As a hobbiest, I have access to affordable control for my aquarium that can help prevent catastrophes like this. Of course, all equipment does have the potential to fail, and likely will at some point. But one might think that if I can have a (what, $500?) monitor that not only emails me, but sends a text message to my phone if something in the tank is awry, then why doesn’t a zoo that spends tens of thousands of dollar on an exhibit have something like this in place? Had the head aquarist had something like Neptune System’s Aquacontroller 3 in place, he could have possibly been woken up with a text when the temperature was raising, logged in and checked the status, and raced down to the zoo for a late night fix…

This brings me to “best practices” for a controller. It is simple enough to set your controller, we’ll take the AC3, for example, to turn heaters / chillers on and off at a given temperature. For those of you who have an AC3, you may have something like this:

If Temp < 79.0 Then HT1 On (Heater On when Temp drops to 79*F)
If Temp > 80.0 Then HT1 Off (Heater Off when Temp reaches 80*F)
If Temp > 80.0 Then COL On (Chiller On when Temp hits 80*F)
If Temp < 80.0 Then COL Off (Chiller Off when it drops the temp back down)
If Temp > 82.0 Then ALM On (Alarm on, i.e. send email / text if temp too high…)
If Temp < 78.0 Then ALM On (Alarm on if temp too low)

That code effectively provides the reef tank with a couple degree swing in temperature, turning on and off the appropriate temperature controls per the given range. If it goes out of range, an alarm is turned on (text message send to phone, email sent). That code works, albeit a bit simple since we’re not bringing into account fans / lights, and other gear for the purposes of this post. However, what about malfunctioning equipment, as in the case of Brookfield Zoo? In their case, the chiller never turned on, and the heater was left open ended to keep raising. This 2nd code set takes into account parameters way out of normal range sends and alarm, and just shuts the heater and chiller down. Leaving the chiller on may just keep cooling and cooling. The same goes for the heater.

If Temp < 79.0 Then HTR On (Heater On when Temp drops to 79*F)
If Temp > 80.0 Then HTR Off (Heater Off when Temp reaches 80*F)
If Temp > 80.0 Then COL On (Chiller On when Temp hits 80*F)
If Temp < 80.0 Then COL Off (Chiller Off when it drops the temp back down)
If Temp > 82.0 Then ALM On (Alarm on, i.e. send email / text if temp too high…)
If Temp < 78.0 Then ALM On (Alarm on if temp too low)
If Temp < 75.0 Then COL Off
If Temp < 75.0 Then HTR Off (Temp way too low, cut heat off, something is up)
If Temp < 75.0 Then ALM On (Another alarm)
If Temp > 84.0 Then COL Off (Temp way too high, turn chiller off, something wrong)
If Temp > 84.0 Then HTR Off (Temp way too high, make sure heater off)
If Temp > 84.0 Then ALM On (Alarm notification)

I do really wonder now what kind of gear Brookfield has in place. With all the time and money I’ve spent on my tank, a controller is really not even a question.

Of course, one can’t completely avoid mechanical failure, but I at least feel a bit better taking the extra step with a couple fail safes in the code & text message alarms. I have been woken up in the middle of the night by a text message from the aquarium controller telling me the water was 65*… ran downstairs and turns out I forgot to plug the heaters back in after the water change earlier that night.

On the other hand, I was out of town for 4 days and kept getting messages that my tank was pushing 87*F. I logged into the AC3 from 500 miles away, made sure heaters were off, fans on, though there was nothing I could do - so I turned off the alarm and tried to ignore the nerve to just hop in the car and drive the 6 hours home ;). Turns out our A/C had not turned on and the house was boiling, the aquarium gear couldn’t keep up with it.

Basic idea - Sh*t happens, but there are steps we can take to help avert disaster. The peace of mind a controller can offer is indispensable, in my opinion. I wonder what may have been if the zookeeper got a text at midnight that “Stingray Bay” temperature was out of the ordinary? Could they have run out and fixed it?

Gotta leave the ringer on though. Vibrate may not wake you up…

Link:
Tribune article on the Stingray Bay disaster
“AC3 Best Practices” thread on ReefCentral

Various Reef tank and aquarium controllers on the Market:
Neptune Systems (Aquacontroller Jr., AC III, Aqua controller Pro)
Digital Aquatics (Reefkeeper Jr, RKE, Reef Keeper Elite)
GHL Profilux
Elos (Biotopus II)

Here’s the spectral plot from Sanjay Joshi’s site…

Last Sunday I sat down and ran a whole battery of tests on my tank water. It was the first time I’d done it in at least a month (aside from quick daily checks of alkalinity). Everything else seemed to be more or less normal with exception of a couple parameters…

So, from all the tests, my results follow. AWT’s are noted as well:

Alkalinity (kH)

• API - 13 drops = 6.25 dkH = 2.23 meq/L
• IO - 8 drops /4 = 2 meq /L
• SeaChem - between 4 - 5 drops ~ 2.25 meq /L
• Lamotte - 112ish on the syringe ~ 6.272 dkH = 2.24 meq/L
• AWT RESULTS = 2.21 meq/L

Magnesium (Mg)

• ELOS - 22 or 23 drops (double sample) / 2 = 1100 to 1150
• Salifert - around 1200
• AWT RESULTS = 1075 - a little lower, but more or less in line

Nitrate (NO3)

• Test 1 Salifert - clear / undetectable
• Test 2 Salifert - clear / undetectable
• AWT RESULTS = 0.4 - not bad, who can read those Salifert NO3 tests anyway
  

Potassium (K)

• Fauna Marin Kalium Kit - 425 - 450
• AWT Results - 192…. ?!
  

Iodine (Io)

• SeaChem #1 - 0.05 - 0.0.6, I can never tell exactly
• SeaChem #2 - “”
• SeaChem #3 - “”
• AWT RESULTS - 0.05 - good

Calcium (Ca)

• Elos #1 - 300ppm?!
• Elos #2 - 300ppm ?!
• Elos #3 - 300 ppm ?!
• AWT RESULTS - 148*

Phosphate (PO4)

• DD Merck - colors matched somewhere between 0.024 - 0.046 PO4
• AWT RESULTS - 0.06 - Fine, I’m just using a kit, no hanna or anything

And that’s all I test for. They did provide other results on Silicates, Copper, Molybdenum, an others (just head to their site for a whole list), but I don’t really care. If the tank had really high copper, I think the coral would have mentioned something long ago. I do not understand the role Molybdenum plays enough to worry about it now, but it did make a kick ass lubricant for pinewood derby car wheels when I was a Cub Scout. They wonder why my cars would never lose…

I do wish I had another Ca kit on hand. I knew about some discrepancies between home kits and AWT’s Ca results (Reef Central thread here) beforehand, so in all honesty, I didn’t really care - Ca is easy to test for, and easy to adjust. I wonder how the hell I let it drop to 300, but that’s an easy adjustment. It would be a boon to their service if there were less discrepancy (low result seems par for the course).

It was great that the iodine came back within the same range the SeaChem reads. Not a huge fan of SeaChem kits in general, either based on past use with other kits, or just the whole thing with the little tray. As far as I know, hobbyist test kits for Io are dodgy at best, so this result was nice too see.

The one parameter that’s really bothering me is the potassium (K). I ran 3 tests with the Fauna Marin kit, and came back with 425ish to 450…ish, a little high, every time. I also kept a sample of the water I sent in, just in case, and tested it 3 times since I got the results - 425 to 450… ish. It’s a little hard to read, but I find it very hard to believe that the potassium in my tank is under 200. Fauna Marin’s MinS additive, one of their main components to the basic system, lists Potassium Chloride as one of the ingredients. Given that I’ve been dosing Min S every day for the last few months, it’s a little curious. I also fail to mention I haven’t noticed any signs of K depletion commonly noted.

All in all, it’s OK. The idea of the service is great. They mail a packet quickly, and the turn around time from when sample is sent in until results received is very good. I am going to order a few more “submission packets”, or whatever they call them, and I’ll send them in every so often. I hope the discrepancies in calcium levels get worked out, and I hope it’s not me, it’s them, regarding the K levels.

The next submission should be interesting - I’ve been dosing the Power Trace 4 for the last couple weeks. Currently only dosing 10% of the recommended amount, but will be sure to note where I am with those on the next submission to AWT. I think “flabbergasted” won’t even begin to describe a report of lower levels of those elements I’m adding daily…

And on another note to anyone keeping reefs, here’s a short video clip by Glassbox Design… a couple quick tips on making your tank look sharp… get those frag racks out of the main display!