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 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
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Well, THAT couldn’t be right, we thought. After all, this WAS a temperature monitor and it WAS advertised in an aquarium catalogue. I mean, I can’t vouch for aquariums everywhere but around these parts; one of the major components for successful aquarium keeping is water. So of course we called back and asked to speak to someone else. We got a ‘technician’ who stated that of course the probe could be submerged, as long as it was protected by coating it in thermal putty or silicone. But what really made us nervous was how excited he sounded about the device being used in this ‘new and novel way’ (remember, this was being marketed through an aquarium catalogue). He wanted us to keep him in the loop regarding our progress.
…“umm, yeah, sure…”
Ray then coated the probe in silicone and we programmed in the call numbers, set the parameter at 81 degrees. For those unfamiliar with my set up, I keep my tank between 76-78 degrees year round so we figured 81 was a large enough spike to warrant notification. Also, my tank does not require a ‘low’ set, as the pumps would keep it well above 80 without the chiller. Anyway, we next gave it a test by putting the probe in a glass of warm water. Guess what? It worked!!! So once again we were thrilled as the device really did call us with the warning that there |
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was a ‘problem’. The thrill however, was short lived as we soon discovered that the device kind of ‘takes over’ the phone line it’s on and, in our case, rendered it useless for any other application. We were going to have to get it its own phone line. Of course, this was Friday.
But over the weekend, more problems began to develop as the device started to call intermittently while check of the tank would show there was nothing wrong. These calls would continue though, once at 5:00 am Sunday.
Now, not too long ago, after explaining the normal routine of tank husbandry Ray and I perform on the system to a non-reefing acquaintance, I was asked, “So, how much does your wife hate this tank?” I replied that most of the time she doesn’t. In fact, because I tend to do most of my work when she’s either asleep or out running errands, she doesn’t view the normal maintenance as really invasive at all. But getting a phone call at 5 on Sunday morning from a machine, just to report a problem that doesn’t exist is below and beyond the call of duty. So, I was summarily directed to temporarily disconnect it, with a hammer if necessary.
On Monday, we decided that perhaps the parameter needed resetting. After all, though it was set for 81, the unit was ‘reading’ the temp at 79. |
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