Vacation Care Advise

[Pat24601]

So, I'm going on my first travel vacation in about 3 years the week for 8 days. I'm trying to think how to take care of my tank.

I have a local teenager coming by to feed my fish, but I hope she does that right and doesn't use tap water or something. I told her explicitly not to use tap and even wrote it down, but her total experience with aquariums is a goldfish. So, we will see. I don't trust her to do anything else.

I think my tank can survive without dosing for a week. It will get out if balance, but not that bad.

My real problem is temps and ATO.

My 5 gallon jug of ATO water lasts about 6 days with my fans on. It will last forever with my water cooling fans off. Without my wave maker running or my water cool cooling fans, my temps will hover around 81.5.

Am I better off turning my wavemaker off and my water cooling fans off and running my temp a bit high for a week? Or am I better off letting my ATO run out of water for a couple of days and being a couple of gallons low by the time I return?

 

[DaveK]

Unless you have livestock that has very demanding requirements in that it must be fed several times a day, your better off just letting the tank run itself for those 8 days..

I would get a larger container for your ATO water so it will not run out. I would leave all the other devices running.

An unskilled person is far more likely to do more harm than good. You can have them check up on the system, and maybe feed once while your away, but it's a risk I prefer not to take.

 

[Pat24601]

Unless you have livestock that has very demanding requirements in that it must be fed several times a day, your better off just letting the tank run itself for those 8 days..

I would get a larger container for your ATO water so it will not run out. I would leave all the other devices running.

An unskilled person is far more likely to do more harm than good. You can have them check up on the system, and maybe feed once while your away, but it's a risk I prefer not to take.

Exactly what I was wondering. This is what I will do. Thanks.

 

[NJ Reefer]

+1 on getting the larger ATO container. My concern with letting the ATO run dry is the heater. When the levels in the sump get too low, the heater is exposed to air which is cooler than the water. The result is the heater stays on and cooks everything in the tank. After reading about this, I have had this nightmare once or twice. Only to run downstairs in the middle of the night to find the water levels ok. What a great hobby!

 

[Pat24601]

+1 on getting the larger ATO container. My concern with letting the ATO run dry is the heater. When the levels in the sump get too low, the heater is exposed to air which is cooler than the water. The result is the heater stays on and cooks everything in the tank. After reading about this, I have had this nightmare once or twice. Only to run downstairs in the middle of the night to find the water levels ok. What a great hobby!

I never thought of this. Good to know. Sort of. Now it's one more thing to worry about!

 

[Adrienne]

Pull your drapes (blinds, curtains, nets) or whatever you call them. That will keep the room cooler to start with.

What do you feed that risks tap water being used?

Let me know how you get on, I head to Tasmania in July and daughter, who is great with the tropicals, has care of my tank which must be fed live food daily.

 

[Squatch XXL]

Your best bet with help is to literally keep things in color coded boxes for each day. There are so so sooooo many discussions on the web that start just like @Pat24601 did, but after the vacation is over they find out fun stuff like overfeeding and general lack of knowledge of filters and the sounds they should/shouldn't make.

If you have an auto-top-off, your best bet as @DaveK said is to simply let the system fend for itself. If you have help, have them watch your sump level and add only water you provide in a specific container.

Id rather chance hungry denizens of my glass cube than to find the water fowled and polluted. However if your help is exceptional, it will be like you never left.

 

[sirrealism]

Pat. Dont do it. Just stay home LOL. No really I have a story about just 6 days of vaca. One thing you can do is set a a camera or an old cell phone so you can watch it. There were some post here about how to set up an old phone to use as a vid stream on line. Plus you can watch her so you can know she is not putting anything in your system that you dont want.

 

[Snelly40]

Unless you have livestock that has very demanding requirements in that it must be fed several times a day, your better off just letting the tank run itself for those 8 days..

I would get a larger container for your ATO water so it will not run out. I would leave all the other devices running.

An unskilled person is far more likely to do more harm than good. You can have them check up on the system, and maybe feed once while your away, but it's a risk I prefer not to take.

exactly...

 

[Pat24601]

Pat. Dont do it. Just stay home LOL. No really I have a story about just 6 days of vaca. One thing you can do is set a a camera or an old cell phone so you can watch it. There were some post here about how to set up an old phone to use as a vid stream on line. Plus you can watch her so you can know she is not putting anything in your system that you dont want.

A remote camera is not a bad idea. I think I have a video baby monitor I no longer use.

However, my real reason for posting is now you have me curious about your vacation story.

 

[sirrealism]

LOL ok so my wifes mother passed. We had to go to PR to handle everything. I had my friends daughter stay at the house. I showed her exactly how much to feed and were to get top off water. I dont have ATOs on all of my tanks as I have 5. I shower her where the cubes were and that just one per tank only 1 time in the 6 days I am gone. Other then that just a SMALL pinch of flake of ocean nutrition reef flake. The container of flake was new. Since I have so many tanks I buy large containers of food. So when I got home I had an GHA outbreak. I went to feed and the flake food was almost gone. It was an 8oz container. Also When I went to look at the frozen cubes there was 20 cubes missing and should have been 5 only. Also 2 tanks were blowing bubbles from being low on water. It took me 3 months to get my tanks back to normal and I lost some high end SPS and some chalices that I can not replace. The truth is the tanks still dont look like they did before I left to this day and that was well over a year ago. So I wont be going on a any Vacas for a long time. Maybe when I have the 300 up and running and no other tanks. The 300 will be as animated as it can be. Now weekend get aways are different. I plan on going to the keys for 3 days and I will just let the tanks run for 3 days. Never will I let someone else take care of my tanks.

 

[newo11]

Pat,

It's spring - take your heater out. Take any powerheads you use to supplement your flow out (unless they are vortechs). Empty your skimmer cup. Turn you light cycle down to a minimum amount to keep temperatures in check. Lower the AC in the house (a couple of dollars more wont matter compared to the cost of the lost livestock!) Close blinds, etc. Take out anything that could break and create a problem - Murphy's law is that it will go while you are away. Agree to limit feeding to once or twice during the week at most. And I really like the camera idea!

Good luck!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Looks like your getting some great advise Pat from everyone ^

When we go on vacation a few times a year for a week (usually 7 days...) I have my sister-in-law only come by once on day 4, I do a water change & heavy feeding right before leaving & up on return. All she has to do is top-off once & feed once, two cubes frozen in a baggie labeled feed this & only this - once only. Then we text her reminding the night before she comes, emphasizing only feed the two cubes, nothing else.

Has all worked well for us & no problems... a few times a year for several years now... with minimum help (only coming once for us), all should be fine - most corals & fish can do fine on their own for a week - often when we return the tank looks better than ever

 

[mtsully71]

I follow the same routine as Glenn, feed the night before I go and top off as much as I can. Feed frozen food twice from marked baggies and top off once. 1 pinch for the coral. Works for me, my father in-law does it for me and he is 89. Think about how much that would freak you out, lord knows his driving does

 

[Squatch XXL]

Hope your vacation is spectacular. Please provide photos of some sunsets while the rest of us are out toiling for the man.

 

[Paul B]

Have your tank sitter face time you when she comes over to take care of the tank. She can show you the tank and you can watch her do whatever she is doing. I recently went to Hawaii and that's what I did. I also have a net cam on my tank so I can see it from almost anywhere in the world and call my tank sitter if there is a problem

 

[sacktheqb65]

When I go on vacation I can get my LFS to check on my fish. The guy is really great and does it for free as a service to keep you coming to the store. I always feel better because a) he REALLY knows what hes doing and b) has actually caught problems when they were small before I would have even known to look for things.

I dont know if you have anyone like that near you. It does help my cause that I am literally 5 minutes from the store!

 

[Pat24601]

Thanks for all of the great tips!

I ended up changing my plans based on the great advise I got here and basically just let my tank run for the week and all is well.

Ironically, our house sitter vastly over fed our cat while we were gone and ran us out of cat food. Not such a big deal for a cat, but I'm glad I took fish responsibilities off her plate. . I'm sure she thought she was taking extra good care of our pets.

I didn't get around to the netcam, but it's definitely a great idea and I'll do it in the future.

 

[Squatch XXL]

I ended up changing my plans based on the great advise I got here and basically just let me tank run for the week and all is well.

I hope the overfed cat does not develop a nasty algae. It could foul the house.

Glad to hear that the tank did great, and IMHO you made a perfect decision. It could have been your reef also.