Out of town and keeping things running, hopefully.

[silver surfer]

Ok, at some point we all have to leave our house longer than a trip to the local fish store and back.

Who watches the tank? What are your last minute look overs before you leave for more than 3 days? It always amazes me how people travel and keep reef tanks.

How long is the list for them to check each day. That sort of thing.

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Do you have anyone you trust that can check in on the tank for you?

Some folks turn their top-off system off, some make sure the top-off reserves are full.
I always wondered why til I came home last night, and my top-off water was out, and the water pump was running wide open for (probably) all day.

New batteries in the auto-feeder.
Depending on which auto-feeder you have, ensure that it won't dump all of the food at once.

Fresh veggie clip for the tangs

I normally cut back on the lighting schedule

I'll post more as I think of some things...

 

[kirkwood]

Every trip is the time I want a controller with wireless access... but I have to make do with a neighbor instead. For a week I will have 3 5 gallon containers of RODI ready for them to keep the ATO going.. I have a 50ml syringe that they are instructed to use for my 2 part.. I tell them VERY CLEARLY that it is ok if they miss some days, but to NEVER play catchup with dosing and to alternate CAL/ALK each day... I use the eheim autofeeder with ELOS pellets which works great.. i don't trust neighbors to feed...

worst scenario ever was when after CLEARLY saying to NEVER use tap water, my neighbor used some tap water for topoff because he ran out of RODI... we were playing a round of golf at Lake Oconee when he told me what he did and thought it was funny saying that "i never found out"... i assume the look on my face was priceless because i sure as f*%K wasn't laughing.... needless to say he has never and will never be asked back to assist with the tank..

i also leave pics of all the fish in the tank for them to take attendance, and ask that they check system temperature with every visit...

at the end of the day i think it is the most basic things that would crash your tank while you are out of town... 1) a heater going berzerk 2) exponential dosing 3)exponential overfeeding 4) leaking/flooding/salinity issue

so do yourself and your tank helper a favor and autmate as much as possible and keep it SIMPLE... at the end of the day you could probably go a week with minimal feeding and only refreshing the ATO water supply... its not optimal for your tank but without the best automated equipment on your system it will surely prevent a crash...

 

[brandonmason]

my wife and i left a friend to come by daily to check on our tank and feed the fish... and while she was here she managed to beat the hell out of my regal with the eels feeding stick... stressed the fish so bad we had an ichk break out... thankfully we only lost the regal but with the emergency trip to purchase a UV we were able to get rid of it. As well as this she turned over many frags into the sand and just left them so in all the total loss on the tank was around $1500... I will only pay a service company from here on out... I have too much invested in my tanks to leave to chance.

 

[darren24]

I have a good friend that lives in my neighborhood that works at home as I do and he comes over 1x each day to check on my tank, feed the fish, and dogs when I am on vacation. It works out well as he has instructions to call me if anything looks unusual. I usually compensate him with a gift card to a restaurant or Home Depot. Works out well.

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

I'd like to see a response related to wireless camera use. I know somebody is doing it.

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Not yet, but working on it... Trying to integrate my alarm system with my home surveillance system. When the cameras go up, one will defintetly be on the tank...

BrandonMason: How did she beat up your regal? What the heck was going on in there, frag hockey with a regal for the puck? Nothing against your neighbor, but wreckless abandon like this aggravates me. It doesn't take any more effort to be careful, and pay attention.

Silver Surfer: Reminds me: make sure you tell whomever feeds your fish to make sure they have cleaned and well rinsed hands before feeding your fish. My GF fed my fish after cleaning up my house while I was out of town. Though she'll never admit it, she had pine-sol on her hands when she pinched off the fish food. My fish ate it, and I ended up loosing 90% of my fish, and those that died left plenty of ich in my tank to piss off the rest of the fish. Can you say crash???
Oh yeah: I know this, because my fish food containers reeked of pine-sol both outside and in...

The house was clean, though. Guess I can't be too mad, she was trying to help...