Reef Factory Level keeper stuck on on dumping 200+l into the sump

[Pucifer]

I waited a bit to post about it till i had finished with both insurance and reef factory.

So Feb 5th i get a message from my GHL Profilux about a leak.... i rush home and find the middle floor where the tank is flooded, the staircase to the 1st floor aswell as the first floor full of water.

I make my way up to the tank and i`m looking all over for where the hell the water is coming from. tank itself looks normal but fish are struggling and corals are all closed.
I open the sump cabinet and see it completely full still spilling over, i hear the top up pump (an eheim 1000lph) from the outside in the deposit (about 270l total) struggling and see some smoke outside. I`m like what the actual hell is going on. I go into the app and i find that it has tried to pump in 470l of water for the last 2-3 h)

I tried to post to reef factory as well as reef factory family and both got rejected and i just got a message to contact the customer support. Weird but ok ,the posts where to the point with pics, no blame or anything just like what the heck is going on. Ok i go look at the last 3 months.

Now Jan Feb March is usually the low refill rate months due to the temp in general so a topped off deposit lasts 3-4 months. I did do a water change the 29th of Jan , always check the floaters and all that. All was working normally, tested that it opens and closes as it should all good. I always overfill a bit when i do a change. Now forward to the 2nd and they do an app update. As per usual half of the equipment doesn`t come back on, nothing new there, usually they come back by them selves after a while . I did note that they did a app update or server or something the 2nd of February.

Now fast forward to coming home to this , Drying all the water, saving what can be saved. dealing with insurance and the bleeding potato customer service that tries to close your ticket as fast as possible from reef factory.

2 days after i have lost all my coral (5000ish €) before growth and all that. gathered through 5 years ish. Lost all but 2 fish. while the insurance company were checking all the damage both structural, furniture etc we started looking into what the heck happened. Every time i connect the level keeper it starts trying to fill straight away. regardless of the position of both floats. It sticks on despite havinga 5 min max run time in the app. I keep them posted about this albeit no comment is given. The 21st of feb the they do an app update and lo and behold... it works normally again. I inform them of this. I finish up with the insurance and now ready the unit to send it in however i get told to hold on to it for 2 weeks before i send it incase they need to re review it. I then send it to reef factory for checkup. Now they already know that it is back to working order. I get it back some 20 days after with a report. Basically all it says is : Tested OK , REplaced Triac + Optotriac, connection to SR load test ok....

I am obviously not gonna put this unit back in to use as i don`t trust it in the slightest. I have been running cheap optical for years without any issue but felt as i went down in size on the tank i would upgrade and make it more secure considering it has 2 floats + app override.....


This on top of my experience with the kh keeper (more work than actually just testing with a kit) couldn`t trust the unit for more than a couple of days at a time.

Now most of my tank has RF stuff on like lights. dosers, the keepers (KH LEVEL TEMP) power switchers etc etc. I got into the ecosystem because i liked the app a lot and it seemed like the products where really good ( to be fair I`m happy with all the other stuff except the 3 keepers)

3 months after i now sit back with a level keeper i can`t use, A tank that`s ruined, a lot of furniture, flooring etc ruined. A less than ok experience with the company (Especially the hiding of the post etc) I also remember seeing several posts under some of these updates that were pointing out problems and such that has since been removed...


Now as to why i have such a big deposit . I live in a very hot country and during the summer it`S not uncommon for a 1500l tank to slurp up 150-200l in a week. now after i downsized to 450l I didn`t bother to downsize it since it was working fine.

The app rule since day one was always no more than 5 minutes on time at any point.

Really hope no one else has experienced such.


TLDR : Smart Reef App most likely caused massive overflow

 

[cdemoss01]

I waited a bit to post about it till i had finished with both insurance and reef factory.

So Feb 5th i get a message from my GHL Profilux about a leak.... i rush home and find the middle floor where the tank is flooded, the staircase to the 1st floor aswell as the first floor full of water.

I make my way up to the tank and i`m looking all over for where the hell the water is coming from. tank itself looks normal but fish are struggling and corals are all closed.
I open the sump cabinet and see it completely full still spilling over, i hear the top up pump (an eheim 1000lph) from the outside in the deposit (about 270l total) struggling and see some smoke outside. I`m like what the actual hell is going on. I go into the app and i find that it has tried to pump in 470l of water for the last 2-3 h)

I tried to post to reef factory as well as reef factory family and both got rejected and i just got a message to contact the customer support. Weird but ok ,the posts where to the point with pics, no blame or anything just like what the heck is going on. Ok i go look at the last 3 months.

Now Jan Feb March is usually the low refill rate months due to the temp in general so a topped off deposit lasts 3-4 months. I did do a water change the 29th of Jan , always check the floaters and all that. All was working normally, tested that it opens and closes as it should all good. I always overfill a bit when i do a change. Now forward to the 2nd and they do an app update. As per usual half of the equipment doesn`t come back on, nothing new there, usually they come back by them selves after a while . I did note that they did a app update or server or something the 2nd of February.

Now fast forward to coming home to this , Drying all the water, saving what can be saved. dealing with insurance and the bleeding potato customer service that tries to close your ticket as fast as possible from reef factory.

2 days after i have lost all my coral (5000ish €) before growth and all that. gathered through 5 years ish. Lost all but 2 fish. while the insurance company were checking all the damage both structural, furniture etc we started looking into what the heck happened. Every time i connect the level keeper it starts trying to fill straight away. regardless of the position of both floats. It sticks on despite havinga 5 min max run time in the app. I keep them posted about this albeit no comment is given. The 21st of feb the they do an app update and lo and behold... it works normally again. I inform them of this. I finish up with the insurance and now ready the unit to send it in however i get told to hold on to it for 2 weeks before i send it incase they need to re review it. I then send it to reef factory for checkup. Now they already know that it is back to working order. I get it back some 20 days after with a report. Basically all it says is : Tested OK , REplaced Triac + Optotriac, connection to SR load test ok....

I am obviously not gonna put this unit back in to use as i don`t trust it in the slightest. I have been running cheap optical for years without any issue but felt as i went down in size on the tank i would upgrade and make it more secure considering it has 2 floats + app override.....


This on top of my experience with the kh keeper (more work than actually just testing with a kit) couldn`t trust the unit for more than a couple of days at a time.

Now most of my tank has RF stuff on like lights. dosers, the keepers (KH LEVEL TEMP) power switchers etc etc. I got into the ecosystem because i liked the app a lot and it seemed like the products where really good ( to be fair I`m happy with all the other stuff except the 3 keepers)

3 months after i now sit back with a level keeper i can`t use, A tank that`s ruined, a lot of furniture, flooring etc ruined. A less than ok experience with the company (Especially the hiding of the post etc) I also remember seeing several posts under some of these updates that were pointing out problems and such that has since been removed...


Now as to why i have such a big deposit . I live in a very hot country and during the summer it`S not uncommon for a 1500l tank to slurp up 150-200l in a week. now after i downsized to 450l I didn`t bother to downsize it since it was working fine.

The app rule since day one was always no more than 5 minutes on time at any point.

Really hope no one else has experienced such.


TLDR : Smart Reef App most likely caused massive overflow

#reefsquad this sucks..

 

[nereefpat]

Wow. I'm so sorry. I wish I could help.

 

[dank.reefer]

Sorry to hear of your flooding and livestock loss.

I agree with you the stand alone optical ATO is much more reliable.

I have also had to deal with flooding in my home both reef and non reef related. After having dealt with flooding on more than 1 occasion I am apprehensive to use any type of app or wireless controlled device to control water levels in my tanks and I try to make sure there is never more water in any reservoir than the next system can hold. For example I have a 10 gallon ATO reservoir that I have to fill manually 1 time a week. Even should the ATO pump stick on my sump can hold the excess even if it screws up my water parameters. I also make sure that my return section doesn't hold more water than my display can hold (3g to spillover) incase the drains get plugged. So in order for my tank to overflow both of the drains would have to plug and then the ATO pump would have to stick on. While not impossible it would be highly improbable for this perfect storm to occur.

I believe there are 2 kinds of reef keepers those who have flooded and those who haven't flooded YET. Once you have flooded that possibility will always be in the back of your mind while prevention and mitigation will remain constant in the front of your thoughts.

 

[reef350]

I have a few reef factory products but only the monitors (KH keeper Plus, Smart tester, Salinity guardian), I would be scared to use any of their products to drive any automation. This is lazy programming from their part unlike the redsea ATO+ which cuts off after a margin exceeds the average daily. That said I would never rely on the one device that could potentially crash my tank, I have learnt the hard way with salinity. I might get another leak sensor as redundancy.

The products I own
KH keeper Plus: Works great with an offset, haven't had an issue with it.
Smart tester(2x): Works great for Phosphate but never got the magnesium one working so have the 2nd to test phosphate every so often to improve accuracy.
Salinity Guardian: Took a few tries to calibrate but haven't had it long enough to give feedback
Auto Feeder(2x): Works, but I do get scared it will dump all the food one day similar to what OP experienced. I only load the amount of food that is needed for the duration of the holiday, having 2 reduces the risk.

I use other devices to double check figures as I do feel there is an off chance the products are not entirely accurate but this would be the same as any company.

I feel sorry for OP, what a nightmare. But I've been in the hobby long enough that redundancy is everything, use smart plugs to turn off products if they go pear-shaped remotely.