Tank Disaster Lost 75% of my fish today!

[psmith444]

***Update***

Well the mystery has been solved as to why my tank reached 96-97 degress even with the RKE controlling it.

While doing some experiments in order to re-create the diseaster and determine what had failed, my husband realized something and then everything made sense...

None of our Equipment (RKE, PC4, TEMP PROBE or JALLI HEATER) had failed at all. In fact they had all done their job perfectly or in my case a little too well !!! Unfortunately human error was to blame...

In re-creating the scenario in a bucket my husband realized that during the actual tank fiasco he had felt the water and it was very hot, he looked over at the RKE and it was not showing the temp as the temp probe was out of the sump, he placed it back in and read the 96-97 temp. (With all the stress and crazy running around to deal with the dead fish and trying to save the few left he didn't even realize that he had put the probe back into the sump until now.) Pat feels just awful and guilty about the diseaster.

So basically here is what we figure happened on Tues... Pat had changed the sock in the sump and when he put a 5g bucket next to the sump, it must have tugged on the temp probe sensor and popped it out of the sump. The temp probe continued to read our air temp which was most likely a little below 78* and therefore the RKE told my heater to kick on. The temp in my house probably never got above 79* since it was night time, therefore the RKE never told my heater to shut back off. Pat found all the fish dead and the hot water around 7:30am on Wed.

So that my fish did not die in vain, I would like to throw out a couple of possible requests/suggestions/solutions to help avoid others from having this problem in their tank. 1. Maybe the temp probe could come with a suction cup to help keep the sensor wire in place. 2. Maybe the sensor itself could have an upgraded feature that can tell if it is located/reading in a fluid (IE-Water) or if its in/reading air.
3. Now this would not have helped in my circumstance but, maybe the RKE could come with an audible alarm/siren internal or external that can be heard like up to 20 ft away for emergency purposes. For instance, if water temp reads below 75 or above 86, PH range high or low, etc based on what the consumer chooses. (Again, this would not have helped me as my temp was reading within normal parameters other then being a little below 78* probably.)

Again, thanks to all for your kind words! It is very hard to accept that our diseaster was our fault especially when those who now us and our fish tank know how beloved they are to us and how well we try to take care of them.

Again, MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

[RussM]

Ouch! But at least you now know exactly what happened. After having my temp probe slip out of my sump a couple of times (I sometimes would drag it out of the sump while changing filter socks), I made a nice acrylic probe holder for all three of my AquaController's probes (pH, ORP, temp)

If I hadn't just sold off all of my acrylic stock and fabrication supplies, I'd happily make you one custom designed for your system.

An extra double suction cup heater bracket & a tie wrap would be a quick/easy way to secure the temps sensor in place... just one thought I had.

Do you have a NET module for the RKE? IMO, perhaps the biggest benefit of the NET is the ability to have alarm emails sent. I had my AquaController configured to send email alerts directly to my Blackberry... that feature saved my butt a few times.

As an alternative, it's fairly easy to rig up a loud audible alarm with parts from Radio Shack or Fry's... you would plug it into an open PC4 outlet, and then program the RKE to turn on that outlet if anything is in alarm state. I'll make one for you if you'd like.

[LarryM]

Patty,

I will make a bracket to hold probes for both sumps... As you mentioned the alarm would not have helped but do you want something like that incorperated?

[psmith444]

Hey Russ & Larry,
I like the ideas. I would love to incorporate them as I do not want to experience anything like this again. Let me know what you need from me, if you are really are able to help build it. As Larry knows, I really appreciate the help! My tank would not be what it is if I didn't have the help that I have received from my friends on SDREEFS.

On a happy note, I have been busy replacing my livestock so that looking into my empty tank is not depressing anymore. In fact, I have found most of my same breed of fish (at much more juvenile sizes of course) and I am much happier now. I can actually enjoy looking at my tank instead of avoiding it. Not to mention, that my confidence in my tank setup/equipment is back to normal. (Although I still have not plugged my heater back in yet... Lazy. LOL)

[DaveMorris]

It is good to see that you know for sure what the problem was. When I posed this issue to the DA guys on the support forum we all were scratching our heads, especially after our little test that Patty and I did over the phone. I'm glad that the mystery has been solved. I am also glad that it wasn't controller failure, despite certain assumptions by some. With the work we did to set up the RKE system I would have hated to have to change that.

In my conversation with Digital Aquatics, I did learn that they will be switching to a different temp probe very soon. It has nothing to do with problems with the current probes, but they wanted a different form factor. For anyone making a probe holder, the new temp probes will be much like the current ph probes. A rigid tube probably a few inches long. They are not sure yet when they will have them available.

[RussM]

Patty, I'll make you an ear-piercing alarm module in the next few days.

[vinny73]

Sounds like figuring out the problem proved my theory wrong! What an a$$! My heart went out to you Patty when your 1st post caught my attention. I will be the 1st to admit, well, it's obvious from my foot in mouth posts, that I 1st blame equipment cause the pain of the loss is much harder to swallow when chased with a glass of manufacturer Fup. To be human error is just a massive oversite.

Justin had an RK2 meltdown not long ago. And someone else, can't remember who, had a temp probe pop out and do the same as your situation but not as massive of a loss. Dollarwise that is. Cant measure one's pain to anothers. But in the end, the result was this same idea you have. PROBE HOLDERS ARE A MUST!!!!!!!!!! I took a piece of 1/2" acrylic and cut out a rectangle about 2x6". Drilled necessary holes for each probe. Making a snug fit. Then I flipped the piece on it's side and drilled and tapped holes into the probe holes. Then I cut the piece in half making 2- 1x6" long pieces. Now you insert your probes and thread the screws into the side of them and the screws will hold the probes in place because you ever so slightly snug them up against the probe. Kind of like clamping them. 2 additional holes that are tapped will need to be made on each end so you can clamp the 2 halves together. I keep my probes in my sump cause it's acrylic and I can drop the water level in there long enough to epoxy the probe holder to the sidewall of it.

It's a stellar idea to do a super hi level audible alarm for temp, as well as low or high level. I am half deaf to most tones due to an accident but the super super super high pitches I can hear clear as day. From several feet. I have a ringtone that is a super high pitch. When my table saws and other machinery are running, if my phone is in my pocket, and it rings, noone else seems to be able to hear it but me. Even in a 89db+ echoing room.

Well Patty, looks like shopping is bringing your spirits up as well. Sounds like notime this will be a past memory. Just a little secretive advice..."Might wanna look over hubbys shoulders from time to time and make sure you teach him well!" What a horrible position to be in to have caused such an accident. I feel sorry for ya patty but hubby sounds like he just feels like dirt! Pick him up, dust him off, and give it another run. Good days to come. Vinny

[h20poloman]

Patty, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I actually just had my holding tank crash several weeks ago due to the temperature probe on my heater being yanked out of the tank (my fault since I didn't put measurements in place to make sure that couldn't happen) and by the time I caught it my tank was 97 degrees also. I wonder if something similar happened with your probes. I personally have to run a heater because we usually have the AC in our house set to 71. Heaters are a tough one, I have purchased some of the most expensive one's on the market and had them stop working around a year. If you need them like I do usually on a big tank it makes it a bit harder as there are not a ton of brands that carry 800w+ heaters which I would prefer over having multiple smaller heaters taking up more outlet space. So far, I've been pretty pleased with the 800w jalli heaters I'm using right now minus my probe error, but again, that was my fault. I believe Custom Aquatic is just one of the places that sells them.


EDIT>>>>OOOPS, didn't realize there was another page of comments and that it was the probe holders also

[fishtankcrazy]

I just had a question after reading through all this... If your controller kicks the heater which is plugged into it on after it sees the temp drop, won't the heater itself rely on its own temp reading (like mine is manually preset to 77) and turn itself off when it gets to that manually set temp, whether the controller has decided to to the power off to it? Or is it some special heater? Otherwise I'm not sure how your heater would keep heating it higher and higher, unless a.) heater broke or b.) heater is set to highest possible heat setting to heat as fast as possible when controller turns it on.

[DaveMorris]

The heater being used in this tank does not have a built in temp control. I run two 800w Finnex heaters that are built the same way. No control built into them. They just have an Edison plug and are on when you supply power to them.

[fishtankcrazy]

Oh okay that would make sense then.

Thats cool that it will heat real fast... but risky as we've seen in this thread.

[greyhoundfan]

This is certainly heart breaking. You just never know what could cause a heater to fail. I use temp controllers as well and have had great luck so far. As a precautionary measure, I do not rely on one heater to do the load of heating the whole tank. I split the load in half. In your case using two 250 watt heaters might be safer. This way if one heater locks up to ON, it shouldn’t have enough wattage or power to burn up your tank.