Equipment Maintenance Checklist for Tank Automation

Wipe biofilm and salt creep from the probe body with a soft cloth and inspect the cable for cracks near strain relief points. Even slight fouling can slow response time and cause heaters or chillers to cycle late, which is especially risky if your controller is set to a tight 77.5-78.5 F range.

Recalibrate pH probes every 4-6 weeks using fresh 7.00 and 10.00 calibration fluids, not old packets that have been opened for months. Automated kalkwasser, CO2 scrubber control, and calcium reactor tuning all depend on stable pH data, so drift can quickly lead to dosing mistakes.

Compare the controller's conductivity or salinity reading to a calibrated refractometer at least monthly. A mismatch of even 0.001-0.002 SG can trigger false auto top off assumptions or mask a slow salinity rise caused by dosing, evaporation, or a stuck top off system.

Remove sensors from the sump, clean the lens or float housing, and confirm nothing can block movement or light transmission. Auto top off failures often come from a thin film layer, vermetid tubes, or a snail parking on the sensor, not from the controller itself.

Place a few drops of saltwater or fresh water on the leak pad and confirm the alarm, push notification, and programmed shutdown all trigger correctly. Many reefers assume leak sensors are working until a cabinet flood proves the alert path was never verified after setup.

Confirm the system clock is correct so lighting ramps, feed modes, skimmer delays, and dosing windows happen when expected. Time drift can quietly shift alk dosing into the wrong part of the day or cause maintenance reminders and alerts to arrive at unhelpful times.

Disassemble the pump, soak hard parts in diluted citric acid, and remove calcium buildup from the magnet, shaft, and volute. Flow reduction from buildup can alter sump water levels, trigger top off instability, and reduce turnover that your controller assumes is constant.

Run each powerhead through its speed presets and verify it starts reliably after feed mode or a power cycle. DC pumps with dirty bearings or swollen bushings may work at 80 percent but fail to restart at lower programmed night settings.

If your skimmer is tied into a controller, test the float switch or cup full sensor and verify the skimmer turns off immediately. A failed overflow sensor can dump wet skim into waste containers, strip salinity, and trigger repeated false alerts if the programming is not maintained.

Salt creep and dust can restrict air draw and make automated skimmer performance look inconsistent in your trend data. Flush the venturi with warm RO water and inspect airline tubing so the skimmer does not underperform after feed holds or sump level swings.

Activate each programmed mode and confirm return pumps, wavemakers, skimmers, and UV sterilizers follow the intended sequence. This catches mistakes where a return pump stays off too long, a skimmer restarts before the sump stabilizes, or a circulation pump never resumes after a manual override.

Use a smart outlet or energy monitoring strip to watch for pumps drawing more or less power than usual. Rising wattage often signals scale buildup or bearing drag, while unexpectedly low draw can indicate a slipping impeller or partial motor failure before flow visibly drops.

Measure each head over a timed run, such as 60 or 120 seconds, and update the controller with the actual ml delivered. Peristaltic heads drift over time, and a 10 percent error in alkalinity dosing can move dKH faster than many SPS systems tolerate.

Inspect for flattening, cracking, discoloration, or stiff sections, especially on high-use alkalinity lines. Old tubing can siphon, lose prime, or reduce output consistency, which creates noisy alk and calcium trends even when your schedule looks correct on screen.

Run RO water through lines periodically if the additive allows it, and inspect line ends for crusting where they enter high-flow sump zones. Precipitation at the tip can reduce dose volume or create delayed slugs of additive that confuse your parameter control strategy.

Check reagent expiration dates, waste container capacity, and sample line cleanliness on any auto alkalinity or multi-parameter tester. Automated testing only adds value if the readings are trustworthy and the unit is not silently running low on reagent or pulling a compromised sample.

Remove buildup from recirculation pumps and inspect the pH probe port and effluent needle valve for clogging. Reactor automation depends on steady effluent and accurate internal pH, so even minor restriction can cause unstable media dissolution and alk swings.

Review your automation logic so alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and amino acid dosing are spaced appropriately and not entering the same low-flow chamber together. This is especially important when multiple heads run off a controller that may queue tasks too closely after a power recovery.

Compare the controller's temperature reading and heater activation point with a trusted digital thermometer. If the heater turns on or off outside your intended 0.5-1.0 F control band, recalibrate or replace components before seasonal room temperature swings expose the error.

Look for condensation in heater end caps, corrosion on plugs, and verify the heater is still connected to the controlled outlet you think it is. Misassigned outlets after maintenance are a common automation failure that can leave a tank without heat or with an unregulated heater.

Dust buildup reduces airflow and causes fans or chillers to run longer, increasing noise, power use, and temperature lag. In tightly automated systems, poor cooling performance can create repeated alarm cycles during summer afternoons.

Simulate a short outage and confirm critical loads like return pumps, a powerhead, air pump, or controller brain stay online as planned. Battery backups that have not been tested may have degraded runtime and fail long before the 2-6 hours you expect.

Press the test and reset buttons on GFCI outlets, verify all cords still form proper drip loops, and inspect power strips or controller bars for salt creep. Corrosion and moisture intrusion can cause phantom shutdowns, false power alerts, or dangerous electrical faults.

Make sure your notifications are set wide enough to avoid alarm fatigue but narrow enough to catch real issues, such as 76.5 F low and 80.5 F high for a system normally running 78.0-78.5 F. Thresholds copied from another tank often do not match your actual seasonal operating range.

Send a test alert and verify it reaches your phone, email, or SMS path without delay. Automation loses much of its value if your system logs a fault locally but your remote monitoring chain fails because of app permission changes or expired notification settings.

Before applying updates to controllers, dosers, Wi-Fi power strips, or smart pumps, export settings and photograph key schedules. Firmware can improve stability, but it can also reset outlet names, custom alarms, or integration behavior that took hours to fine-tune.

Review which alarms matter immediately and which should require a delay, such as a sump level alarm that must persist for 3-5 minutes before notifying. This helps prevent ignored alerts caused by harmless feed mode transitions, temporary pH dips, or skimmer restarts.

Physically trace and label every controlled device so the return pump, skimmer, heater, and dosers correspond to the names in your dashboard. During troubleshooting or emergency calls to a tank sitter, clear labeling prevents the wrong device from being unplugged or rebooted.

Clean lenses, confirm night visibility, and make sure critical areas are still in frame after any maintenance. A well-placed camera can help you verify a skimmer overflow, water level issue, or return pump outage remotely before deciding whether intervention is urgent.

Look for gradual changes over weeks, not just alarm events, because slow drift often reveals fouling equipment or changing evaporation patterns early. For example, a steadily lower overnight pH or a longer top off runtime can point to maintenance needs before a threshold is breached.