Vacation Feeding . . .

[BigAl07]

My wife and I are going out of town for a week starting middle of next week. Here is what I propose to do for each of my two tanks.

Work 12g Nano-Cube
#1 educate a co-worker on what the tank SHOULD look like (water levels etc etc)

#2 have a couple of gallons of RO/DI water here in the office for top-off (normal is about 1 - 1 1/2 gallons a week

#3 Premix and freeze the Mysis and Cyclopeeze mush that I feed them. I'll freeze it into small "pucks" in an ice tray that has shallow 1/2 ball indentions. This way the feeder can simply drop a "puck" into the water and it will melt slowly releasing the concoction to the tank. This will be pre melted in RO/DI water, strained to remove the "rocket-fuel" that they are originally frozen in and re-frozen with Cyclopeeze in an RO/DI solution.

#4 Give the phone # of the LFS for emergencies or questions

Home 10g tank
#1 educate the landlord on what the tank SHOULD look like (water levels etc etc)

#2 have about 5 gallons of RO/DI water here in the office for top-off (normal is about 3 -4 gallons a week)

#3 Premix and freeze the Mysis and Cyclopeeze mush that I feed them. I'll freeze it into small "pucks" in an ice tray that has shallow 1/2 ball type indentions. This way the feeder can simply drop a "puck" into the water and it will melt slowly releasing the concoction to the tank. This will be pre-melted in RO/DI water, strained to remove the "rocket-fuel" that they are originally frozen in and re-frozen with Cyclopeeze in a RO/DI solution.

#4 Give the phone # of the LFS for emergencies or questions

How does that sound for a week's vacation? anything else I need to do or NOT do?

I'll do water changes the last day before leaving so that will be taken care of.

Allen

[goldenmean]

That sounds good Al.
I always leave written instructions with my caretaker
on top of educating them.

You may not have time before this trip but having an ATO really helps keep it simple for the caregivers and gives me peace of mind.

[jimeluiz]

Don't forget to show your co-worker and landlord any electrical points of interest. Do you have an emergency breaker (I forget the name) and reset button? If the power goes out for some reason they may need to trip that switch to get things up again.

I make a chart for feeding, adding water, swishing out the skimmer, etc. It's meant to be a handy reminder tool - not a task master chart - they can check off when they feed, or add water, etc. It helps me when I get back, in case things look funny.

We're off for two weeks starting today - so I'm doing the same chack list.

j

[Woodstock]

Sounds good but be sure to reiterate to the 'fish sitter' to ONLY feed a specific amount. Most people overfeed fish very easily.

[BigAl07]

Yeah too late for ATO but I have a fairly simple "method" that works out great for topping off. It's a lot more simple now that I have my own Ro/DI unit. Now I have plenty of water on hand.

Thanks for your input jimeluiz and those are good idea. I have all of my systems on battery back-ups and at work the breaker would be monitored by other staff members and at home it's the landlord and he helped set all that up in the beginning.

All are GREAT ideas.

Allen

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

Sounds good but be sure to reiterate to the 'fish sitter' to ONLY feed a specific amount. Most people overfeed fish very easily.

That's precisely why I want to pre-mix and freeze the DAILY amount. Then just drop ONE puck into the water and be done with it. I don't think one puck (slightly larger than a nickel but smaller than a quarter) of frozen treat will even remotely affect water temp and both tanks have a heater either way.

I use freeze dried "Stuff" every other day just for variety but that's all done by "pinch measurement" and that's not something I want to leave open to interpretation so I'll just premix and freeze a daily portion. We have a freezer here at work I can leave it in safely.

Allen

[AQTCJAK]

Al sounds good. You can even leave them my cell number if you like.

[BigAl07]

Originally Posted by AQTCJAK

Al sounds good. You can even leave them my cell number if you like.

Thanks Jack. I may just do that. I'll shoot you a PM

Allen

[Melanie]

I like your plan. I used a weekly pill container marked MTWRFSaSu and put each day's food in it's own square. No confusion! You could put your pucks in it if you wanted! I got mine for $.99 at Walgreens.

[BigAl07]

Very good idea Mel Thanks for your input

Allen

[BigAl07]

I created a "Test" batch tonight. It's in the freezer now. I had a time getting the right "mixture" in each lil cubicle. Next time I'll be more consistent but for a test batch I think it will be fine. One day they'll get more shrimp and the next day more cyclopeeze.

On a side note, there was a HUGE shrimp head in the mix. It was the size of my peppermint shrimp and it was in the bag of frozen mysis. I dropped it into the tank for my purple lobster and a peppermint shrimp grabbed it and went climbing up the rocks like a home-sick angel.

Allen

[sasquatch]

I think you should be charged with reckless abandonment lol, imagine taking off for a week, how posh! sounds like you got it covered Allen, have a great and safe trip, there will be a test when you get back so study up. Steve

[BigAl07]

Ok I didn't INVENT this idea but I LOVE it! I dropped a pair of "mush-cubes" into my tank this morning and EVERYONE went wild. I laughed as the peppermint shrimp hung upside down from the "icebergs" ripping mysis from the cube and literally dropping most of it to the tank. I watched as the cubes melted and released the Cyclopeeze to the tank. It all lasted maybe 3 minutes at the most. I may try for a slightly larger cube in a different tray. The one I used wasn't easy to get them out and I had to use my fingers to pry them free. But I think once I get this perfected that may be how I feed from now on.... I could do a BIG batch at home on Sunday night and have them in both freezers for the week and just drop a cube in during feeding time. I LOVE IT!

Allen