ever goes before a set threshold.
This is actually one of the quickest ways to recognize a top off failure and also one
of the back-up solutions I've never seen fail anyone before.
Number five is tank, sump, plumbing or pump leaks.
These are more likely to damage your stand and home than the tank but slow leaks can
cause many thousands in damage.
Other than constantly checking for this type of thing the only real solution is to have
leak detectors like these set up to notify you when they happen.
If you catch a slow leak right away, it can save you a fortune.
In my opinion if you plan on having a tank for more than a couple years this is enough
reason alone to purchase a controller.
Number six is also related to leaks.
It's fairly common for reefers use an external skimmer or to connect their skimmer cup to
an external container.
When, not if, the skimmer decides to act up and overflow with foam one day, the container
can quickly fill and spill onto the floor or stand.
This can be solved with a float in the container lid to shut off the skimmer as well as a leak
detector at the base of the skimmer to shut it off as well.
Number seven is calcium reactor failures.
This happens when something goes wrong with the regulator, bubble rate, or solenoid on
the CO2 line and an extremely low pH solution is quickly added to tank.
While this is a much less common occurrence than some of the other issues mentioned today
it does happen and easily avoided by setting your controller to turn off the reactor's
feed pump if the tanks pH ever gets below a safe threshold.
Number eight, is two part over dosing.
Two part is often added with a pair of dosing pumps and timers or a dosing pump with a built
-in controller.
It is pretty rare for a timer or internal controller to fail but if you plan for every
potential failure you can the chances of having a ten year tank sky rockets.
Too much calcium rarely results in anything devastating however overdosing the alkalinity
portion can result in raising the pH to dangerous levels so again setting your controller to
turn off power to the pump if the pH rises to high is an excellent solution.
Number nine is your aquarium controller fails you.
A controller is really no different than any other piece of equipment it can fail as well.
Luckily most of today's controllers are fairly robust so most people won't experience this
type of thing.
It is rare but we should still plan for it.
Most of the better controllers out there have a simple function to fill out what you want
to happen if the controller ever experiences issues.
So you can tell each outlet what to do.
For instance if the controller fails I'd still want my return pump to operate but I might
want my calcium reactor and ozone to be off until I can look into the issue.
The number ten cause of equipment related tank disasters is power outages.
This might actually be a lot higher but so far I don't think any controller has a good
method of dealing with these so I put it last.
While long term power outages that last days are a concern they are pretty infrequent and
you often have time to figure out what to do.
It is the short term 3-10 hour ones that are more concerning because they happen while
we are sleeping or at work.
The biggest issue is with lack of gas exchange.
The moment the pumps turn off the oxygen begins depleting and CO2 begins to rise and the pH
begins to drop.
Depending on your bio-load this can be an issue in just a matter of hours and once things
start to die, it happens rapidly.
The best solution for this is putting a couple low wattage powerheads on a battery back-up
so they continue to run for at least a few hours after an outage.
Obviously the bigger the back-up system, the better.
There are some pumps like the Vortechs that offer a batter back-up solution, if you invested
in these pumps it is almost silly not to consider the back-up as well.
The part that's missing from all this is the notification.
To my knowledge none of the controllers are capable of notifying you if there is a power
outage and even if they did your modem and other equipment would all also have to be
on a battery back-up as well.
And you'd have to hope your internet is up.
Hopefully the next generation off controllers considers this issue and finds a solution,
possible something related to remote monitoring.
That wraps up todays episode.
This week's question of the week is, how long did you own your aquarium before you bought
your first controller?
Next week we are going to release an episode on how buying an aquarium controller can actually
save you money.
Hard to believe I know but it's true.
If you would like to be notified when it comes out hit that subscribe button.
Thank you for watching BRStv.