Apex Incompetence

[FarmerTy]

Hey ARC,

While meeting some nice folks off ARC picking up frags, I decided to turn on my T-5 and metal halide lights manually instead of leaving them automatic. Lo' and behold, I wake up this morning to find that my lights had stayed on all night (15hrs), while my photo period is usually 7.5hrs of T-5s and 7hrs of MH.

So, I basically cooked my corals for an additional 7.5 hrs last night, doubling their usual photo period, not to mention raised the temperature from a normal deviation of 81-82 to a peak of 85 in the tank!

The thing that has be stumped is:

1) Why didn't my Apex shut off my lights once it hit my temperature threshold 83.5 for lights? Is it because I manually turned it on so it overrides any programming? I'm sure that's the answer but I just want to verify. Also, is there a way to override the manual on with programming to turn off if it hits 83.5?

2) More baffled by this one but... why didn't 7.5 additional hrs of lights (3 x 250watt metal halide and 4- 48" T-5 bulbs = total 966 watts) and a temperature rise of 3-4 degrees above normal didn't affect a single one of my corals... not a single one. They were all happy and fine, not a single sad looking specimen. Baffled. My fish were a little confused like they just pulled an all-nighter, but that's it!

Leads me to some conclusions...

a) my PAR in my tank is lower than what I think it is (bad reflectors? lights too far above tank -16"? old bulbs?) so 7.5 hrs of additional light didn't affect anything;

b) my corals were used to a higher temperature already (I usually aim to keep at 82 degrees) so 85 isn't that far off;

c) I'm the luckiest ******* today in the ARC community.

I appreciate any thoughts or any other hypothesis/conclusions other than my own. Call me stumped!

-Ty

[victoly]

Manual on overrides the "auto" function, which overrides the temp shutdown in addition to the time based on/off.

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[+Mitch]

yup, manual mode defeats the purpose of having a controller and you make it a glorified switch

glad you didn't have any casualties.

[BBMarlin]

While I don't own an APEX I can address this part of your question:

"2) More baffled by this one but... why didn't 7.5 additional hrs of lights (3 x 250watt metal halide and 4- 48" T-5 bulbs = total 966 watts) and a temperature rise of 3-4 degrees above normal didn't affect a single one of my corals... not a single one. They were all happy and fine, not a single sad looking specimen. Baffled. My fish were a little confused like they just pulled an all-nighter, but that's it!"

Hopefully nothing bad will happen to your corals but I don't think you will see an immediate effect, if something is going to happen it might be a few days or a week and keep a special eye on your SPS as they are more sensitive to temperature swings. If you see one starting to recede be sure to frag and reposition the frag somewhere else in the tank away from the receding colony.

My tank got hot 2 summers ago and I lost half of my tank due to a nasty RTN episode, I did frag and was able to save most of them. Once a coral starts to go it's my belief based on my anecdotal experience that they can take out adjacent colonies via some sort of chemical message.

good luck!

-brett

[jestep]

Agreed with the above and I would keep a close eye on them. You may want to pull back on the photo period preemptively for a few days. I think you'll probably be ok as long as you're seeing polyp extension but 85 is pushing it and I wouldn't be surprised to see some delayed bleaching.

[Robb in Austin]

I think the extended photo period/temp change highlight how resilient our corals really are.

Ever see those pics of 'fields' of acros uncovered during low tide?

[Juiceman]

that's interesting, and I've heard of that happening to other people before. I wonder if there's a failsafe you can put in the programming for that not to happen? IDK, guess it's true that if you have it manually on or manually off, doesn't matter what your failsafe programming is. That kinda sucks.

I'd let things settle down today, and maybe only run it for an hour or two later just to not over do it, then back to normal schedule tomorrow.

[DerrickH]

I recommend you use one of your feed modes for a temporary "ON" situation instead of running the manual ON.

You can adjust your light outlets as below to accomplish this:

If FEED X Then ON

Whereas X is either A/B/C/D (whichever feed mode you dont use).

Then adjust the time for the feed mode to whatever minute interval you want to use. Once you select feed D from the display or cell phone app, then lights will come on for whatever time you have chosen for the Feed mode. Once this time expires, programing goes back to normal.

I used Feed B as my "maintenance mode" where as I do water change and clean skimmer out. I just did a water change and cleaned skimmer, and timed it. I then added 10 minutes for a buffer just in case.

Derrick H.

[FarmerTy]

Thanks for everyone's input. I'll have to keep a close eye on the SPS today. I wasn't planning on even turning on my lights today and just start with a shorter photo period tomorrow for a few days and then go back to normal.

I did this once too with an LPS/Zoa tank and the effects were immediate. I wonder though if half of the melting the first time I did this was more due to temperature spike since I didn't have a fan on that tank nor a controller....

Derrick - that's a good idea to use the Feed setups. I'll have to get my programming cap on and redo some of those Feed options.

I think the fact that I didn't have a controller before and my temperature would swing 4-5 degrees in a day somehow helped build up tolerance in my corals for a day like today!

[kingjames]

this has happen three seprate times with me but with and additional 6 hours of halides and pc due to a faulty timer i had and not once did i ever see any reseccion on any coral i own, sps or lps/zoa, but most of the sps i have in my tank are considered hardy specimens, the nems looked a little pissed but got over it the next day with a slightly shortened light cycle bun not much

[FarmerTy]

Just a quick update, nothing happened at all other than some of my SPS colors got even better... funny... but that was because they were still recovering color anyways after I had that fight with dino's a few months back. I lucked out of this one!

[(Bio)³]

Just a quick update, nothing happened at all other than some of my SPS colors got even better... funny... but that was because they were still recovering color anyways after I had that fight with dino's a few months back. I lucked out of this one!

Good to hear!

Bruce from AT told me the best he has ever seen color in his coral was when he went on vacation and the tank sitter didnt come by. The tank ran low on water and the coral were just getting a mist from the pump... they colored up to protect from the UV burn. He said when he got back he couldnt believe the colors, or how low the water was!