Out of town and away from my tank...

[ghstrider]

Ive had my tank running almost 2 months now and this is the 1st time im away from it for a few days (3). I have my neighbor doing the feeding/dosing since he is a reefer also but a bigtime novice so i gave him a crash course on what to do and he seems to know what hes doing. Even with all that i cant help but feel helpless and im dying to see my setup. Going out of town has become stressful!

Im curious what you guys do when you go out of town? Do you have someone go by or use an autofeeder? Do autofeeders only feed dry food/pellets?

Oh, I just remembered i have a 20gal sump w/ 3 baffles i need to get rid of that im willing to trade or sell if anyone needs it, pm me.



Eddy

 

[ninjamini]

I went away for 2 weeks. I had a auto feeder, auto top off. I cleaned my pumps b4 the trip. I had a cousin come over 2x per week just in case. I also had the numbers of several FMAS members just in case. 2-3 days i would not worry. In face I often go away for a 3 day weekend. I feed b4 i go. and feed after i return. They can go a day or two without feeding.

 

[Lifes A Beach]

pm on the sump!

 

[ghstrider]

pm replied...

 

[ReefWreak]

I've heard that they can go up to 2 weeks without feeding, however since I've got angels, I can imagine them eating everything in the tank if they were 2 weeks hungry.

Dude, I go away for 2-3 months at a time and my parents (thankfully!) are willing to take care of my tank. They clean the skimmer every week or two, I don't have auto anything so they top off and feed. I'm very very thankful for their help (even though my mom wonders why as soon as I leave the algae in the nano comes back...)

It's hard not being able to see my tank for so long, since I have 3 months over the summer to be paying attention 24/7 to it. That's why I want a controller so i can monitor it over the internet. I found a deal on a Lighthouse that I'm considering, but I just wish I could monitor the pH of the tank and CO2 reactor. So much stuff....

 

[Rogger Castells]

Eddy, the most common issues that occur when you go away are:
Power failure leading to back-flow overflow, this will be a problem once the tank starts again since will not have sufficient water and pumps could burn.
Second, electrical timers getting stuck on the on position and burning your corals or overheating the water.
Third is water evaporation.
For three days away I would not worry about feeding fishes or corals, I would do a water change to increase your odds.

 

[ninjamini]

Of course one of those computers that sends you and email would stop the worries.

 

[nyvp]

I went away for 10 days and had my neighbor come by twice a day to feed and had him come over a couple of times to see what I did. I also had a local stores phone number and had the owner ready to come over incase anything went wrong.

All went well so no headaches.

 

[Rogger Castells]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10741477#post10741477 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ninjamini
Of course one of those computers that sends you and email would stop the worries.

Not if you loose power to your house, or the GFI trips. :C

 

[gasman059]

I have backup genset/aquatronica controller/two chillers inline/ plus autofeeder and still anything can happen and it will. It's just a matter of time and whether u are lucky enough to be there and solve it.

I don't worry about my tank cooking(it happened already) I don't worry about my tank loosing power ( it also happened already)
Feeding well the strongest will survive if my feeder fails.

My R/O top off will fail that's 4 sure(sps don't like hyposalinity) but it sures beats the filling of top offs daily- so I change the valve every 3-6 months


If all else fails well I get to build another tank!

I left for 2 wks and wanted no sitter-just to test the tank LOL