Need advice, going on a 12 day trip

[Fishyj]

Hi all. I am both excited and nervous about are upcoming trip. We will be going away for 12 days which is the exciting part. Now comes the nervous part, how to make sure my tank survives. It is a 13.5 evo tank which host 2 clown fish, 2 anemones, several acans, and other lps. I have a temp. controller, and an ato setup that I am comfortable with. I plan on doing a 50% water change the day before we leave. My concern comes with feeding the tank. I can make a mix of my reef roids, brine shrimp, and another coral food. I do have a person that will be coming to the house to take care of my dogs so I can have her put a small baster worth into the tank. I don't want her to overfeed the tank and come home to a mess. My 90 gallon crashed while I was on vacation years ago. Any suggestions, thoughts or ideas would greatly be appreciated.

 

[dbl]

Might want to read through this article for some useful tips.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/vacation-time.67/

 

[SandJ]

Don't do any major changes right before the trip (may consider doing a normal water change 2-3 days before the trip, instead of the day before).

Get the daily medicine holders (you know the ones for pills marked with the the days of the week). Portion the food to feed out in those. That way there is no overfeeding.

If tank sitters are not familiar with saltwater tanks, they may miss the daily changes that could indicate a problem. It may help to take a picture of the tank and have it printed and tape it near the tank. It may be easier for the tank sitter to see an issue this way.

A cheap WIFI video camera can be a life saver and give you some peace of mind. We bought some that have two way audio also. This can be awesome for working through any problems.

An aquarium monitor, like the Senseye, could have some benefits. For example, if a fish dies or a tank is excessively over fed, it could alert you to high ammonia levels (which could lead to more deaths). The monitor could alert you to an issue.

If you have any local reef keepers, it may be nice to see if you could get their number just in case of an emergency. It could make a huge difference if they are willing to run a water test or look at an overflowing skimmer in an emergency.

 

[melypr1985]

Might want to read through this article for some useful tips.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/vacation-time.67/

+1 Great article!

 

[csb123]

When I go on trips, I get my pet sitter to do a quick 1.5 min phone video of key areas of my tank and sump, as well as any monitors (pH, temp, etc), and text it to me daily. I labeled each thing with masking tape and numbered each one. It gave great peace of mind that everything was ok and I could text very specific instructions for adjustments. I.e. "Turn #3 to 1.5 and clean out the cup of #6..."

 

[alyee5]

Having a Webcam on the tank was a lifesaver for me on my last vacation....

 

[Fishyj]

Thanks for all the replies. I will be meeting with my sitter in a couple of weeks and I will be feeding the tank a specified amount and monitoring the water prams. This way I can setup the feeding schedule. Ordering a web cam and I will also be talking to my lfs who does some maintenance for his customers.

 

[sinekal]

I found it helpful to partition out daily feedings to ensure no more food than you intend is added each time. Pinch of salt might work in a recipe, but somehow with fish food it has a large variance.