Lights Out on first Vacation—Need Help Please

[The Coug]

I need some advise. I’m relatively new to reefing, I bought a stocked used tank ~5 months ago and I yesterday I’ve headed out of town for the first time.

Last night, my fish watchers called me and said the lights weren’t on. I checked the APEX and it showed the lights still on ‘auto.’ Looking deeper I could see that the lights didn’t draw power all day and the pH didn’t do it’s typical rise through the day when the lights are on.

I was later able to switch the lights to ‘on’ and could see them drawing power and pH rising.

So this AM I had my fish watchers take a look at the lights and see if they would come on if I switched it ‘on’. They said one side was bright, the other side came on, but wasn’t as bright.

I’m using radion G4 pros at ~60% on the ‘auto’ settings. I don’t have the module to program them with the Apex and haven’t messed with the radion settings since April. Yesterday the first day anything unusual has ever happened with them.

I don’t know what to do it anything. I’m going to be gone another 9 days. Any advise appreciated.

 

[dwest]

I would be mostly concerned about alkalinity. Usage will go down if lights aren’t functional. If you are dosing I would try to talk the tank sitter through alkalinity tests or have them take a sample to your a LFS.

This all assumes lights aren’t functioning properly still. Are they ok now? I am unclear about that. If so, don’t worry.

 

[The Coug]

The lights should turn on in about 4 hours if the ‘auto’ mode works today. I can force them on with the Apex ‘on’ setting but that’ll run them at 100% I think??

that’s a great point about the dosers. I was thinking I should turn them down or off if the lights don’t turn back on to their normal times today.

To make matters worse, I’m going to be out of cell service for about 4 days in the middle of my vacation. So, I’ve got 3 days left when I’ll be able to access the tank remotely.

 

[dwest]

The lights should turn on in about 4 hours if the ‘auto’ mode works today. I can force them on with the Apex ‘on’ setting but that’ll run them at 100% I think??

that’s a great point about the dosers. I was thinking I should turn them down or off if the lights don’t turn back on to their normal times today.

To make matters worse, I’m going to be out of cell service for about 4 days in the middle of my vacation. So, I’ve got 3 days left when I’ll be able to access the tank remotely.

Man, that’s rough. I deal with this stuff all the time as I travel lot. I dont know how the lights will work with the apex. I keep my lights and several other things independent of my apex. If I were you, I would see how it controls today and go from there. I’m also guessing that your power draw will be the best indicator on how your lights are working at this point.

I will tell you one more thing before I forget. My biggest concern with seeing your tank was the BTA’s. I had some for many years and I loved them. However, at some point they will move. And, as you can imagine, it will happen when you are gone (not this time, I don’t want you to worry now ). When they move they can kill other things and/or make nice BTA soup when they visit a powerhead. Something to consider down the road.

Good luck and I hope you can enjoy yourself.

 

[The Coug]

Thanks, hope so too. It looks like one of the lights may have turned on today because it’s drawing about half of it’s normal power. It doesn’t seem to be ramping up though. Just not sure if it could be a radion just happened to break or lose its programming the day I leave town.

 

[The Coug]

Oh, and on my BTAs I know! I had one move and I did the power head blowing at it to get it to move back. Now it just split about a week ago but the new spots are okay for now. Definitely another concern for travel I haven’t had to deal with yet.

 

[Duncan Tse]

What are your apex settings for the light outlet?

If you switch them to ON in the apex, the lights will follow it's programming and will shut down the lights according to the radion schedule

 

[The Coug]

That is what I’ve got my Apex at, I think you are right. It seems like the Apex is just powering the outlet. I don’t understand why ‘on’ setting on the apex made them start drawing power last night.

Looks like the lights are off again this afternoon. Really not sure what to do. I think I’ll just have my fish watcher plug and unplug the lights to see if that resets them back to their usual programming. I don’t think I can ask them to do the programming on EcoTech Live to troubleshoot.

If unplugging and replugging doesn’t work, I’m thinking I should just turn my dosers off and hope to ride it out. Better to go low than high With calcium and alk?? Does anyone have other ideas?

 

[Snoopy 67]

Can the sitter just use regular wall timers until you return?

 

[The Coug]

Maybe, I’ve been thinking it is a radion problem though since everything else on the Apex is working. I’ll have them try to plug the lights into a regular wall outlet tonight.

 

[Duncan Tse]

I would change your control type of your lights to Always ON in your apex

The settings you have on your apex right now may be crashing with the settings on your ecosmart live.

Can you log into your ecosmart live account and screenshot your schedule?

 

[The Coug]

I had my fish watcher cycle through the basic demo modes on the radion. They all lit up. I think I may just have my fish watcher turn it on in the morning and off in the pm. I can’t seem to find the color spectrums of the basic modes on the radions though so I guess I’ll just have to have our fish watcher choose one of the bluish ones.

 

[The Coug]

I would change your control type of your lights to Always ON in your apex

The settings you have on your apex right now may be crashing with the settings on your ecosmart live.

Can you log into your ecosmart live account and screenshot your schedule?

I just tried to do EcoTech Smart Live, but can’t log in on my phone. I was running the lights from 11:30-9:30 with 1.5 hour ramp ups and down. I had it on the AB spectrum program.

 

[The Coug]

I would change your control type of your lights to Always ON in your apex

The settings you have on your apex right now may be crashing with the settings on your ecosmart live.

Can you log into your ecosmart live account and screenshot your schedule?

Also, thanks for the Apex advise, changed it to on all the time.