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What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:55 pm
by neuro
Hi Everyone,

I was recently on vacation, and two things happened that caused my tank to crash and a minor water spillage when restarted by a friend who was only able to get to the tank 3 days late.

1: For some reason, my cable modem dropped connection (I think I have the motorola SB6121), and it remained offline. It does this every once in a while, and I believe it's a known issue.
2: The fishtank tripped the circuit breaker (it's a 20amp fuse). I have no idea why, since it was able to handle the load before. Everything was tested at least 2 weeks prior to my leave to ensure power was not an issue. The cable modem is not on the same circuit.

There was no blackout, nor a brownout that I am aware of. Not sure why both subsystems failed at the same time.

I have a few questions:

1. What is your blackout/brownout practices?
2. Is there a way to get the ReefAngel portal to send me an email if it recognizes a blackout/brownout? or can't contact the ReefAngel at given intervals?

There wasn't a whole lot of blackout/brownout search hits, so I figured I'd ask.

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:29 pm
by mudcat1
If you have the WiFi module and can connect to your reef angel via the internet, you might consider using a monitoring service like http://www.reeftronics.net/ that can send you an alert if it cannot communicate with your reef angel after its polling interval.

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:18 am
by ReefingHavoc
Just read about reeftronics, are you using it? It shows only 10 people signed up for RA

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 5:23 am
by lnevo
I use it. The offline alerts are great! And 30 day charts are awesome.

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:39 pm
by neuro
mudcat1 wrote:If you have the WiFi module and can connect to your reef angel via the internet, you might consider using a monitoring service like http://www.reeftronics.net/ that can send you an alert if it cannot communicate with your reef angel after its polling interval.
oh that's fantastic!!! thank you i'll look into it. it would have helped me a lot to know that my reef angel was noncommunicative. i might have been able to save my tank...

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 12:14 pm
by jsclownfish
I second Lee's comment. The notifications and 30 day charts are great. I find the Reeftronics, RA portal, and RA apps back each other up when there is a signal issue with the wifi or a real power concern. I just spent a week out of the country and it is great to be able to keep tabs on things. A webcam makes for a bit of relief as well when you just want to know things are OK in the tank or show it off for friends. ;)

-Jon

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 10:59 am
by mls228
Thanks for the heads up, just signed up for Reeftronics.

Re: What is your blackout/brownout mitigation? Tank crashed.

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:01 pm
by GTi_Leo
could have been a power surge that caused the breaker to trip and modem to go, or it could have been a short somewhere in the tank like a broken pump or heater that caused the breaker to go, the modem could have been a freak thing