Will my tank survive 9 weeks with no maintenance?

[Lineatus]

in May I will be going away for 9 weeks to conduct hawksbill turtle research in Tobago. Will my reef survive that long without a water change? My system is incredibly low tech (solely running on internal filters) and is ridiculously high in nutrient (nitrates typically sitting at 25-30 pmm). I have taught my flatmate how to feed the fish and corals and how to fill up the ATO, should I risk it and consider teaching them the water change process? I only keep lps and softies, would my high nutrient levels be too much for them to handle if they increased any further due to the absence of fortnightly water changes?

 

[SlugSnorter]

Not unless you have something to add trace elements and such.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I would most be worried about the fact that the trace elements will go down. Do you have a solution for that?
Are there any reef clubs near that you can ask for help? Trip sounds amazing. Enjoy.

My tanks have gone longer than 9 wks without a water change, but I run a calcium reactor and will add iodine as needed. Softies should be fine, but LPS will need the alk, ca, mg to stay in line.

 

[ShakerBreaker]

It might be fine .. but teaching them to do a water change would be a good idea.

I would also post a list of parameters like temperature for them to keep an eye on .. a bad heater could kill everything and they wouldn't know what's going on.

One last thing, take pictures of every piece of equipment, so if something is going wrong, you can send them a picture of say the heater, so they know what they are looking for .

As long as they are maintaining the food and ato, with one big water change at 5 weeks, it might be perfectly fine when you get home.

 

[skiwez]

It will be fine especially if it's LPS and softies. The main things to be concerned about would be that your flatmate feeds correctly. Over feeding will probably result in and algae explosion.

 

[bnord]

agree that with controlled feeding -you already mention high nutrients - that should be able to get by - do a major change a weaker so ahead of time,
and wow, that sounds like a truly worthy reason to leave your tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

How big water change do you do?
4 buckets
1 empty for the 1st change
Other 3 with premixed water before you leave.
1 water change every 2/3 weeks.
Drop heater for couple hours before hand.
Empty water to empty bucket until it's about the same height as the nsw bucket.
Dump in nsw.

Can be handle that?

 

[revhtree]

Not only will it survive but it might thrive! Just don’t overfeed!

 

[Mical]

As long as your flatmate feeds correctly and tops off ATO - you'll be fine. Neither of my 2 tanks have had a water change in over two years.

 

[Lineatus]

Perfect, thanks everyone, I appreciate it, that eases my mind. I’ll consider everything suggested

 

[jdmee]

I would try to find an LFS/local reefer/ etc that could be a back up plan/somebody your friend could call in case of an emergency.