Nano Vacation Strategies

[patiof]

Interested in hearing what some folks do for their nanos when they are going to be away for a vacation or extended vacation.

I have a 10 gallon and will be away for 16 days. I can pretty easily increase my ato reservoir size, but won't be there to do any manual dosing or feeding.

i don't like feeding pellets (ever), though i do have an auto feeder i don't use, so i guess that's an option but would like it to be my last option.

there's just one dottyback to feed, which i usually only give sparing frozen stuff, mostly from fresh fish and shellfish i have frozen. and a heliofungia actiniformis (long tentacle plate) that gets the same a few times a week. the rest are softies.

i guess i'm okay a 2 week slip in dosing if i do a massive change right before i leave. i don't think it will kill it, but do worry about not feeding the fish. kinda think the coral will be okay too.

any thoughts? what do you guys do or how far have you pushed and what were your results?

 

[ReefWreak]

ATO is the most important part. The coral will be fine. The fish probably can go 16 days without food, but I have someone come by to feed my fishes every few days, maybe every 3 days, so I'd try to find someone who can feed it at least once while you're away. If worse came to worse, you could try pellets, but if you're leaving soon, it might be a short time to the fish trained on eating pellet foods.

I'm fairly certain I went a week without feeding my 5 fishes, and rarely if ever directly feed corals. I have 2 part dosing on automatic pumps, and have an ATO.

 

[patiof]

if i now my dottyback, it will start taking out shrimp or hermit crabs without food for 16 days.

 

[fishdip22]

Will your ato feeder hold flake food?

 

[patiof]

if i now my dottyback, it will start taking out shrimp or hermit crabs without food for 16 days.

Will your ato feeder hold flake food?

you mean the feeder not the top off, correct?

i hadn't thought about flakes, but i was assuming that would probably be similar to the pellets in terms of phosphate content and acceptability to the dottyback.

i could probably get one of my neighbors to stop by once or twice a week to put in some pre-measured frozen food portions, and i think is probably my best plan a at this point.

with the ph and alk likely to drop significantly, sparser less frequent feeding probably would help keep any algae outbreaks minimized.

 

[York1]

Timers on the lights, Ato is a must and then just an automatic feeder.If I am going to be gone a full week or longer I do like to have family or friend check in on it once or twice just to be safe

 

[fishdip22]

you mean the feeder not the top off, correct?

i hadn't thought about flakes, but i was assuming that would probably be similar to the pellets in terms of phosphate content and acceptability to the dottyback.

i could probably get one of my neighbors to stop by once or twice a week to put in some pre-measured frozen food portions, and i think is probably my best plan a at this point.

with the ph and alk likely to drop significantly, sparser less frequent feeding probably would help keep any algae outbreaks minimized.

From y under standing it takes alot of flake food to add up to just one pellet.

 

[patiof]

From y under standing it takes alot of flake food to add up to just one pellet.

that makes sense and is a good point. :reading:

 

[BeachVacationer]

I have a 5 gallon reef with 2 clowns. About twice a year I go away for 10 to 14 days. I do a give WC and clean my filter and gravel before I leave. I setup my Tunze ATO (which I don't really trust) and setup my auto feeder with flakes. Have had no problems with my clowns or my corals when I come back. I think fish can go a long time without eating. I have a discus tank and on my 2 week vacations I don't feed them at all. They are just fine when I come back home.

 

[patiof]

thanks for the feedback everyone.

starting to feel more relaxed about it.

 

[mav3rick478]

I've left my tank unfed for 2 weeks before and did not have any problems. I did do a huge water change the day before leaving and filled it extra high to help with evaporation.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Razorback reef]

SPS? Or just fish and softies?