Weekly Discussion: When away

[Geoff]

What do you all do when you have to be away from your systems for a week. i am not just talking about your withdrawal symptoms, but what do you to the system before you leave or after you get back. do you get tank sitters?

G~

[scoop]

I have a tank sitter come over. I put the food in one of those daily distribution containers and cut feeding in half, then I have them refill the top off container w/ water I have sitting nearby that already has the kalk mixed in. The only other recommendation I make is I ask them to take out any obviously dead fish if they can get them easily w/ the net (even though I've never had anything die while on vacation). If I am only gone for 4 days or less I just let the tank go, it usually looks better when I return.

[fihsboy]

I plug in my main pump to my battery back up and the rest into the surge. (rather than all on battery) I set aside food portions. And have top off buckets for every other day. Already measured out to what it will need. If there is no one available to take care of my tank.....I top off my sump with fresh water and slowly lower the salinity in my system. Lower it from .027 to around .024 or .023 that will generally allow me to be gone for a weeks time with no problems. Or at least so far....

[Jnicho]

I have four tanks now...I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go away again!!!

Seriously, we have a great "local reef community"...I know a couple fellow aquarists that are pretty close who I can trust to look in on my tanks.

In fact I have a perfect example just last week. Two of the guys I'm thinking of got together to trouble shoot and fix a calcium reactor that went on the fritz on the tank one of them was babysitting. I have some family members close enough to tank sit, but I feel better with someone that understands a reef system in case something really does go wrong.

Oh, the other piece is to make sure all pumps and other equipment have been recently cleaned. The last thing you need is for the power to go off for 2 mins and a pump not restart because it has calcium buildup.

[dv3]

Originally Posted by fihsboy

If there is no one available to take care of my tank.....I top off my sump with fresh water and slowly lower the salinity in my system. Lower it from .027 to around .024 or .023 that will generally allow me to be gone for a weeks time with no problems. Or at least so far....

your fish are ok without eating for weeks at a time?

[zero186]

lol well i am lucky i dont have any reef tanks anymore so my water can handle a week without me being there i have lights on a timer and my fish get fed one time every day so an auto feeder with pellets have been working great

[harlequin29]

I have a sitter come by to top off the water. If it's over a week I will have little cups of food that are clearly marked. In the future I will pay my electric bill on time to avoid stress and confusion while I am away.

[BGJ223]

I never left my tank for more than 1 week, but when I did. I just reduced the light cycle so that the fans wouldnt cause as much evaporation. I also added a diy water drip system for topoff. I fed the fish before I left and didnt worry about for for them until I got back.

[bella d]

drip and auto feeder for me. and then pray to the electricity gods.

[YLChik]

Tank sitter - my vacation is worth my piece of mind that I won't have 200 gallons of water in my living room should a seem pop or something insane.

For the sitter:
top off water
food in the medicine containers like someone else explained
salt water made up in the basement in case of emergency
fish count left by tank
any new corals that might come lose are circled with a marker on the glass tank

Whiskey's number, and trt left in case of emergancy!

[jenglish]

I have a sitter. He feeds and tops off only. Asking more complicated things like a water change would be more risk than it is worth IME.

[reefcrazy8587]

still do not have the strength to leave for more than 3 days... we went to the cities--on a Wednesday night (late all lights were off) topped off everything, all lights on timers... came home Sunday...worried the whole time we were gone! We were only gone 3 full days..and everything was fine-got home and topped off everything. We now have a liter meter for the big tank, and the tanks in the basement do not evaporate a whole lot (top off every 2-3 days)

[Mr.Peanut]

This thread couldn't have come at a better time for me. In 4 weeks we are going to the Bahamas for 4 days.

Unfortunately for me, my "sitter/brother" could not be any more less interested in aquariums.

My plan was to leave top off water in front of the tank for my brother to add. My sump is marked so its pretty easy to figure out. I wasn't going to ask him to feed the fish, I figured they'd be OK for 4 days.

[Geoff]

i tended to have a neighbor come over and throw a cube of food in the return pump, i had a nice little lid that all they had to do is take the lid off and drop it in. then about 10 seconds later the food would magically show up in the display.

the neighbor would also dump the 1 litre skimmer collection cup. i would slightly detune the skimmer so that it would only need to be emptied once a day instead of twice.

G~

[Mr.Peanut]

Originally Posted by Geoff

the neighbor would also dump the 1 litre skimmer collection cup. i would slightly detune the skimmer so that it would only need to be emptied once a day instead of twice.

G~

I was thinking of shutting the skimmer down while I was away, one less thing to worry about. Also I was planning on doing a large water change before and after my trip.

If I am not feeding for those few days, there wont be as much waste. So shutting down the skimmer shouldn't be a big deal right?