Poll: What is the longest your tank has gone unattended?

[KMench]

I'm fortunate to have a neighbor who will come feed frozen food and check on the system for me when we are gone. I typically won't ask her to come if we are only gone for a day, but anything longer than that and she will walk over to check things for me.

 

[scott11106]

i have been away for 4 days but i have apex, ATO, dosing, 55g salt and fresh water reservoirs so i can and will be away for 7-10 days at a time starting in 2 weeks. also have the arlo camera setup so i can see sump and display for piece of mind. very redundant with 2 backup power supplies and a house generator if power goes off for more than 5 min.

i think it would all be fine for well over two weeks worst case but my system goes through 6g of evaporation per day. im thinking to get some covers if i go away for longer than a week so there is less evaporation...but not sure

 

[cracker]

I've always lucked out & had a knowledgeable friend or neighbor to keep an eye on things for me.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I haven't gone on an extended vacation since starting up the tank. The most would be if I take the family out to my parents for the weekend the tank will go on autopilot for 2 days. Never more than that.

 

[Mark Gray]

I regally leave mine for 5 days to a week I have been gone for 4 weeks before, I solely rely on my Apex and if I see something wrong I send my son to the house. But I do not trust anyone to feed or anything like that. The worst thing I have had happen is I have someone that comes in daily to feed the dog but I sure don't want him to mess with my tanks, he feed my Beta Fish so much food that id was covering the gravel on the bottom of the poor fishs tank lol. Oh 2 times I have had my dog get mad I am not home well he unplugs the router so I have to get my son to come over and sort all the cords out lol

 

[miPapareef]

I’m fortunate to get to travel often, about a week a month. In the last 6 weeks the tank was attended for 25 days. 6 days work trip, 12 days family vacation, 7 days work trip. During the 12 day trip I got a friend to come twice.

I use the apex feeder to dump pellets 3 times a day. But they don’t get the frozen food that is usually 2 times a day. And the tang misses his Nori sheet.

The worst problem I have is the ph jumps up when everyone is out of the house causing my alk consumption to really increase. I always up the dosers, but still get a lower alk by the time I return home.

 

[Kactai]

In that case... I leave the tank I run at my gf’s business unattended from Friday night until Monday morning. We rarely go in on weekends.

We do have nest cams though to monitor in case of emergency.

 

[saltyhog]

I can leave for 11-12 days with the only input from a sitter being to put my pre measured packets of frozen food in the tank. More than that will require a refill of my ATO reservoir.

I monitor thru my Apex.

 

[LatinKing]

We are going out of town for 4 days. Leaving tomorrow to until Friday Sea World and Aquatica. My friend no clue of the hobby, will be going 3x a day to feed my Clownfish, larvae and feed my rotifer. I'm sure if he has a problem he will video chat. I'm a little worry because my larvae are 16 days old, and they were doing great under my care.

 

[Clarksski]

I think I’m gonna go in the reef tank sitting business..I feel like there’s a need for this, especially in the summer months.
I’ve left my tank “unattended”for about 3 days.. which is about how long the ATO will last.
I’ve left it “attended” .. kid and husband feeding, refilling ATO container, changing filter socks, checking on the general health... for roughly two weeks.
Always come home to a ton of tank maintenance, algae to scrape..etc

 

[tony'stank]

14 days. I had a Zmodo webcam, an Eheim fish feeder and an ATO with a temporary 20 gallon reservoir. At 11 days I saw on the webcam that the ATO reservoir was empty and my return was spew micro bubbles into the tank. I called my brother in law ( non-reefer) and got him to pour four gallons of distilled water from the supermarket into the reservoir. I was able to watch him the whole time to make sure he did it right. No livestock losses

 

[fabutahoun]

I travel 5-6 times a year, one of these travels is for vacation for 1 month and another one work related for 3-4 weeks.

 

[av8soulfly]

I have an awesome buddy into reef keeping. Gave him a key to my place and he visits/camps out every other day or so. 2 weeks is how long I'm usually gone. He empties skimmers, changes socks, and of course feeds. Thanks bro.

 

[Matyas]

I just returned from a 6 week vacation from my sps heavy 30 gallon. The salinity slightly dropped 1 ppt. Otherwise the acros and montis grew even better from the reduced hands in the tank.

 

[drblakjak55]

Unattended eight days. 90g mixed reef. 25% water change two days before and filling tank and sump to highest levels. Lights to six hours. Feeders last seven days. Removed socks. Do run chaeto and skimmer otherwise no dosing normally so not worried about stability. No ATO but by eight days system needs water.

 

[Dragon52]

I take 2 7day vacations a yr & have no one to look after my tank. the only things I have setup for that time is an ATO & Feeder. I'd probably have to say I've been lucky there have been no issues while I'm gone. I would love to have a controller to keep an eye on everything but just don't have the $$$ for everything involved with that.

 

[aquaman67]

For 15 months while I was deployed to Iraq my tank just got topped off and fed.

Everything was fine when I got home.

 

[Ewelina]

I'll be gone for about a week. I'm not really concerned with the food,cause I'll use those vacation packages or automatic feeder. I'm worried about skimmer overflowing and dont know what to do. Do you guys leave it on while on vacation?

 

[dbl]

I'll be gone for about a week. I'm not really concerned with the food,cause I'll use those vacation packages or automatic feeder. I'm worried about skimmer overflowing and dont know what to do. Do you guys leave it on while on vacation?

Does the skimmer happen to have a drain plug? If so, you could just use a larger container to collect that won't overflow in a weeks time.

 

[Ewelina]

Does the skimmer happen to have a drain plug? If so, you could just use a larger container to collect that won't overflow in a weeks time.

It does not... its octo 110s. That's the problem...