Vacation & Reef Automation

wantsummora acropora

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Happy New Year fellow reefers! Well I'm back from a 10 day, out of the country vacation. I must say it was fun and relaxing. I installed 2 pan and tilt cameras (made by Eufy), set up a larger ATO container, setup an auto water change system (not necessary to go on vacation but that was what I was working on before I left) and turned on my auto fish feeder. All-in-all things went smoothly. I really didn't need the service I hired (they came every other day) but it was nice to have the glass cleaned by someone so I could see. While I was away my reef turned 1 year old 12/20/2021. Happy Birthday Reef!
 
I found the best way to prep for a long trip is for a big WC a few days before then have plenty of ATO water ready and an auto feeder. We left for 2 weeks out of country and I had a friend come and check my water level twice and switch lines from one ato container to another.
Hope you had a good trip, where’d you go? I can’t wait to travel out of the country again.
 
I found the best way to prep for a long trip is for a big WC a few days before then have plenty of ATO water ready and an auto feeder. We left for 2 weeks out of country and I had a friend come and check my water level twice and switch lines from one ato container to another.
Hope you had a good trip, where’d you go? I can’t wait to travel out of the country again.
We went to Jamaica. Perfect weather 24 hours a day.
 
I found the best way to prep for a long trip is for a big WC a few days before then have plenty of ATO water ready and an auto feeder. We left for 2 weeks out of country and I had a friend come and check my water level twice and switch lines from one ato container to another.
Hope you had a good trip, where’d you go? I can’t wait to travel out of the country again.
I think Wi-Fi cameras are a big, big plus also. Controller monitoring is great but seeing everything functioning normally in the tank as well as in the sump completes the monitoring for me. For example, my service left the lid off one day and I promptly called them to rectify that. That’s something a controller can’t pick up.
 
What auto feeder do you guys recommend? I’m looking right now and don’t know which to go with! Thank you
 
We are on Comcast as well but use a GLint LTE modem as our secondary Internet connection. It's not fast but works in a pinch to provide a backup connection in the event Comcast goes down. Streaming video wouldn't work well and would burn through the data on the SIM card plan quickly but it will keep the essentials up and running. The SIM card is on Google Fi and pulls from a pool of 15GB/month. Outages thankfully are short lived here and not every day.
 
I use the Neptune one only because I have a lot of Neptune gear. It is loud and waaay over priced and you may have to rig the feed adjustment control to be stiffer so as not to do an accidental major food dump. I find the noise level to be useful as it helps me monitor each feed cycle.
 
I will often go 2 weeks without touching my system at all, even if I never leave home. I normally use a dos for auto water changes, 400 micron socks, and have plenty of ato water. Of course, I am around to see if something goes wrong, a bit different than being away. It is comforting to know the reef can run as normal when I am away - which justifies the “practice” with automated equipment😀
 
‘Nough said. For me it’s awc, ato, auto feed, and cameras. With these four I can leave town with confidence and sleep peacefully.
 
We are on Comcast as well but use a GLint LTE modem as our secondary Internet connection. It's not fast but works in a pinch to provide a backup connection in the event Comcast goes down. Streaming video wouldn't work well and would burn through the data on the SIM card plan quickly but it will keep the essentials up and running. The SIM card is on Google Fi and pulls from a pool of 15GB/month. Outages thankfully are short lived here and not every day.
Could you not use cloud storage?
 
Could you not use cloud storage?
In this case the Internet connection is being used by the aquarium controller (Apex), and remote camera viewing on-demand to check on the system. The primary connection has unlimited data. If Comcast goes down though, it fails over to backup LTE on a second modem which has a slower limited cellular tether data plan. We can still check in on the system that way, even if streaming video isn't ideal on such a connection.
 
Out of country vacations are a whole different level of stressful.

Long ago, I was in Ireland for 1 month, automated my tank (but no apex), and had my nextdoor apartment neighbor with no reef experience stop by every other day. She would refill the ATO, feed the fish, and inspect the livestock, and call me if there were any issues.

Low and behold, we did end up with an emergency. I forget what it was exactly, maybe an equipment that failed. Regardless, i walked her through fixing the issue, testing the salinity (due to leaking water and an ATO), and doing a partial water change. Fortunately, i prepped for every possible disaster, including labeled fresh/salt/and ultra-salty water, so it only took about 30 minutes of her time. It could have been worse. I brought her back a nice gift! But damn... stressful.

My only loss was a halloween lepto frag that my goby pulled out of the frag rack and buried under the sand entirely.
 
When going out of town
-I do a basic run through of things with my non d.a. tank sitter.
-Typically use one of those daily pill things for food and tell them if they miss a day to not double up.
-I have all power plugs labeled .
-I leave an emergency contact number, this is someone who still is in town and could help the tank sitter in the event of an emergency... In my case its my dad who has had tanks for over 40 years.
- I make my sitter listen to the tank... And then i say " if it sounds any different, then something is wrong"
- have extra fresh AND salt water on hand
- i dont have a controller other then ato and three smart outlet plugs for my lights
-video calling
Chris c

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