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

[saltyhog]

Hi salty. Was the leak on your aqua UV sterilizer?

Yes it was. Evidently the combination of saltwater use and low flow (and I guess corresponding higher heat) can erode PVC! When I looked at the pictures you could see the light from the UV coming through a narrow area about 4-5 inches long. This area was where the pin hole leaks came.

 

[Nano New]

I just went on my first two week vacation since I started the reef a year and a half ago. Things I did:

• Purchased a new light as the one I had didn't cycle automatically
• Filled two 20 litre containers with ATO water with one hooked up to the ATO and fully topped up
• Put fish food in two pill boxes
• Had two house sitters who alternated (I have other pets and can't leave them unattended)
• Wrote out copious instructions on what to do while I was gone. Other than feed the fish, the tank should have been fine without interference. I didn't have any corals that needed to be fed at the time.

What happened:

Somehow in the first few days the connection on the light came loose. Because my housesitters are not experienced reefers and they didn't find the loose connection, they thought it would be okay with the ambient light in the room (not much of that actually hits the tank). I came home to a totally crashed system. Not every coral was affected the same which is interesting. The palys hardly seemed to be affected at all while, the zoas had mixed reactions, the frogspawn simply got a bit smaller and the goni was way gone (I'm pretty sure I've lost it, down to two tiny polyps but hope springs eternal). There was no algae and I swear I could 'feel' the sterility of it.

I immediately did a water change, added microbiota, started feeding the corals and after a week and a half the tank had started to recover. When I left I had too much algae growing constantly as I had recently moved my small coral set to a larger tank and I was waiting until I returned to put in the new rock work and a lot of new coral. Which I've now done and the tank is stabilising.

Next time I'll add the camera idea and I'm educating both my house sitters with more about coral care so that they can actually do water changes, feed the corals, etc. I didn't over stress the reef aspect of house sitting as I didn't want to stress them out and have them bail on me! I needed that vacation! They're both very consciencious, they just didn't understand the impact. I'm thankful the vacation wasn't longer though. I'm still amazed at the resilience of the corals. Mine seem very forgiving of my ineptitude.

Another note, the ATO stopped working a week after I got home. Very unhappy about that, only had it 3 months, my nano tank didn't need one. REALLY happy it didn't happen while I was gone though.

 

[Marinexx]

Made plans to spend time with friends in Toronto near end of June. Still working out some bugs; however, things should be fine.
Lights and circulation pumps all automated.
Switched to kalkwasser in ATO several months ago, which has been going well. I now have 2 4 gal containers, which last about 5-6 days. I can easily switch between containers by Apex.
Feeding frozen, which will need to be modified in some manner. For example, dry feeder for one feeding and portioned foods for night feeding by sister.
Also, display tank must remain fallow for another 4 weeks. Currently using Hf’s hybrid tank transfer method in treatment for ICH and now using prime and 1 gal water change daily to keep 10 gal QT’s with minimal nitrite and NH3/NH4 for 6-7 days at a time. Sister will perform daily 1-gal water change as well.
Ensure sufficient water for daily water changes is made and ready.
Sister May need to add neonitro daily as well - hopefully tank dose will be stabilized by then
Temp and pH monitored by Apex and has been stable- fingers crossed!
Isn’t that the same for all of us though-fingers crossed until you know things are the way you left them?
And thank goodness for such detail oriented sisters/tank -sitters. I’m hoping for an uneventful 5-days…

 

[G Santana]

When I go on vacation and we're due in Aug, my sister house sits. I take the filter sock off and I shut down the skimmer.
I leave 7 or 14 pre cut nori squares and 7 or 14 frozen cubes.
I leave 32 gallons of RODI and she feeds my ATO once or twice a week.

She only has to do the bare minimum and she also has to feed my 33 year old African grey parrot.

 

[Ober_Reef]

Getting my ATO to work, a camera on the tank .....plus cell phones with face time if needed, and limiting my family members to feeding one cube of frozen food per day(normally I do pellet for lunch and cube for dinner). Taking away the subjectiveness of deciding how much to feed in pellets seemed to be a key to success for me, in previous vacations I came home to massive nutrient spikes.

Just got back from a 9 day trip to Southern California and everything was fine!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

So it’s all automated enough that pretty much all i have to do is feed the fish daily and flip over an occasional large snail. The wife and I are heading to NC. in August for 5 days to visit my brother and visit Andy Griffiths hometown. My our son will be in charge of feeding my tank.

 

[snorklr]

Do you shutdown skimmer to prevent cup overflows?

yes...this winter was gone for a month so didnt trust it....and it evaporates a lot less without it running

 

[rwreef]

#1) Avoid scheduling vacation that overlaps my BFFF (best forever fish friend lol)
#2) Auto feeders
#3) make sure Ato is full and ready
#4) Don't get cute and try new things before leaving. Use the KISS method

 

[saltyhog]

#1) Avoid scheduling vacation that overlaps my BFFF (best forever fish friend lol)
#2) Auto feeders
#3) make sure Ato is full and ready
#4) Don't get cute and try new things before leaving. Use the KISS method

#4 is very accurate! Don't change/add any equipment right before you leave!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Just went a week. Had a house sitter. Knew nothing about tanks but muddled through with lots of phone calls. Normally I do not like to leave my tank more than a few days. Not even with my hubby lol's

 

[Susan Edwards]

1-mostly automated by apex. Have apps for fusion, mobius and reef beat (mp40's and Red sea Equip). Also ATk/ato
2-Food squirt bottles. Frozen foods, some freeze dried and some coral food. Freeze then add phyto and maybe ab+ and RO water and ready to feed
3-Wyze camera for me to ck tank often lol's

 

[Jeffcb]

LFS handles everything

 

[vinz4u]

After a few tries, I have been able to successfully automate the tank while I'm away.

1. I have a rodi system setup to refill my ato container using the flood guardian by auto aqua.
2. Have two duetto ato systems for redundancy in case one fails. The sensors are placed at different heights to help in case the main system fails.
3. Saltwater changes using kamoer x2sr. 5% every week.
4. Feeding using two kamoer x2 pro dosers setup in a mini fridge placed over the tank with a small hole to pass the outlet tubes and power. One container has the reef energy ab+. The other has a slurry of ROE, mysis, oyster feast, algae bits with some citric acid and sorbic acid to help to keep it fresh.
Also have a Neptune afs with CD pellets and hikari seaweed pellets as a backup in case the fridge fails.
5. Have a klir di4 filter roll that lasts for 3 months for my bioload. Also skimmer is setup with a skimmate storage. Will replace gfo and carbon before I leave on vacation.
6. Have two cameras, display and sump.
7. All power strips are wifi enabled. I use kasa and gosund. Have apex, trident connected to help with other automation.
8. Two heaters one connected to apex and one connected to Kasa as a backup.

 

[gbroadbridge]

4-6 weeks away every couple of months.

Aquarium controller keeps thing going and is monitored by my support LFS, who also have keys to the house if anything urgent crops up.

LFS does a nice window clean a couple of days before I return.

Normally it just chugs along fine.

 

[mucky1957]

Pre covid we would go away for 3 or 4 weeks over the new year to somewhere warm ( Canaries ) and I would leave my son in charge. I left out LOTS of instructions as to what food to use on which days..when to use the magnets on the glass...water top up....I left 2 x 25lt barrels of ro water for him to use as a top up and to do a water change...and most important of all I left him 2 phone numbers of other reefers who live close by just in case there was a problem.

 

[cdems126]

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

What camera system does he use

 

[GillMeister]

I make sure my 10 gallon reservoir is topped off, and I let my Apex feed the fish, dose chems and keep alk in line. Anything more than 7 days and my reservoir runs dry. At that point I have kids in my area that fill it up for me.

 

[ShoalSister]

Have fowlr set ups and chose hardy fish (except for the blue star leopard wrasse named Diva for many reasons and she has her own tank now).

1) leave with perfect water parameters with significant water change/substrate vacuuming a few days prior. Have saltwater and rodi water ready for two more changes just in case with tape over the top to clearly label (don't want son to confuse rodi without salt vs containers already salted).

2) adult son fairly well trained. He checks daily and feeds the frozen food. Frozen food pre measured in pill containers for each day. Have an auto feeder with pellets set for a morning feeding.

3) have air stones that turn on automatically if power goes out. Have the tank circuit connected to a generator. We get text alerts from power company if power goes out. Can have son go over and turn on generator, but at least they'll have air in the meantime. We monitor house temp remotely too and can see when power is out and house getting cold.

4) cameras set up to view tanks, heaters. I tend to check them numerous times each day.

5) son cleans out skimmer cups once a week. I check on camera.

6) three set ups allow for options in case of crash.

Have never had a significant problem while away. Had a tank crack!! one night while home. That was exciting.

 

[mattdg]

On our SPS 120 Reef. I turn off the AWC system, just in case it malfunctions and do a large WC before / after. Then.

1.) Monitoring... Set up two cheap Wifi camera's to check every few days. One camera is pointed at the electronics cabinet, so I can see temp and status of all equipment. I use the second to frame up the main display and cabinet with the doors open and cabinet light on, so I can see the sump / skimmer and dosing container levels. The wifi camera microphones have even saved me in the past, since I could hear an audible alarm coming from my watch dog leak detector. Going along with visual monitoring is jotting down necessary passwords in a note pad, so I can log in to whatever I may need to monitor tank. Home temp on the nest and tank temp on the wifi inkbirds.

2.) For food / dosing... Eheim flake feeders are filled and placed on each tank. They are by far the most reliable and can be used in conjunction with clip on platforms with built in feeding ring. Top off Calcium and Alkalinity containers. If gone for extended duration, I use 5 gallon reservoirs.

3.) Check and double check all equipment is functioning properly, before leaving home. Don't change anything at least two weeks before scheduled trip. Make sure plenty of fresh and mixed saltwater is available, for when I return.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

not an expected reply. I will be travelling for two months. calculated my evaporation rate and purchased a 20 gallon barrel for ATO. Got my dosing all sorted and dialed in. Hooked up an auto fish feeder.
Will keep a camera to monitor the tank. Reason I am doing all of this is because I cant have any one to come over. last year I ended with algae outbreaks because of inexperienced human interventions.

Curious if you have done a 2-month dry run with the feeder to ensure nothing happens and it is capable of feeding correctly for that long with zero attention.