Honeymoon planning

[ReefsandGeeks]

I will be away from my tank for 2 full weeks in November and am using this as an excuse to get a much needed ATO for my 65 gallon tank.

In addition to getting an ATO, Below are my daily activities for the tank.

Feed once a day, Mix of flake and pellet food
Add vinegar as part of carbon dosing
Manually top off tank 1 or 2 times a day with lightly saturated kalk
Empty Protein skimmer every other dayish


Optimally I'd like to only need someone to stop by my house every 3 or 4 days to check on the tank if possible, but if every other day is needed, than that could be arranged. What changes can I make to my daily maintenance to extend temporarily to every few days?

My plan so far is:
1)Get ATO and have a 5 gallon bucket for topoff water that can be refilled every 4 days (I use about 3/4 gallon a day for topoff).

2) make prepackaged containers of food, to be given once per visit. how much food will depend partially on how frequently I'm able to get someone to check on the house.

3) Make individual vinegar doses, no larger than my current daily dose, to be dosed on day's the tank is checked on.

4) Remove flipper glass cleaner to remove temptation of housesitters to clean glass. This way they don't get too close to the sand and scratch the tank.

5) well in advance, I will set the skimmer to "dry skim" so each emptying can be more efficient if only able to happen every 4 days. House sitter will be instructed to empty skimmer every visit.

6) Because I have no one that is in the hobby to look at the tank, I intend to have the house sitter dose Prime at each visit, in case water perameters are getting out of whack. I've done this before when having inexperienced people check on the tank instead of testing and it worked out well.

Any other advice for the vacation? How often do my fish NEED fed? I know skipping a couple of days once is okay, but what if they only get feed every 4 days for 2 weeks straight? is that okay?

 

[mcgyvr]

You can add those dissolving feeder cubes to the tank..
I've done that without any problems..

Having a dosing pump would solve the carbon/alk issues.. (just another excuse to spend money for you.. do it)
You could add the kalk to your top off water too and really could stop dosing for those 2 weeks too..

You can turn your skimmer off if you want.. 2 weeks shouldn't hurt too much if any..

I don't see a need to dose prime.

I'd make it as simple as possible..
Feeder cubes and suspend everything else unless absolutely needed..

I LOVE not having fish anymore (so far)..
I can leave and only instruct my sitter (brother usually) to just fill up the ato container if needed but mine can go 2 weeks without needed to be refilled anyways..
I can just leave and come back in 2 weeks and everything is fine without needing any checkups by anyone.

 

[billdogg]

You can add those dissolving feeder cubes to the tank..
I've done that without any problems..

Having a dosing pump would solve the carbon/alk issues.. (just another excuse to spend money for you.. do it)
You could add the kalk to your top off water too and really could stop dosing for those 2 weeks too..

You can turn your skimmer off if you want.. 2 weeks shouldn't hurt too much if any..

I don't see a need to dose prime.

I'd make it as simple as possible..
Feeder cubes and suspend everything else unless absolutely needed..

I LOVE not having fish anymore (so far)..
I can leave and only instruct my sitter (brother usually) to just fill up the ato container if needed but mine can go 2 weeks without needed to be refilled anyways..
I can just leave and come back in 2 weeks and everything is fine without needing any checkups by anyone.

What he said with the exception of "feeder cubes" They are junk in fresh water systems, worse that junk in marine tanks. Either get a autofeeder or just let the fish scavenge between feedings from the sitter. Prepackage ALL foods and label them for the day they are to be used. The problem with the feeder cubes (and not prepackaging the food is that overfeeding is almost a certainty.

 

[mcgyvr]

I've only used the feeder blocks once and didn't have any problems..
I watched the first one for a week before I left just to see what would happen..
They dissolve slowly overtime to prevent overfeeding..

 

[Sk8r]

I would advise stopping the vinegar for the duration: it won't be disaster, and the less your sitter has to remember to do right, the better.
Also give your sitter your phone number and get his/hers, with instructions to call and ask rather than guess.

 

[JohnnyHildo]

i didn't see what size your tank is but i run a tunze osmolater which i used to pair with a tunze kalk dispenser. it worked pretty well by dosing with the top-off water but running after the pump so the kalk never impeded the pumps performance and lasted a good 2 weeks before needing more kalk. i used it up until the coral load in my system surpassed its capacity. the dispenser is probably best suited for a tank up to 75 gallons max.