Traveling Plans

[Curtswearing]

I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life. My wife is a very patient person. I have a job with flexible hours. I have found a huge group of crazy internet friends (most of whom, I've never met before), etc.

I will be driving to Magnolia, Arkansas for thanksgiving #1, Texarkana, Arkansas for Thanksgiving #2, and then back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving #3. All in the course of 3 days. I'm not even scheduled to get into Magnolia tonight until 2 a.m.

I have made some plans for my fish tank while I'm out of town. Namely, I have 2 teens in my subdivision who will check on the tank when they let the dogs out in the morning and afternoon and they have a list of phone #'s to reach me if there are any problems.

What do you do about your tank when you go on vacation or take a short trip?

 

[Hooked]

Wow! Don't forget turkey is a sedative Three dinners in three days--you'll be comatose!

I wanted to tag along on this thread as I'll be gone for a week at Christmas and I'm worrying about it already.

 

[Jakets]

I usually use a pet sitting service. They will look after the cat and the tank. and we board the Bird because it needs more attention.
We have been using the same person to pet sit for quite some time and I add task for her each time she comes
First time was just feeding, Next was feeding and water top off.

Jason

 

[EdgeKrusher]

I haven't travled yet since I've had the tank, but this summer I'm going to go to Chicago. I'll probably have the one roomate I trust to do water top offs, and just keep an eye on things.

EK

 

[wooddood]

first of all curt have a safe trip thats a lot of driving in 3 days.second try not to worry about things at home while your gone im sure all is in good hands.i know that that one will be hard to do but try ok,they have numbers to get ahold of you if need be.and last happy thanksgiving to you and yours.i really mean that.i have never met you personally but have talked with on the net many times and you have always been very kind and helpful[you know what i mean]so that said have a wonderful thanksgiving. dave.

 

[jimeluiz]

Good thread. Maybe we can come up with a list of Best Practices to be archived somewhere.

We are slowly getting a neighbor hooked on the tank so he is happy to check on it daily when we go out for a weekend. But we have a 4 week trip planned for April and will be looking for a friend to move into our apartment for the duration. (Living in the middle of San Francisco helps find an interested party )

I tried to think of some worst-case scenarios then come up with instructions and response plans for each. Example: if the pump goes - unplug everything but leave one powerhead on for circulation. I have a battery air pump and air stone that can be dropped in...

Labeling the power cords was a big improvement - I cannot expect a tank sitter to make any sense of the cord mess under our tank.

I have a replacement heater on deck in case one goes and needs to be changed out.

While I could parcel out food in daily doses, I have not as yet. I just counsel our friend in the virtues of "less is more."

Topping off with RO water is easy enough, I have a mark on the sump indicating at what point more needs to be added, and I encourage our friend to put in two or three days worth of water if they like to limit the constant attention needed in this area. I get the water from the LFS in advance, so no errand is involved.

Thus far we have not been gone long enough to need parameter checks or water changes. That will be an issue come April. But again, I hope to have a young person hanging out in our apartment (we have one in our sights ) who will take on the whole situation. Our log will come in handy then to offer standard measurements.

I never really stop thinking and worrying a little about the tank. We do not have a cell phone, so I leave numbers for where I will be and encourage emails. And I encourage our friend to leave a message on my home answering machine if there is a problem. The machine time-stamps the message and I can retrieve messages from afar.

JMHO

 

[Imperial]

I'm kinda doing the same thing. I got my sister a 5.5 nano for her b-day this year and showing her how to take care of it. So now if I ever have to go out of town she can be my back up.

 

[wooddood]

great thought all.keep em coming.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

This is one strategy that has worked well for me.

Go to a reputable LFS and see if they have a bonded pet sitter with reef aquarium experience. It will be well worth the peace of mind and not having to spend $$$$$$$$ to replace lost corals/fish. They will come by and feed daily if required as well as make sure everything is running and your tank doesn't crash from something as simple as a temporary power outage.

I've had two great experiences with a great service here in Reno. Made up a schedule a they followed it to a "T". Even called me on my cell phone with a question. The bomb!

:smirk:

 

[Sweettoothbear]

One way to not worry about how much a tank sitter is feeding :

Go to your local Rx store and buy the little plastic pill container that has the day of the week printed on them.

They have weekly and monthy ones. Pre-measure your daily amounts and put into your freezer.

When you tell someone a pinch,often their pinch is usally larger than yours.

 

[SaltyQueen]

My parents have had a freshwater tank for years, so they're familiar with that- this has made it easier for them to learn how to take care of the saltwater tank for me while I'm gone. So they come over every other day to feed the fish. I'm a nurse, & travel a lot on medical mission trips to Haiti, Eastern Europe, & Southeast Asia. Sometimes I'm gone for up to 3 months at a time. I've had my saltwater tank for 7 months now, so the longest I've been gone with it is 2 weeks, but it's always been OK, & my freshwater tank has been OK for up to 3 months. I think the best thing is to find someone you trust & who is competent enough to learn how to take care of your tank & take it seriously.

 

[Scooterman]

Ahh, I see I miss this one! I'll Tag along!

 

[johnlewis]

If it's just me going out of town I leave top off water and 2 part solution ready to go for my wife. I clean the system a couple of days before I leave including a water change. I send e-mail back daily with reminders on what to check and do.

If it's all of us going I have my nephew look after them, and leave directions and phone number, do the clean up routine and walk him through the process.

 

[Curtswearing]

excellent posts everyone.

 

[fidojoe]

I love my cell phone when I have to go out of town

Ususally, if ever, its only for 4 days max, but I have a cousin around the corner, who we have feed our cat, dog, and my fish while were're gone, but I've only had him take care of my SW once. I called him, and told him how to feed, and how to add topoff, which I already had written on a list for him, not that its hard to lift the canopy, and slide the eggcrate opening to one side, and slowly dump, but hey he only has his 1st 4 gallon FW setup for 3 moths now.

 

[Icebox]

Well call me crazy, and I probably am, but I do not worry about it. I clean the skimmer, fill up the bucket that holds the top off water, check my levels, (unless it is just for the weekend) and go. if it is going to be for a long weekend, then I have found that I evaporate more water than an IO salt bucket, so I roll the trashcan over that I make the water into, and just use it. Who cares what it looks like if nobody is around right?

If it is going to be really cold, I will turn the heat on about 55 so the heaters can keep up, or 75 if it is supposed to be too hot.

Other than that, the lights are on timers, I have an automatic feeder that feeds 2ce a day, 2 heaters and enough PH's to keep some movement even if a pump fails.

 

[SaltyQueen]

icebox- let me get this straight... you turn the heat DOWN to 55 when it's cold out, & UP to 75 when it hot out? Shouldn't this be the other way around???

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I'm not Icebox, but if you turn the heat to 55 in the winter it will keep the house from being an ice box, get it, and the tank heater will only have to make up 25-27 dregrees assuming the tank temp is 80-82 degrees.

In summer with the temp at 75, the air conditioner will come on and keep the house at that temp and the tank differential will be 5-7 degrees.

I hope I didn't confuse the issue!

:smirk:

 

[Tarasco]

If I'm only going to be gone for a weekend, I don't worry much about it, just make sure that the sump is topped off, everything's plugged in, and the probes are in their proper place.

I did have to leave for two weeks once. I hired a professional maintenance guy to come once a week, just to make sure that everything was OK. I then got a neighbor to come in every other day to perform feeding and top-off duties, and gave him the phone number of the maintenance guy in case of emergency (I was out of the country). Worked great.

 

[dgasmd]

uhmmm, this is one that took some thinking for me since I have quite a large set up and didn't want to inconvenience fellow reefers in town. Here is what I did even when leaving the country.

1. Got my neighbor that does know a thing about fish tanks and is incredibly scared of my set up. He thinks the whole thing is more complicated than heart surgery on bypass. That was great for me since it was exactly what I was looking for. More on this below.

2. Took a picture of the equipment set up and labeled every single thing.

3. Made a detailed check list of what every piece of equipment in the picture was supposed to be doing to be considered working properly and added a few other things to check like the bulbs are on, etc.

4. My top off can go for about 1 week, so I would make sure that it was completely full right before I left. Just in case, my RO/DI unit is set up to fill the top off container, so all one has to do is turn a faucet on. I showed my neighbor that and had it in a picture too.

5. Had him come over and did a run down the list of what he was supposed to look at and verify point by point. Also had him feed the fish flakes so he gets the idea of amount and stressed several times that the easiest way to kill my tank is to feed them more than what I had just showed him.

6. Had a fellow reefer come by and do a quick and dirty run down of my set up including showing him where the breaker box was and what switches were dedicated to the tank. Also, showed him what to do in case of a power failure and such. I trust the guy blindly, so I know in case of an emergency he would do for me as if it was his own. This is priceless.

7. Made a list of contact numbers starting with my fellow reefer and added another 4 in case he was unreachable for some reason. I told those other people they would only be called in case of a disaster. Also added every possible number where I could be reached (even outside the country) even for the most stupid question. I stressed to no end that I rather be called for something insignificant than not be called and find my $20,000 in livestock dead. Yes, I exagerated on the cost of the livestock, but that is an added factor of incentive to call.

8. I made a list of things that qualified as "call me at your convenience" and things that qualified as "call my buddy NOW and then calle me right after".

This has worked several times very well. The reason I picked someone that has no clue about fishtanks instead of someone that does is that he is so much more likely to just go down the idiot proof list and check each point I wrote down than someone that does know something and thinks they are going to "make it better" or fisx it for me and not tell me until I get home. This is how every disaster when you are not home begins.

Hope that helps you.