3 week vacation...please help me prepare!

[ralphie16]

I am going away on vacation for almost three weeks. I have most of my bases covered but I KNOW im missing something of the other. Can you guys help me out? Nobody is able to go to my house so the fish have to survive without any human intervention.

Tank 1: 45 gallon cube with 5 gobies, shrimp, brittle star.
Tank 2: 125 gallon with trigger, two puffers, and a butterflyfish.

Here's what I have so far planned out:

Top-off: I switched out my 10 gallon reservoirs with a 33 gallon reservoir for each of my tanks. I also plan to put on two of the three glass covers to reduce evaporation.

Power Outage: I have several computer backup batteries that can run some pumps and heaters in case power goes out for a few hours.

Food: I have no idea on this one. I plan on feeding them a lot until I go on vacation. But then what? I guess the gobies can find stuff to eat in the small tank (pods and stuff). So I think they are ok. But what about the big guys in the 125 gallon? Remember, nobody is available to feed. Would an auto feeder be useful or useless?

Skimmer cup: I can either dial it back so it skims REALLY dry, or can I hook up the drain line to a large container to drain into? I dont like the possibility of flooding in case my skimmer goes crazy and starts pumping my tankwater out, just to be refilled with freshwater from the ATO, ya know?

What else am I missing?

What else am I forgetting?

 

[corals b 4 bills]

I would call a professional maint. guy or a pro tank sitter. Or do what I did, I had my best friend spend 10 thousand dollars, teach him everything I know about reefs then tell him that I'm going on vacation and he's watching my tank. (sorry but you really need to plan these things out before hand, expect to loose all of the fish from starvaion and have an ammonia spike that will kill everything else). What about the guys at your LFS?

 

[ralphie16]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9231261#post9231261 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by corals b 4 bills
...sorry but you really need to plan these things out before hand, expect to loose all of the fish from starvaion and have an ammonia spike that will kill everything else)....

I agree with you 100% on planning this stuff out ahead of time. Im not going on vacation for a few months still. Thats why I am planning and asking now.

 

[Dustin1231]

why did you have your friend spend 10 thousand dollars??? im lost on that part

 

[ralphie16]

it was a part of his joke that that's how you find a good fish sitter...you create one from scratch in your spitting image

 

[corals b 4 bills]

What about one of the local reefers clubs?

 

[corals b 4 bills]

Because he has more money than cense.

 

[Curtis1158]

I had a tank maintenance guy come in every other day for 10 days on my vacation. This is a must. My LFS told me I would be better off letting the fish go for 10 days than trying to get a neighbor to watch them. There is too much to know and go wrong. Best investment I make. Tank was clean and well maintained. He was only in to feed, empty skimmer, top off and in minor glass cleaning. In and out. I think he billed 60-90 minutes total. Can't beat that with a stick.

Don't let it go that long. You will lose fish (probably all) and need major maintenance when you get back.

Good luck.

 

[r00onmac]

not to hijack, but...

you guys are all scaring me now... i go away from my 20 gal for 3-6 days every two months or so for mini vacations, but for spring break ill be gone from the 15th to the 24th or something like that...

maintenance guy/reef club member is not an option as they will not be allowed to enter the building... do you think 2 clowns and a flameback can deal for 9 days on their own? the peppermint will eat all the snails so im not too worried about him...

 

[AquaReeferMan]

I agree with getting someone to look after your tank. Someone that is educated in this hobby. Either friend or someone who has a tank maintenance company. I had a one of my buddies watch my tank while I was gone for 4 days. This didnt even work. I came home to a 20g tank with 4g of water evaporated. It didnt even look like he did anything to the tank. There was a couple death and I was only gone for 4 days. Now I only trust one person, and since I have multiply tanks with such a wide range of things in it I dont even think about going on vacations. My girlfriend says something about going on vacations and all I think about are my crashing. It that crazy? Anyway I think its in your best interest to look into someone to watch over your tanks while your gone. Theres just so many things that could go wrong. I know in many occasions when Im sitting at home and something happens that needs to be fixed right away. 3 weeks is a long time.

 

[saltydude]

For the feeding, get a digital fishfood dispenser. Make sure you get one that can be programmed for any interval you like. If you have a sump, attach it down there and it will come up threw the return line. We do it all the time.

 

[dc]

I use rhondomatic auto feeders, seal up the tanks so there is not as much evaporation, have pennplax battery air pumps that come on if the power goes out. I've been gone 2 weeks and other than real dirty glass everything was fine when I got home.

 

[ralphie16]

Darn, so there really is no way this can be done without human intervention? My system is real simple, I really can't see anything going wrong. Now I jinxed myself. Murphys Law right? LOL

my topoff is rock solid. Tunze Osmolator, no problems whatsoever. Reservoir will be large enough to last. no problems with salinity control here.

heaters are all on ranco controllers. heaters hardly come on anyways because my pumps keep the water temp right at 79F. no problems with temperature control here.

battery backups for vitals in case of powerouts. have not had a power outage for over 10 minutes since I have lived here for 25 years. (ok maybe two or three, but stastically thats zilch)

food seems to be the major problem for only the big tank with aggressive fish. i really think the little gobies can take care of themselves with either or autofeed or just whatever my refugium supplies.

i dont see how us, as intelligent people (for the most part ;-) cant figure out how to keep a tank thats able to maintain itself handsoff for a couple of weeks.

i can even do a practice run. i can set it all up like im going away on vacation and see how smooth everything runs. if something pops up I can at least see any pitfalls. this sounds like a plan. maybe i can learn some things to pass on to others.

 

[ralphie16]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9232153#post9232153 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AquaReeferMan
I agree with getting someone to look after your tank. Someone that is educated in this hobby. Either friend or someone who has a tank maintenance company. I had a one of my buddies watch my tank while I was gone for 4 days.....

why is your setup so dependent on you that you cant leave it alone for 4 days? that seems crazy. i cant imagine having it NECESSARY for someone to watch my tank while i go away for a long weekend. are you happy like this? do you not know how to automate stuff? i can help if you need....

 

[chris.hampton]

I think feeding them up before you go will do more harm than good! Going for a practice run now sounds like the best idea, but just think of all the time and money you have put into your tank. It would be a shame if things went horribly wrong and you couldn't do anything about it for 3 weeks. You can automate stuff but the more complicated you make things the more there is to go wrong! If i was going away for 3 weeks i would get someone who knows what they are doing to pop in to check on things, even if you have to pay someone to do it it will be cheaper than coming home to an awful mess with everything dead, the house stinking to high heavens and having to start a fresh. Trust me been there done that a bought the tee shirt! But i only went for a week and did have someone (who didn't know what there were doing) looking after the tank for me. IMO!!

 

[birdfish]

I had a 60 gal. fish only tank set up on a Penn Plax daily double feeder for a year. I was at the office a few days a month. I did do water and (canister) filter changes etc then, but this was the old undergravel days when we kept a sewer in the tank! But, I didn't lose any of the 6 fish in a year, including a butterfly and a Mandarin !! I bought every food known to man that was available freeze dried, brine shrimp, tubifex, daphnia, you name it, ground and mixed it and filled the feeder up, and left. No problems. Just had to make sure to get back before the food ran out.

good luck!
birdfish

 

[cyclgrl]

This is my vacation regimen:

Set up auto topoff with a big enough reservoir to cover vacation time.

Set up auto feeder (I use Eheim) with enough flake to cover vacation time.

Have reef friend come and check on the tank at least once a week.

Other things I always have in place:

I have a powerhead connected to a UPS and then battery powered airpumps that kick in when the UPS gives out.

I have my AC2 connected to a laptop which sends me and my friend who's looking after my tank a text message if things get out of whack. This only covers temp/pH/water spillage and a power outage after the power outage comes back up.

That said, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I've gone multiple times for 3 weeks at a time without a problem.

 

[Goodwood]

Man a three week vacation im jealous, I might give up the tank for that kind of vacation. Thats the problem with these reef tanks, we let them run our lives. Good luck you be fine, just dont worry about it. When I worry bad stuff happens, when I dont think about everything is just fine.

Enjoy your vacation, no one has even asked where you are going

 

[Tang Salad]

Geez, what a bunch of worry-worts here.

I leave my tank entirely alone for 3-4 weeks once or twice a year. It really isn't that complicated. It just takes the obvious planning.

Lights=timer
Evap=Auto-top off with a very large reservoir.
Skimmer=Set to Very Dry
Refugium=Big harvest of Macros before leaving.
Temp and Kalk/Ph are already automated.
Feeding=Auto-feeder.

Feeding would be complicated/impossible if you're keeping species that require live foods. My fish don't. They go on a diet of pellet and crushed-pellet foods when I'm away, as these work best with the auto-feeder. I do intentionally give them a a smorgasboard feast for a week or two before leaving.

Can also do a large waterchange before you leave, just as an added margin of safety.

That's about it. I don't have any power backup, as electricity-cuts in my area never last long.


Funny thing is, my tank always looks best after not touching it for a few weeks. Makes me wonder why I ever do anything to it at all...:rolleye1:

 

[Curtis1158]

I would be nervious leaving it that long. But it seems some of you have figured it out pretty good. Great ideas. Hope all goes well. I would also be curious to hear where this 3 week vacation takes you.