Feeding an empty tank?

JJGeisler · 03-13-2001, 11:08 AM

It has been about 20 days now that my 38g tank hase been cycling. Nitrite and Nitrate as of last testing on Sat had dropped from 4. each down to about .05 each. Ammonia 0, (had a 4.3 ammonia spike on day 2) PH 8.0, temp 73.8

I will be leaving town for 11 days starting early Thursday. My question is: should I "feed" the tank anything before leaving even though it has no livestock? I have been adding a liquid liverock/live sand suppliment (I'm not at home, not sure of the name).

Reef Sand base 20# (1.2")
Oolitic sand 30# (1.7")
Live sand 20# (1.2")
Fiji Live rock 70#

Also, lighting and filtration, should I set the lighting timers for short periods while gone to start the tank or leave tank dark while gone? I was planning on setting the CPR Bak-Pak on it's timmer to run part of each day. Right now the Bak-Pak is sort of effervescent supercharged and spewing bubbles into the tank. Not as bad now as it was Sunday afte WC on Sat but still adding a lot of bubbles through the discharge. If I don't run the filter the tank clears up very nicely.

The neighbors taking care of the cats and other tank while we're gone are sort of at the "golfish" level of aquarium keeping so I need to keep things simple for them.

Any last advise before I leave?

Brooke · 03-13-2001, 02:07 PM

Well, the bugs and bristle worms would appreciate a meal or two, but I don't think it's imperative to their survival. If you have some marine flakes, you could have your neighbors drop some in the tank once or twice (not per day, just once or twice). I wouldn't worry about it too much. Put your lights on a timer, don't leave the tank dark. If you are going to run the skimmer, show your house-sitters how to empty it if it gets full. The last thing you want is icky skimmate all over the floor. BTW, get the bubble trap for the bakpak and that will virtually eliminate your bubble problem. Plus, as the skimmer gets broken in, it won't let quite as many bubbles in the tank. Do you have any other filtration on the tank? You don't really need to keep the skimmer going, but do keep your heater, powerheads, etc going.

HTH-make sure they have you # in case something happens with the tank.

Hope to see you tonight at the reef meeting.

Brooke

JJGeisler · 03-13-2001, 07:52 PM

The stuff I was trying to remember earlier is "Coral-Vital LSB" Live Sand Booster, by Marc Weiss Co. Been adding that to the tank as a supliment.

Brooke: Sent separate e-mail bout the meeting, schedule conflict. #'s...Just like baby sitters, they have my pager, cell and list of cities and numbers I'll be at and when.

Bought another timer today to hook up to the skimmer to run it part of the day but not full time while gone. What bubble trap for the Bak-Pak?

I pulled the Rio 2100 powerhead I did have out temprarily, put the Visi-jet back in (100-125 gph). The 2100 was chewing up the tank with to much out-put in a 38g tank. I ordered an Ocean Curents wavemaker 2+ weeks ago but they were on back-order. They finally got them in stock and it was supose to ship last Tuesday. I was hoping to have that hooked up to the 2100 as it took a unit that size to power the wavemaker (decreased flow) With out it..to much. Still haven't seen the order yet.

I hope to take a full tank reading tomorrow and see what the final #'s are before I blast.

JJ