greg beat me to it.. was typing slow and i see the apology

I agree - and we don't want to make look anyone as a fool

but you understand that I have to mention my view

we always listen to what our customers say and we try to improve the firmware permanently - that's why we have already firmware 5.14 ... (in average a monthly update)

yes, we also learned our lesson, see my first post what we want to do in order to avoid this kind of desaster in the future

in the end it is your company and you must to what best for your company and i saw what you wish to do for the OP. but the person he spoke to on thephone or email may have had no thoughts of such a thing. sometimes as owners (i have to do this in my business alot) is take a loss for the better good. go the extra mile.. fromm that you will get a better repore than you already have with your product

you seem like a decent guy by the apollogy. and i understand you are defending your brand/reputation. just think of how you yourself would feel.. frustrated..upset.. to the point of giving up.. just a small gesture towards rebuilding ...not saying replace his whole tank..would make your company a hero...im sure the OP will apprecaite the apology and i will leave it at that and let you two deal with ech other and work this out

cheers
jeff

As Jeff stated, hopefully you will help the OP some ... :smile:
After all, he has been quite polite and lost a tank full of wonderful critters

yes, we will help him, I just need a message (maybe he needs a Mitras or something else)

you must know that nobody from our company was in direct touch with him

I assume the communication was with a retailer or a distributor

I'm glad you will help him he is a great guy and a great asset to the reefing community. Hopefully you can find out who miss informed him and set the dealer/distributor straight as well. All this could have been avoided or at least some of it.

Skimmate happens its how the mess is cleaned up that counts. And from me you have impressed me not too many product owners will come out and take the time for explanation.. Nevermind care.. I'm sure other posters will change their thoughts after reading this. If the op takes a mitras... Could be win win for both if he does a review at the same time.. Just saying... :)

This is good news
Now, you and the OP can work something out and hopefully Steve will feel better when the smoke clears

I'd hate to see him leave the hobby, although this was a pretty bad crash

Good on you Matthias for stepping up and offering to help him out :smile:

It seems something has got badly out of hand from our support forum, the original thread can be found here

http://profiluxsupport.com/showthrea...ic-Alarm-Reset

It is important to clarify few points that have come to light in this since talking with GHL this morning that they were not aware of.

We sent the photo of the faulty sensor to GHL since the post here (GHL was not aware of the original support case on our forum) and we were informed this sensor was last manufactured 4 years ago.

Our advice on the thread remains, float sensors are mechanical, they do wear out and our advice is to replace them after two years, furthermore as a company GHL have no way of determining the quality of the product that has been stored for long periods, some reasons for this are that the actuator can weaken or stick if stored for long periods in the on position, in regards to magnet degeneration, yes this is highly unlikely, but “could” happen, the purpose of mentioning this is to highlight that stored items of this nature can be effected by external forces and it can not be assumed after two years it will work the same way as it did when new whether used or not, this is why warranties start from date of purchase, not date of use.

We have offered the OP a new sensor even though it was out of warranty (by approx 3 years), this was refused sadly (please read the thread), however our offer remains.

I am sorry to see this thread had to come to light when not all facts were presented.

Naturally we hate to see such upset and I hope it is now clear both GHL and ourselves have offered and done all we can to advise and assist even by offering replacement of out of warranty items.

I think Matthias ha kindly covered all other areas such as multiple power outages etc.

Again - we are very sorry to here about the losses and will of course help the OP out in replacing the sensor as a gesture of kindness irrelevant of its age.

I felt it important to clarify this, I apologise for the repeat post but by the time I saw this I could not edit further.

When the thread came to light we also did post on the support thread that feedback would be provided to GHL in regards to an option for power outage non auto alarm reset.

Again we are really sorry to hear about such losses and as a gesture we will do all we can to make the OP feel very much assured and looked after as always :)

I’m sorry to see this happen to you and your tank. It really is sad regardless of the cause and hopefully we can learn from this and go forward as a reefing community and be better for it.


I have to say I was impressed with the input, concern, and support from both Aqua Digital and GHL on this matter. This shows the level of care and support they are willing to give to even an individual customer. On the flip side I think it could have been avoided with a few changes to the set-up.
I’ve been an avid ProfiLux user for many years now and as such (like so many of us) we go on and on about remote access and monitoring via the controller itself. I’ve taken some long vacations and even with my controller working as it should I make sure all my email notifications and alert are working as planned before I leave the house. I go through my own personal “Equipment Checklist” trying to test each “system” before I leave for a trip. Also the house I just moved out of had a terrible problems with the electric company (power outage almost daily sometimes 5-6 times a day… we stopped setting out digital clocks while we lived there) and as such after the first couple of days living there I put my ProfiLux onto a UPS. Not to carry it through a long power outage but to help level out the incoming power blips and keep the system from going through multiple power cuts a day. This was probably the best $75 I ever spent on my system. It was “Life Support” for my tank’s Life Support. The 4 year old sensor didn’t help matters which I see they are willing to replace that and whatever else the OP And GHL work out. The “Auto Reset” issue is being looked at and I’m glad to see they are keeping an open mind about potentially making changes to their firmware to help avoid this in the future.



Even with all the fail-safes in the world there is no substitute for “Human Intervention” which is why remote access is so important. Being able to get a snapshot of your system status is extremely important regardless of which controller you’re running. ProfiLux has allowed for multiple options for remote access/control for the very reason that the posted situation would not arise.



I’m sorry this happened to you and I plan to watch your tank thread(s) to hopefully see your system bounce back and be better than ever before. Hopefully it’s a learning experience for all of us and can teach us a few lessons: a) regardless of the # or type of fail-safe systems involved we must all make sure everything is in top order before leaving b) make sure we can have total remote access of all vital criteria (alerts etc) before leaving c) the importance of electronic devices being “isolated” from repeated on/off cycles due to power fluctuations d) when I get home tonight I’m going to take some time to go through my ProfiLux and make sure my max ATO run-time is minimal to keep this from happening.

I look forward to seeing your system recover from this and flourish like I’m sure it will in time. I live a LONG way from you but if there is anything I can do to help I’d be willing to give it a shot. I’ve had crashes before and it was the reefing community that kept me going when I wanted to just quit it and forget it! If there is anything I can do please don’t hesitate to drop me a PM and I’ll reply right back.

BigAl

This is not an anti-profilux campaign, from the start here my goal was very clear to make others Profilux users, many of which I consider friends, aware of what I believe to be an issue. However I have no control how others choose to use this information. I have provided only fact or exactly what I was told by support staff to which I can only assume to be fact.

To come here and instantly state my intentions being only to damage Profilux clearly illustrates Profilux owner failed to even read the first post of this thread. It's also insulting to a customer who has been with Profilux virtually from the start and at times aiding in many sales, setup and support. Be aware I also received comments from support staff that I found insulting however these have since been removed and even my posts on the support forum were edited which may have made my comments look overly full of frustration while the only real frustration came from first being insulted and the issue being shrugged off as user error. In addition I can conclude all Profilux staff has failed to even fully understand the issue as despite my numerous attempts of stating reasoning for my max on time it's continuously blamed as an issue. Top off water is added slowly, 10min has prematurely set off alarms in the past on summer days, 20min is a perfectly reasonable number given how my system operates. Increasing flow rate and decreasing on time will do absolutely nothing in regards to this issue. While support staff claims to attempting to propose solutions, in my eyes their goal seemed more related to pointing blame which is not a solution. If you're looking for an example of an actual solution I posted one in this thread.

In regards to a float sensor, again I've said numerous times, I don't care. I found it alarming that such things can expire which is I pointed it out as one of the issues people should be aware of. The fact the owner of the company calls this complete nonsense and then reverts back stating otherwise after discovering what support staff has stated is rather amusing. Also be aware support staff strongly felt the use of stored sensor was a clear issue and the key to whole failure, not something they just had to say because in extremely rare cases it could happen. Also note according to GHL sensor is 4 years old while I purchased it approximately 2 years ago. I have no intention of getting retailers involved but just be aware obviously inventory of such devices are not controlled despite what support staff suggests. At the very least adding a date of manufacture that the rest of the world can understand might not be a bad idea.

In regards to the real issue I'm glad revisions are being made which is what I wanted. It's obvious without such a thread nothing would have been done. Again I have no intentions of destroying Profilux reputation or boycotting nor do I have interest in compensation or warranty replacement.

My initial attempts on the profilux support forum were to first find out out if what I believe to be an issue is related to perhaps just a firmware bug or perhaps just something only relating to my device alone. If this was not the case I thought pointing out some issues would be in the best interest of everyone and my hopes were profilux staff would take this more seriously and at least notify both the public and the owner of the company. As I suspected they did neither hence why I left that site and came here. I also wanted a reason to why something as critical as an error alarm can be so easily reset, obviously there is a reason for this as the the developer has now stated yet I still wait for it. If the reason is sound stating it would justify it's existence perhaps turning what I consider a flaw into a feature I just wasn't aware of.

As a professional engineer I have obligations towards public interest in all aspects of my life, not doing my best to make the public aware of this goes against not only these ethical obligations but also my personal beliefs.

I am so sorry to read your reply and I am sure just like myself you want a conclusion, my only reason for reply is to highlight a very important point that seems to be the most frustrating for you.

You mention we did nothing to highlight your concern to GHL. This is not correct as we point out above. We listened to you and we immediately informed GHL. I am happy to forward you our email to GHL.

From there GHL has posted on here and reported to us they will look into an option being implemented.

From our forum as a reply


I or GHL do not wish to see your frustration go on and on, we have offered to you help, stated your requested feature update will be looked into. I hope you see our support and efforts as genuine as they are.

After reading through both posts I have to agree with the OP. He mentioned numerous times that sensors fail and that is a part of life and has no problem with the fact that his sensor failed (Other than the expiry issue or non issue depending on who you are talking to) The real problem is why the alarm gets reset after a power failure. Maybe we should do a poll, but IMO I would want the alarm to remain in memory after a power on/off cycle instead of having it reset. All alarms should have to be reset manually. Now if the majority of other users want it to reset after a power outage, then it should clearly state in the manual that a power failure will reset the alarm. A toggle switch would even be better, so we could choose.

100% correct and as above copied parts of the thread these comments were passed onto GHL and most certainly not overlooked.

GHL have also posted here they will look into this.

This is my last post on the subject to save it all getting out of hand. Our support remains personal and direct with the OP from here on.

Amazing support thank you for your input and I would take a Mitras too. for my RSM 250:mrgreen:

I also have no interest GHL support issues further at this point. Regardless what happened I would like to keep focus the two issues I originally outlined.

1 - Float sensor:
Can we confirm what is required here as I'm still unclear resulting from many different opinions being stated.
Is it the recommendation of Profilux to replace these sensors every two years or not?
Is shelf life an actual issue? I originally assumed I had a clearly defective part which happens no doubt but it's very rare. It was previously suggested even a non defective part can or will degrade if not used immediately from factory.

2 - Auto Reset:
I would still like an answer regarding the reasoning for this especially now as it's been stated there is one due to user request. I see no reason why this can't be posted here but if you insist on posted only on the profilux support site then do so under the thread I previously posted already asking this exact question but be aware I will post response here regardless.
IMO this feature of auto reset would be very specialized, I still cannot see a single reason for it hence my curiosity. It would definitely make more sense to me to have such a feature as option through user programming however the default should not to have such feature active.

In regards to some solutions mentioned numerous times I'd like to make a few comments:

• Email alerts: I don't feel this would overly useful in such a circumstance. First my vacation took place in remote location in another country. I had extremely limited access to internet and constantly attempting to check emails through the day would have ruined the vacation completely. I may have been able to use data roaming on my cell but keeping that active the entire time would have cost more than the resulting damages. Also I have a profilux II not III which I understand has better abilities with web interfaces. From my understanding, with my version a computer would have to connected continuously with the software running. First of all I've had communication errors from regular short interval programming so in no way would I consider this reliable and any power outage would cause the PC to shut down. You would need a dedicated PC with UPS at the very least.
  
• Remote monitoring: Not a solution either, even if I could perform such monitoring if I can checked at some point during the day it would have easily been after a power outage in the brief time before an alarm was re-triggered giving the appearance of things operating normally. In addition even if I can see the ATO alarm has been set I have no way of knowing how severe the issue is. Remember I have no clue about automatic resets at this time. The only way this would be useful is with conductivity monitoring which I actually do have but to assume all profilux users have this rather expensive upgrade is not fare and again having to check on your system so frequently would be considered a nuisance at the very least.
  
• Max on time: Again it's based on flow rate, increasing flow rate and decreasing max on time would produce the same results. The max on time must be long enough to effectively top of the tank in worst case evaporation circumstances. As such repeatedly adding this max amount of top off water within a short time period will cause issues on most systems regardless.

Hi

Please email us and we will happily reply to all your questions and concerns.

sales@aqua-digital.com

If you wish to continue your thread on by publishing our reply I am happy for you to do so.

I'm also very curious regarding the sensor and the official word on replacing it. Replacing one that's been subject to a salt water environment for a few years seems pretty reasonable. Having one degrade (maybe decompose is a better word) does not seem reasonable. I have a telephone in my office that is 20 years old, has moved from one end of the country to the other, and was made in China. Works like brand new. If a cheap chinese produced telephone can last through 20 years of abuse, I can't see the reason a simple float switch that's touted as being made of super high quality german parts should degrade in a plastic bag.

If degradation is the case, then GHL absolutely needs to put an easily readable date stamp on the retail packaging so that as a customer when I am buying one I know that it came out of the factory on X date and I can reasonably expect Y amount of time.

FWIW my float sensor sat in the bag in my basement for 3 years before I got around to installing it. Has worked fine now for two years in operation.

It's also very curious that they are moving this out of the public light and insisting on clarifying these things via email only. Given the attention this thread has received, I would've guessed keeping everything out in the public so there's no confusion to be a much better move for PR reasons as well. Refusing to definitively answer some pretty general questions in this thread just doesn't look good.

So everyone following is aware I have taken the advice of Profilux staff to conduct further discussion regarding these issues through email. This will allow them to respond more effectively and directly to the actual questions rather than trying to run damage support from comments made from other members. Once I have gotten all the answers to these questions and feel the responses are adequate in explanation I will post results.

Until then I suggest you simply be aware of the issues I've outlined and consider the solution I previously posted.

Now.. I have a question.

How about the Profilux optical switch??? Is there any sort of issue I should know about with the optical sensors??

The sensor was only purchased 2 years ago but you're saying the warranty was up over 3 years ago before the item was even purchased. So which is it, warranty starts from mfg date or purchase date? I sure some readers would like to be reassured that they are not buying brand new products with the warranty already expired before the sale has gone through.

ONLY to clarify warranites - GHL warranty document is available to you by email sales@aqua-digital.com or visit our forum

As said above by us and the OP we are not posting any further on this thread. We are available by email for any further concerns anyone may have. We have an open disclosure policy with such things so the requester is more than capable and in their rights of posting their gained reply in the public domain for complete transparacy but, we are not going into open debate on public or non official support forums, this is not how proper support is provided by any company.

We appreciate any concern or support case and will be answered 7 days a week, by email at sales@aqua-digital.com or on one of the support fourms.

This is the official statement from me (GHL):
- The floater or optical sensor don't expire when lying on the shelf! Correct storage assumed.
- pH- or redox electrodes do have an expiry date (no suprise I guess)

and no, there is not a common issue with the opto-levels

Was this clear enough?

I hope all the confusion has been cleared up now.

This is my last comment to this topic here, all further discussions will be between spshelps and us directly.

I'll add this which is the response I got from Michael Hall

Thank you Matthias and Michael for clearing that up. I don't think any reasonable person would expect a warranty to start from date of use rather than date of purchase (or if a cat ate the cable!). Your recommendation on not storing parts long term for the simple reason of ensuring warranty coverage in case of a rare faulty part is also quite good.

Thank you as well Sphelps for posting the followup and keeping the focus in this thread on real issues/concerns and not letting it degenerate into a flame fest. This thread has been very informative and caused me to double check everything on my profilux ATO!

This has been an interesting read. However, I can't help but notice that there is an important concept being ignored and that is that the Profilux device is a life support system; albeit for fish and invertebrates and not humans, it is still largely responsible for the well being of these creatures.

As a life support system, there is a requirement that it accept failures of sensors and respond in a known, predictable manner. There is a limit to what can be done in firmware, but sphelps' tips on max timer settings (or similar) should be in the manual.

The manufacturer should be aware that the product can't do everything in every conceivable situation -but often, how the unit is programmed can mitigate catastrophic situations.

Perhaps the most important 'lesson' to be learned is not to rely entirely on ANY system. As Mathias is no doubt aware, no system is perfect and as users we should always plan based on the premise that it WILL fail (and hope that it doesn't). With that in mind, it makes sense that the USER regularly inspect and replace mission-critical components that wear and are known to be prone to failure (given the environment). Even the highest quality products can fail unexpectedly; simply paying more for an item does not guarantee it will last longer than a lesser item.

Considering how sphelps went to great pains to present an informative and level description of a product shortcoming (with detailed insight on how to work around it to boot !) might cause a serious problem for others with this equipment, I am disappointed that some members took this to mean that the Profilux product is 'no good' -and even more disappointed how the commercial interests have responded. Leveler heads should have prevailed.

In all of this I see two flaws...

1) Tank was left unattended for too long (if you value your tank someone should check it daily).

2) Alarms should have to be manually reset (that's really basic engineering).



In the end though, it's all about redundancy. Redundancy is the only insurance we have. No way on Earth would I have my system set up in a way that would allow that much freshwater (or dosing fluids) to be pumped into the display. I think sometimes we rely on computers and gadgets too much, and put too much faith in them.

My system is designed so that if my freshwater bin gets pumped dry for some reason the sump can even hold all the volume so I wouldn't even have a wet floor. The top off bin needs to be refilled every second or third day, and that's fine by me because it's a safe way to do it. I cringe when people have their top off system hooked up to unlimited supplies of water. It's an accident waiting to happen. My dosing canisters are small; I have large premixed containers that I use to refill the dosing canisters once a week. My dosing pumps have dosed a whole weeks' worth of fluid in about 8 hours which ran the dosing canister dry. This was not enough to cause significant reactions. The redundancy I have implemented means I have to "do stuff" with the tank more often, but I have a lot of time, money, and energy in that glass box so it is worth it to me. When I go on holidays an aquarium maintenance company checks my tanks 1-2 times per day. It's not cheap, but neither are the corals in the tank! :p

I don't mean to sound insensitive at all, I feel really awful for what sphelps has gone through with this horrible disaster. I thank sphelps for sharing his story, and I hope we can all take something from his experience.

Myka, I agree with your statements but be aware I did have someone enter my house twice daily although their experience with aquariums is nil and their prime objective was not related to the tank. I also had someone with experience on call and checking on the tank every few days. While I would have loved to have someone with great experience in aquariums checking my tank more frequently my remote location makes this rather difficult. Also note this failure occurred very quickly within 12 hours if you can believe it. By the time the issue was noticed the damage was done.

In regards to top off water supply yes perhaps a smaller amount of available supply would be better but I have issues with this as well. If I leave for an extended period of time then IMO it's better to have enough top off water available for the entire time otherwise I have to rely on others fulling a container with RO water which in the past is something that has gone very badly for myself personally and others I know as well. So for extended trips the amount of evaporation water available IMO will need to exceed that of the amount that cannot cause damage. Using the small bucket approach to me is not redundancy as it basically adds the need for another top off system which in fact increases your chances of failures rather than decreases it. While obviously there are many way to do this I stand by my method but agree more redundancy is needed but more related to what I mentioned earlier and perhaps additional floats or something else along these lines.

Lastly I draw attention to my last request in the first post of this thread.

What I have taken from this is I'm keeping my "five gallon lift to the tank and pour in top up system" for a long long time. Call it old school, cheap, inept regarding technology but it's flawless. After reading this post and others regarding automated system mishaps be it dosing or top up has pushed me further away from ever exploring them. They're just not for me.

+1. old school is best

Jorjef, automation is tha bomb, but it's definitely not a fail-safe.

I wasn't offering advice (I know you don't like advice). I was just offering some ideas to those reading this thread. :)

I can't see how failing to refill a top off container could come to a situation as bad as the one you were dealt with though. The Tunze Osmolator quits pumping when it runs out of water, and the replacement pump is $30. If my sump runs out of water my Poseidon return pump will also quit operating. If the Poseidon happens to burn out I have a spare pump on hand with the appropriate plumbing fittings ready to go. The system is quite fine to run without the sump for a few days (the biggest consequence being no dosing), although the aquarium maintenance company would surely notice long before that. The company tested the tank for the "big three" weekly and reported to me if they were out of range for appropriate instructions on rectifying the problem.

There are always those things we just don't think about though, and those are the things that kick our butt and crash our tank. In your case, you didn't think about the repeated power outages. Who would? I've certainly never experienced such a thing.

The problem relates to filling the container once empty especially if relying on others or equipment in your absence, doing so manually from an RO increases chance of flooding and doing so automatically requires additional ATO which doesn't add redundancy but rather another point of possible failure.

When I worked out of province (for 18 months) I kept two 65 gallon barrels full of RO/DI water. These barrels held enough for one month of top offs and waterchanges for my 90. I was always home at least once a month to refill the barrels so the barrels never ran dry and the RO/DI system never ran unless I was home. The maintenance company would use a 2 gallon bucket to manually add water to the 5 gallon top off vessel. He wanted me to automate it or use a bigger top off vessel, and I said "absolutely not". He also wanted to add a float valve to the RO/DI barrels so the RO/DI would turn on automatically, but I ixnayed that idea too. He was paid to do it a certain way, and he understood when I explained. My biggest fear was clam spawning, and I eventually sold the clams because of that fear.

When I was a carpenter, my old boss used to always say, "You gotta be smarter than the tool." ****ed me off at the time, but now I laugh. Yep, that is so true. In this case, we have to be smarter than our gadgets.

Anyway, I'm sure you're tired of this thread by now...I would be. Feel free to hit me up for frags when/if you come to that point in the future.

I have to disagree with you in this situation, if you read it this all happened in less than a day, so having some one check the tank even once a day may or may not have helped. he did have some one checking every day or two.

I had 100 gal of top off water on my system, but I was old school with a float valve that was cleaned regulary. a large top off is a benifit, especialy when you go away.

if some one wanted me to check in on there tank for them while there away thats what I expect. check in and maybe feed fish, not do maintenance and such. I can tell you, unless you have a special tank sitter your paying for or a very very good friend, you start asking people to spend 3 hours at your place making water ect and your going to be looking for some one else the next time.

Steve

I think that this thread has gone far unless we get everyones opinion. That will only cause hardships and headeache's. I am so sorry Steve that your tank ended in a tragic loss. To the sponsors that gave thier opinions. Yes they gave what they knew from issues in the past. YOU can't bash a guy for giving his experience and opinions. Facts are facts. But if a sensor expires after so many years and it's electronics. Then that is a flaw wires and plastics should not have a shelf life.
But to voice a debate will just get nasty. Everyone will have a say regardless on what happens.

My thoughts Steve left for vacation and had someone check his tank.
He also had his tank monitored by a controller.
Luck have it the power went off and caused it to do what ever it did causing a catastrophic event to happen with in a day or so.

Heck I was gone over to afghanistan for 7 months and my wife watched my tank and nothing happened. I have my float switch hooked up to my top off that was in my sump. But Steve's tank did and life goes on he was just letting everyone know that what hapened. Of course the owner and mike the canadian sponssor of aqua digital wos give their explanations which was said. In my honest opinion this thread should be closed to minimize any further hard feelings.

Not to take sides, but on a conceptual level, I'm with Myka on this. A smaller reservoir is less of a potential point of failure than a large one.

Why ?

We use technology to simply the complex tasks; the simple ones can be left to the dumb humans. The instructions to the warm body checking your house daily is "Take this jug of water and use it to keep that reservoir full". If they can't handle that then perhaps they shouldn't have a key :wink:

Consider the 2 possiblities with respect to the ATO and its reservoir:

1) Small Reservoir

a) Float failure and ATO pumps entire contents into tank. If properly sized, this should not create an overflow situation and is unlikely to decrease salinity to a dangerous level. The caretaker should raise the alarm on a suddenly empty ATO reservoir after a single day.

b) Float Failure of a different nature and water is never added to the tank. Well this should show itself in diminishing sump levels and the caretaker should raise the alarm that they DIDN'T have to put any water in the reservoir.

2) Large Reservoir

a) Float failure and ATO pumps entire contents into tank. Well...big mess; major salinity drop...tank crash

b) Same as above

It's worth noting that a float switch in your sump can be used to warn of situation 'b' (for both reservoir sizes).

All that being said, if your reservoir is REALLY small and needs to be filled daily then you have to ask why you'd spend money on an ATO in the first place. :mrgreen:

Somewhere in there is a reasonable compromise and I'm guess it's in and around the 3-4 days worth mark.

A professional aquarium maintenance company will spend as much time with your tanks each day as you're willing to pay for. ;)

As I said above, I always had all the water made up for the tank sitter, he just had to put it in the proper places when it was needed. He did mix up saltwater himself for waterchanges using the RO/DI that I had stored for him. If I had the space at the time I would have had all the saltwater pre-mixed for him too.

I have been using this same aquarium maintenance company for a few years now, and he is very reliable. When I was away in June this year he came to my house twice a day for a week because of certain situation that called for this.

In the end, a person does what s/he feels comfortable with and hopefully that combined with some luck is enough to keep our reefs alive while we are gone.

To each there own but I have no interest in a so called auto top off that still requires manual top off. If my tank used 5 gallons a day and I leave for 2 weeks I need 14 5 gallon jugs. To me that's just ridiculous and that's just two weeks, possibly planning a 6-8 week trip next year, what do I do then? If we can't fully automate something as simple as replenishing evaporated water then we should probably start rubbing sticks together to heat our homes and riding horses to work. I also helped a nice guy out last year in Calgary who paid a ton of money to only suffer a complete crash at the hands of a so called "professional" aquarium maintenance company so it's not always as simple as that.

In any case the point here was just to raise awareness of a said "feature" relating to Profilux which isn't documented but I think people need to be aware of. If people want to discuss my ATO in general I invite you to do so in build thread where I'll happily entertain any thoughts you have. I actually posted a new ATO schematic asking for feedback, I want all failure modes identified so please go nuts.

Holy crap! When did this happen? When was I last there? Wasn't the tank fine?

Let me know if you would like any of the frags that you've given me back. I will happily give them back to you so you can start to populate your tank again.