Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: Vacation planning.

[Geoff]

What do you all do to your tanks to get them ready for a vacation from you.

I start with that to let you all know that once again I am going on vacation for a week! Be on good behavior again.

G~

[tankgirl2]

Arrrrgggh! I haven't gone on a vacation in years, mainly because there's nobody I trust at the LFS to take care of the tank.
Best guess is;
Water change just before you leave
Take off any filter socks if you'll be gone longer than a couple of days.
Big jug to collect excess skim product.
Check all mechanical systems thoroughly.
Notify the neighbors and make sure one of them has a key.
Get the best person you can find to come in once a day and make a list of stuff to check or do for them.

[kwjones]

What's this vacation thing? My wife and I aren't usually gone more than 2 or 3 days if we go anywhere. The last time we went on a long vacation was a few years ago, and we didn't have the tank set up at the time.

There's a guy in my reef club that has everything set up on a $50 X-10 home security system. If anything goes wrong, and I mean anything, it calls him or his wife to let them know something's wrong with the tank. He also has 12 hours worth of back up power from an un-intereupted power supply for a computer server and a gas generator. He doesn't go anywhere that he can't be back home in at least 12 hours. His security alarm works so well, that when we had the bad flooding up here a few weeks ago, it called him to let him know that his basement was flooding....pretty cool.

[Jeremy1973]

Vacation? *grabs a dictionary* Oh! that sounds nice..I want one of those!

Last time I was gone, I had a the Smiths watch my tank. Now that I have an autotop off system I can be gone for 2 days and not worry. I need a better auto top off pump..one that doesn't have a 9999 ml volume limit.

[DKKA]

On my webpage there is a webcam link. It's not live feed, it just updates the picture every hour or so when I am on vacation. It gives me HUGE peace of mind when I am gone to be able to log in and actually see how the tank is doing.
Of course, I haven't gone on vacation in a long time so the camera has just been collecting dust lately.
(btw, it wasn't expensive or difficult to set this up.)

Dan

[tims]

Wait a minute geoff.. didn't just go on vaction!!!


i agree with cleaning everything right before and having a good back up in place .. guess it depends on whole long you are a way

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by tims

Wait a minute geoff.. didn't just go on vaction!!!

working for academia rules.

G~

[cath]

Kevin- that guy in your reef club has way too much money. He needs to share it with the rest of us so we can take car of our tanks properly.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Geoff

What do you all do to your tanks to get them ready for a vacation from you.
G~

Simple plan, pick up the phone, call Greg, coordinate vacation when they can come.

[Phishnoob]

That is a good idea Spanky...hrmm might have to set up a time share thingie when we go.

[DKKA]

Originally Posted by Spanky

Simple plan, pick up the phone, call Greg, coordinate vacation when they can come.

Wish that would work for all of us. But somehow I don't think Greg would be too interested in vacationing in Peoria. We've got the Illinois river, but I think your UW camera would be useless in that muck....

[reefBoyDc]

Hey! I just got back from vacation! 12 days in France... lots of wine and cheese.

Did a 20% water change the day before I left.
I had a neighbour come every 2 days to feed.
I put 20 gallons of top off water in a trash can with a powerhead and a float valve.
I turned off skimming (oops, came back to lots of hair algae).
Took out the sponge filter in the overflow.
Prayed a lot.

All in all, it went well, expcet for the hair algae outbreak. Everything survived and my green star polyp grew.

[Eric P]

I am lucky enough to have baught a house 1-1/2 blocks from my brother. When I go away he watches my tank and the other pets (he is the only one I trust), when he goes I take care of his tanks and pets. It almost works out too good.

Eric...

[tabwyo]

I just went out of town for work for four days. The wife stayed at home but I still stressed out. I did everything I could think of and even put food portions for feeding in seperate ziplocks. I am still a stoneaged reefer. My doser is manual as well as my lights. I came back to a take full of red slime and a low calcium count cause she didn't figue out that the drip bucket had lost it's siphon. Tanks are like infant children. They need constant care and observation. It takes a tremendous leap of faith to trust anybody, even a fellow reefer, to care for your tank. Even then, they don't know and care for your "baby" like you do.

[Junkzoo]

What's a vacation?