Apex and LFS owners completely averted catastrophe.
Was out of the country when my Kalk depleted, no big deal, could watch pH in reactor go from 12.6 on the 28th to 12.5.... then to 11.8 the morning of the 31st, which no big deal the tank could no longer hold 8.36, and came down in the 8.20s, did like it, but had no idea how much worse it was going to get. By 8am on the 31s noticed salinity rising and then by 11am (normal tank/sump 79.5) noticed tank at 79.3 and sump at 79.9. Something must be wrong, called my wife, had her dad look at the tank, gyre was bubbling hard, this means water level is low, had him open the stand and sump was filled to the top, 6 month old Reef Octopus 5500lph DC pump can't be bad, just must be clogged, thank god for DC, clear it and go, so Ok no big deal, I'm flying back at 5:30, and have MP40s and Gyre in the tank, as well as separate heater for tank and sump. Quickly re-programmed heaters to not use each others temp as a safety so sump and tank back to 79.5, the 200gph Sicce pump for UV was enough to circulate the sump to keep the refugium alive, and 150lbs of live rock clearly has enough bacteria to keep 150 gallons of water clean with 8000gph or more circulation, had Apex set MP40s and Gyre to full blast, yes corals retract, but, it storms in the ocean. ORP fell to under 300, but, no big deal.
Then on the plane taxi out at 5:45, and get turned back to the airport and told flight cancelled and no flight back till 1st at 5pm (maybe if thunderstorms are not a factor), ok from bad to worse. Called Fabio at 7 Seas, he was the only one working, but said he would get ahold of his guy. I made a decision to drive back from Toronto, since, is about 9 hours - for you Canadians a-boot 9 hours
. While driving Fabio got a hold of me and had his guy drive to Lake Forest from Oak Brook. His guy checked the pump and no blockage, just dead, turn off, lights up for 10 seconds then shuts down. Now it's 7:30 and LFS with decent size pumps are closing, or closed. I had his guy use some 3/4" hose and a RIO 2500 I had in the closet, to get flow from sump to tank ~700gph. I then was planning for morning to see if Mario at Aquatica had an Ecotech L1, as I was not going to buy another RO, Mario had it in stock... Are there any dry goods Mario doesn't have in-stock
Ok, now have a plan for AM, discussed fittings, differences with Mario, got the package together, was planning for pickup at open... Wrong... Mario went from A+ in my book to off the charts, everyone should buy from this guy... He said, he lives a few minutes from the shop and since I would be passing by Tinley on the way to Lake Forest, he would meet me there. I laughed, and reminded him I'm coming from Toronto and wouldn't be driving by until after 2am, he said, no big deal, he wants to help, gave me his cellphone and said text him when I'm an hour away. Wow, never expected this, now it's confirmed why after moving from Tinley Park to Lake Forest, I still make the trek to Aquatica for most of my dry goods.
Got the L1 installed when I got home and now have double the capacity, so only running at half speed. I did a precautionary 40 gallon water change, but, if you check out my reeftronix page, you will see that my parameters look good even during the pump crash.
So.... notes taken:
Redundancy is good, going to find a way to rig the replacement RO 5500 into the tank, so if the L1 fails, I can use APEX to turn it on. But, the redundancy/protection I have by having two smaller heaters and temp probes placed in very different water flows, kept temps in line. Having the separate low flow pump for UV kept the refugium strong. Apex was great in early warning, and ability to program around catastrophe. But.... most important, take care of your LFS, Fabio and Mario were complete life savers, this says nothing bad about BRS or other on-line sellers, but, without the LFS guys, my tank may have crashed and I probably would have exited the hobby.
