George Monnat Jr Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 My parameters, especially pH and temperature, have been awesome for the past few weeks. I wanted to make sure that it was all good for the mushrooms I was expecting today, so last night I topped off the ATO. I have a 5g bucket with a pump controlled by my Apex to pump my kalkwasser (limewater) in the bucket into my sump if the float switches are down and pH is < 8.26. I turn it off, or "Manual Off" on the Apex, before adding the RODI and Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime (plus sometimes vinegar for carbon dosing and dissolving more lime) and let it settle at least a few hours before turning it back on with "Auto" on the Apex. Since I did that before bed last night, when I got up this morning I stopped by my laptop and turned the ATO back on. With it off, pH had drifted back down to 8.08. When I got out of the shower, I looked at the laptop and saw a pH of 9.1! I freaked out and ran downstairs to the tank. I could hear the ATO pump sucking air, and my stomach flopped. Sure enough, when I looked in the bucket, all 5g were gone. The ATO pumped all 5g of kalkwasser into the sump when a pint or two is enough to spike pH to 8.3. I checked the float switches, and they were all up with the level higher than my filter wall (luckily still contained in the sump). Then it dawned on me what happened... When I turned the ATO back on, instead of "Auto" I had made it "Manual On". Poo. You can see below how stable it was and when the ATO was turned full on. What you don't see is that salinity took a dive, too. I sucked out about 5g of the DT water and poured in the last 5g of RODI I had. Luckily I had a bucket of IO Reef Crystals handy and could fix salinity. The water add dropped temperature a bit, too. I turned off all the lights and left most of them off until about 3:30 (was able to control from work). The water change and having the lights off helped get it back below 8.4 in a timely manner without adding chemicals that would only complicate things. I think I got lucky. The coral, corallimorphs and crustaceans all looked alive and well, and more importantly, I didn't have a snowstorm from abiotic precipitation. Thank goodness for high Magnesium. I haven't seen the Mexican Turbo Snail, yet. If it's ok, then there shouldn't be any casualties. On a side note, for the summer my pH struggled around 8.1 or from 8.05 to 8.15. The two previous weeks I left windows open, and the pH stabilized around 8.22 or about 1.2 points higher. Now I'm scared above excessive CO2 levels in my house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 yeah, it would be nice if they had an option to remove manual on or lock or do a passcode for critical stuff like ATO pumps just to keep this exact thing from happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 yeah, it would be nice if they had an option to remove manual on or lock or do a passcode for critical stuff like ATO pumps just to keep this exact thing from happening. Very very nice idea! Have you sent a support ticket to recommend this? Im actually writing them a letter with ideas/improvement recommendations. Also sending a support ticket with the same letter pasted in. Mind if I add this too my letter? Of course if you send it also it will be more voices to help sway em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted November 17, 2012 Author Share Posted November 17, 2012 I love the idea of removing Manual On and protecting my tank from me, especially before caffeine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 yeah, it would be nice if they had an option to remove manual on or lock or do a passcode for critical stuff like ATO pumps just to keep this exact thing from happening. Very very nice idea! Have you sent a support ticket to recommend this? Im actually writing them a letter with ideas/improvement recommendations. Also sending a support ticket with the same letter pasted in. Mind if I add this too my letter? Of course if you send it also it will be more voices to help sway em! Go right ahead. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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