#### you Reef Keeper Temp Probe

[StevieT]

It can happen to anyone at anytime. Trusting your entire tank to one electrical device makes life simpler, stabilizes temperatures, regulates your lighting schedule and gives you vital data to keep a successful reef aquarium.

 

Unless it fails

 

Every Monday morning for two and a half years I have been nervous to look at my tank. After leaving the tank at the office for the weekend it was always in the back of my mind that something would fail. For 2.5 years my nerves were settled when that first glimpse produced nothing but a nice reef tank, Monday after Monday after Monday.

 

Not today...

 

All corals closed up.

Bangaii Cardinal in in-take grate

Clown on opposite side of the tank where she never ventures close to the sand

Mandarin laying on a rock not moving

 

One touch to the glass and all my fears are confirmed. One finger in the water and my heart stops. I quickly look at my Reef Keeper lite L3 display and there in an iTemp error. I turn on my pinpoint display and the temp reads. 61°.

You have got to be kidding me.

 

I hook the heater back up to the RSM control panel, turn the thermostat to 79° and it begins to warm up. I investigate the temp probe and it is shot. One flick on the end makes the iTemp display switch between 90-114° quickly and then it just goes to error.

 

#### #### ####

 

The entire tank has a white gross death look. The water is not clear, the corals are a few degrees/hours from death and the fish are in hibernation mode.

 

Temp increasing slowly, fingers crossed for a recovery. I am sure there will be looses but my suspicion is that it failed yesterday (Sunday) and luckily not Saturday. My gut tells me the fish will be fine and most of the coarls should be, we will see about the SPS.

 

 

 

After warming a few degrees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After flicking the temp probe

 

 

[Deleted User 6]

oh man, that really sucks. strike a major one against RK.

 

hoping for a full recovery, man.

[StevieT]

Thank you. I will be contacting them shortly and we will see how they approach the situation. Anything can fail and I will def. have the back up temp probe installed if I regain my trust with this system again.

[Deleted User 6]

Keep us posted - I was considering buying one. This just reinforces my fear that I need backup equipment.

[Weetabix7]

I'm sorry. :(

This kind of situation is exactly the reason that I am nervous about trusting my tanks to a controller of any kind.

Most corals can handle those kinds of temps during overnight shipping, so I suspect that Softies and LPS will be fine as long as the probe failure was Sunday, as you suspect.

Hard to say on SPS, just like you said.

I truly don't know on the fish.

Here's hoping you lose very little.

[spencers]

Ouch... Hope your tank recovers! Those poor fish don't look very happy.

[reeftankguy]

Hmmmmm... Now I want to upgrade so I can have the NET module!

 

Think possitive! Your livestock will be fine!

[StevieT]

Most corals can handle those kinds of temps during overnight shipping, so I suspect that Softies and LPS will be fine as long as the probe failure was Sunday, as you suspect.

 

This was my exact thought when I saw the temperature, most of these corals were shipped in and have recovered before from cold temps. Of course this has to happen on a weekend and not a weekday when there are many eyes on the tank to monitor. When I moved the tank the water went down to almost 70°, 60° scares me even more.

 

Email (which they prefer) sent to DA. Emotion left out just straight facts and a few pictures. I don't even want to add up the total worth of this tank but this is the risk that we all must face when trying to replicate the sun.

[Mr. Fosi]

I swore off temp probes after I had a coralife go bad on me. Read colder that what the tank was by 15F, causing me to cook some livestock.

 

Glass alcohol thermometers for me.

[MikeTR]

It's not IF.. it's WHEN.. it doesn't stay alive in the ocean.. we're gonna take some losses soon than later.. WAY later hopefully. Sucks when good equipment goes. I feel for ya man.

[dsn112]

Sucks stevie! I use it and have to say it is what is is on this one. Things always go bad in this hobby when your not around. DA makes good stuff, and anything mechanical can go at anytime. Be thankful that your heater didn't get stuck on at the same time and cook your tank.

 

Good Luck

[GT AQUATICS]

i just had my AC jr temp probe go out this weekend. It was reading 114 degrees and the mercury thermometer said 68. I know how you feel, im pretty P.O'ed right now. My probe was only a year old also

[StevieT]

Be thankful that your heater didn't get stuck on at the same time and cook your tank.

 

Good Luck

 

Thanks. I keep my heater's thermostat set at 82° for that exact reason. One of my day job customers had his 300g reef get cooked when his probe fell out of the sump and kept the heater running for hours. He didn't have one with thermostat. I learned from that and made sure it couldn't happen. Yet when your temp probe completely fails the unit doesn't tell the heater to come on and the ice age sets in, esp in Wisconsin during the winter.

 

Temp up to 70°, nothing floating yet.

 

i just had my AC jr temp probe go out this weekend. It was reading 114 degrees and the mercury thermometer said 68. I know how you feel, im pretty P.O'ed right now. My probe was only a year old also

 

wtf is up with 114°?! When my pinpoint probe failed last year it also read like the tank was 114. The RK maxes out at 114 then goes to error.

[JJW]

So sorry for the mishap. I am sure the softies/lps/fish will recover, they are more resilient than they look. I have a ranco one stage (just heating) temp control on mine, and it jumped to 113F one time after an electricity failure and last week the extension cord it plugs in went bad and my tank's temp dropped to 72 from 76 before I caught it. When they function, they are great in keeping the stability, when they malfunction, it's a nightmare. Here is hoping your tank inhabitants will pull through.

[FiRsT-aNd-LaSt]

I'm sorry to hear your misfortune, I hope everything pulls through, the other day my iTemp on my RK had came out of my tank but luckily I always look at my display every time I walk past my tank, it had went up from 78 to 80 so I got to it in time, I could only imagine had I left for the day.....once again I hope for the best for your livestock.

[TJ_Burton]

Sh!tty deal Stevie...

 

I would grab the NET module if I were you so you at least know when it happens and can run to the tank to throw the heater or failed device into a normal outlet.

 

I am still planning on getting the RKL or RKE to run my system, but at this point the NET module seems to be a key component to fight malfunction which certainly can happen.

[lakshwadeep]

I'm really sorry. I once had a heater failure that killed off a lot of SPS, but some of them will survive. Maybe you could get a second heater that is set to a lower temperature than normal as a kind of backup for any problems with probes/thermometers.

[StevieT]

I would grab the NET module if I were you so you at least know when it happens and can run to the tank to throw the heater or failed device into a normal outlet.

 

Maybe an option after this event. My only worry is that I can't send out the data because of our server firewall or security here at work. $119 isn't too bad but how much more money is this tank going to suck up

 

Maybe you could get a second heater that is set to a lower temperature than normal as a kind of backup for any problems with probes/thermometers.

 

Thanks Lak- Probably a good idea, just have to find the room, rear chambers are already packed full. Maybe something short and small, not the full wattage needed but it would prevent this again.

[TJ_Burton]

I'm sure the I.T. guy can make it work

[StevieT]

Also, I would recommend that you put an alarm on your heater function. If you set the alarm device to the temp probe you can set it to turn the heater channel on when the temp gets too low. Also, if the temp fails and reads "error" this will also trip the alarm and turn the heater on.

 

Interesting advice from DA who responded already. I was unaware that the alarm function would trip the heater even if it reads error. Will have to set this up.

[monosyth]

[TJ_Burton]

 

Interesting advice from DA who responded already. I was unaware that the alarm function would trip the heater even if it reads error. Will have to set this up.

 

Well that is nifty. Jeeze... Had you known that before you would have avoided this whole mess. They should have that as a reccomendation in the instruction manual when setting up the temp probe to function as a temp controller.

[dtfleming]

Nice to know now that it does this. I have two heaters one on the temp probe and one just plugged into an outlet just for this reason.

[jfarabaugh]

 

Interesting advice from DA who responded already. I was unaware that the alarm function would trip the heater even if it reads error. Will have to set this up.

 

 

That sounds like you would have a chance of cooking the tank....which may be worse

[thermosts]

+1 to backup heater

 

A couple of years ago I had a heater go on me and lost almost all my fish. It happened while I was away for the weekend. Since then I have a second heater set a little lower than the main. Two weeks ago noticed the tank was at 72 not 76 and sure enough the heater crapped out again but this time there were no losses.

 

I've been there and know what you are going through. I hope everyone makes it!