How are you prepping for vacation away from your reef aquarium? GIVE US THREE THINGS

[youcallmenny1]

We don't like being away for more than 4-5 days at a time so it's not too bad. I turn up the autofeeder to 3x/day, make sure I feed some extra nori/frozen in the 2-3 days leading up to the trip and do my best to make sure the chemistry is stable before we leave.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Planning a total of a 21 days +- of travel @ once in Sept. Cruise + wedding to attend + visit family in NY & MA. I was going to fly home to CA at some point during it all, but Im leaning towards winging it and not seeing the west coast for the duration of the trip.

I travel for work up to 10-14 days at a time, so I'm already set up for that. I'm thinking of how to be more resilient to make it 3+ weeks with minimal (if no) human intervention. Auto top off water is the major limiting factor. I fill the 10g ato reservoir and that will tie me over 12-14 days on the dot. Usually a 20 percent water change before I leave. I was a early adopter of cams (I went cheap), tank is fairly automated with a apex. My tank stock will do just fine on automated pellets indefinitely as I make a point to get all of the fish eating pellets.

I have a few friends/family I trust with the tank, if I feel I need to call someone. My dad primarily as he's been a reefer for 40+ years and a good freshwater friend that can get his way around a saltwater tank.

 

[New&no clue]

I cheat and hire a professional reef sitter to come in. My tank always has the ATO, Dosing, AWC, Inkbird temp control, and Auto feeder. A couple of things I do before I leave

1. Empty skimmer.
2. Fill both the RODI and Saltwater barrels.
3. No new equipment, additives, or really any changes for a couple of weeks leading up to it.

 

[arafas]

ato, auto fish feeder, doser. Dont change to many things before. Make sure tank is running on its own a month before and then you are good to go.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

You guys have money left over for vacations?!

Its waaaayyyy easier when I don't pay to fly

 

[RichReef]

I have a sitter to feed and manually dose. He is my daughter's best friend.

He's great. He knows my entire daily procedure.

He has watched the tank for 5 1 week vacations so far without a problem.

He enjoys doing it.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am usually taking a good two weeks away every year. This year only 10 days so far. What I do to prepare:

1. Clean and do water changes about 4 days before I leave. Allows everything to get back into good rhythm and can see if anything is off.

2. We have a dog sitter, so they also work as a tank sitter. I make sure they get a rundown in person before we leave and I have a detailed spreadsheet of anything that has to be done each day. I make sure plenty of frozen food ready in 3 day cups (each cup will last the tank about 3 days).

3. Leave numbers to be reached and have a back up reef keeper available if needed. Make sure all cords and such are labeled in case of needing to talk the sitter through anything.

I have come back to some casualties and some algae issues, but usually not too bad.

 

[ZoWhat]

IM ACTUALLY ON A 2 WEEK VACATION RIGHT NOW, 750 MILES FROM HOME

1) Apex. Can't live without out it. It's running heaters, lights, flow, sump, skimmer, EVERYTHING mechanical electrical. Even an ATO. You can't be gone for 2 weeks without one. Used ones on Ebay are pretty affordable

2) Wyze cameras. Completely separate from Apex..multi-cam on DT and sump. Visual confirmation everything is okay. Visual confirmation #3 below is being done daily.

3) 2oz plastic cups with lids. Paying a neighbor kid to simply dump three plastic cups in the DT daily. All three cups with lids on them and three cups in a zip lock bag in the refrigerator. 15 day supply . one cup is PREMEASURED food. second cup is PREMEASURED vodka dose, third BactoBalance

Done .... been doing it this way for 3 yrs

 

[PR_nano]

The tank can sustain itself a week but always have someone who can stop by to refill ATO, feed frozen or just do a quick visual inspection if needed.

 

[moorjames]

I use the Rover app when I'm gone- you can hire someone to come over and check on your animals and I have them check on my cats and tank. They even take pictures while they are there and give any updates you ask for. It's been super awesome since I don't have an ATO, or any dosing equipment so having them come over to change out the filter and top off water has been extremely helpful.

 

[Treefer32]

I will be gone the first two weeks of July. I did the same last year and I create a schedule of friends, family, and maintenance expert.

1. I provide the contact of the expert to the friends and family.
2. I create an excel schedule of who will be at the house checking things and feeding frozen food on which days (And provide to all 3 parties).
3. I monitor temp and PH from my Apex while gone.
4. I have 2 wyze cams that I can view at any time. One on the sump / top off area and one on the display itself.
5. I have alerts setup with the fusion app if power / network connection is lost.
6. My top off system monitors my 75 gallon top off bin and monitors my sump with fail safes. So, no one needs to mess with any top off stuff, and it's plugged into the apex so if it needs to be power cycled to reset the top off unit I can do it remotely.
7. I have an auto shut off on my skimmer cup if it gets full and I can power cycle the skimmer auto shut off remotely if for some reason the cup gets full in the two weeks (after someone empties it.)
8. I clean my algae scrubber perfectly clean right before I leave so it can last the entire two weeks.
9. I make sure a full roll of filter floss is on the roller mat.
10. I verify all dosers are full of their stuff.
11. Food is in labeled baggies for each day in the freezer.
12. I keep nets, tongs, and other supplies nearby the tank laid out neatly in case anyone needs something.
13. Test kits laid out with instructions (I usually have the expert test if anything) but, testing is a bit moot because I can't really do anything about it unless alkalinity is low and dosing needs to be adjusted or something.
14. I perform all major tests, alk, nitrates, phosphates, and salinity right before I leave. So, I have a base benchmark in case something goes wrong when I am back I can compare my water quality stats.
15. Lastly, I do have someone check it everyday and I only feed frozen. The last 3 years I've setup auto pellet / flake feeders to feed in the mornings, but, Either one of the people I have checking the tank or I knock them into the tank.. I've seriously ruined all 3 pellet feeders 3 years in a row. So, debating going without them. I can't wait for the auto frozen food feeder to be released. Looking forward to feeding multiple frozen meals per day!

That's my list... I'm sure I'm missing something, but, it's worked so far with minimal, if any losses during this time. I've had nutrients spike because I had my people overfeed while I'm gone. I'm going to be trimming the feeding amount back so as not to spike nutrients at times when I'm not available to deal with them.

 

[JMacedo]

It's about that time again and many reefers are going to take a vacation! But owning a saltwater reef aquarium and taking extended trips away from your tank can be stressful! So let's talk about vacation tank prepping!

GIVE US THREE TIPS: How do you prepare to leave your tank for an extended time away?

@JMacedo's watching his reef from his phone while on vacation

That was me! lol As someone whose thank crashed during my holidays due to electrical issues in the building and consequently the frying of my UPS, my three tips are:

Power backups capable to cope at least with a return pump and heaters/chillers and dosers for several hours. I am using a Cyberpower CPS 3500PRO and a Cyberpower 1000E EPS units with 5x100AH batteries. Return pump+ 2 MP40 + 10000 BTU A/C compressor as a chiller. If something electrical happens these units can provide my tank with about sixteen hours of continuous power.

A second return pump in case one fails.

Someone with access to your tank while you are away a person with some knowledge of how your tank works that could go there in case you notice something wrong through cameras/controllers, or someone who can go there everyday to feed the fish, empty the skimmer and so. Last time I paid someone to feed my fish and empty the skimmer everyday while I was on holiday.

Happy holidays!

 

[ScubaFish802]

I take vacations out of the country for 2 weeks. I set things up a week ahead of time to test and do a regular water change a couple of days before I go.

* two heaters with Inkbird controllers are always running in sump but the 2nd heater and probe are moved to the DT
* automatic air bubble set up in DT
* my 5 gallon ATO reservoir switched out to a 20 gallon, I go thru 5 gal a week and more in winter
* two Eheim automatic feeders set at different times (in case one fails)

*Backup return and ATO pumps
*A Wyze camera is set to view the sump and DT. I bought an orange vinyl film to cover it but need something better because I can't make out the coral very well. Any ideas anyone?
* Saltwater for at least 2 water changes (one is for when I return).
* A reefer friend on call and a backup from the LFS for an emergency.

Last, know there is a company in England called "Three Pay as You Go". I use their SIM card for internet/phone service in multiple European countries.

This is a great idea! We have wyze cameras around our home currently, and they are so cheap and pretty high quality video & recordings. I have not thought to spend the extra $30 to get one for tank, but heading to Amazon now! lol

 

[NDIrish]

Have most automated. My son goes by and checks things out.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Not really a "vacation" so to speak, but we do leave for up to a week at a time to attend various tradeshows and events, and we leave the office tank in the care of the staff.

Three tips:
1) MAKE NO CHANGES!
Don't make any changes to the system within a few weeks of leaving. Changing the way things work just before a long trip is a recipe for (potential) disaster.

2) Make enough RO water for top off
if you resivor only lasts a few days like ours, you need to make sure you have enough RODI water on hand so that your tank sitter can fill it back up

3) Take the guess work out of feeding your tank
Over feeding is probably one of the top cause of issues when you are away. Your tank sitter may not be up to speed on how to properly feed without over feeding. (fish always look hungry)

Most of the tank systems are automated and requires very little daily attendance, however our office tank is fed frozen foods once to twice a day, so that still needs to be done by hand.

To make this easy and to remove any guesswork we meal-prep for the tank using our Deluxe Defroster cups. We setup on cup for each day or each feeding and mark them as such - then pop them back in the freezer.

Then when the staff needs to feed the tank, they simply pull one cup, defrost, drain and feed - done!

 

[Dbichler]

I take 3 one week vacations every year and before I go I feed heavily for the week prior and top off my 44 gallon brute ato night before leaving hang nori the morning I leave as well as fill my auto feeder. Haven’t had any issues doing it this way.

 

[ying yang]

I go on a 7 daY holiday every 3-4 months and just got back last Wednesday from last one.

1.do water change few days before go and drain skimmer cup.

2.cut my clams/oysters up and put in all zip lock bags (and hide rest of frozen fish food and oysters in bottom of freezer so tank sitter can't get tempted to feed more)

3.fill my 5 gallon ato up as high as it can be without it starting to siphon on its own.

4.go on holiday and forget about tank and enjoy holiday ( apart from 2 days before due home I message mother in law to send me a picture of ato container to make sure enough to last ) if needs topping up,already arranged for neighbour to top it up with spare rodi in containers.

Last holiday in December my 5 g ato Container nearly ran out but this holiday as hotter at home it evaporated less.
If had a mass die off or major problem and needed to do a water change,I would video call my neighbour and run him through how to make some saltwater and get him to do warerchange.
Had 3 holidays since last September since allowed to have holidays again and worse that's happened is once came back to dead urchin and another died few days later,and a conch dead and week later seen cleaner shrimp kill 2nd conch.so maybe as most days I only get my tank sitter to feed 1 x a day and something in tank got hungry and killed the urchins/conch or maybe because tank wasn't get fed algae sheets whilst away and my rocks bot alot of algae they suffered, I really do not know tbh

 

[shakacuz]

my tank isn't automated enough for me to be comfortable leaving the tank alone for more than 2 days. i do have an ato, inkbird(temp control), and lights that are automated. but i have no auto feeder, or a way to monitor water parameters remotely.. definitely on my to-do/to-get list.

 

[dwest]

I was gone for 7 weeks this winter. I often travel for weeks at a time. Nobody checks on my tank. As you can imagine, I rely on redundancy, controllers, and reliable equipment. On my recent 7 week trip, my main return pump failed that also knocked out the circuit that also included my sump camera. But my second pump, on a separate circuit kept everything humming. There’s a lot of luck involved too!

 

[Duncan62]

It's about that time again and many reefers are going to take a vacation! But owning a saltwater reef aquarium and taking extended trips away from your tank can be stressful! So let's talk about vacation tank prepping!

GIVE US THREE TIPS: How do you prepare to leave your tank for an extended time away?

@JMacedo's watching his reef from his phone while on vacation

I'd never stop checking it. Lol. I rig up a bunch of ato water and get my mother-in-law to send me a pic every couple days. After day 3 or 4 it's fuzzy looking thru the glass anyway.