Tank Automation/maintenance reductions for vacations

[Swirlygig]

So I have been doing some serious thinking. Every time I am out of town for more than a day I need someone to watch my tank for me and Dose etc...It is a serious pain in the butt and many of my friends said they won't do it again including my girlfriend...lol

I am looking to automate and reduce the amount of time I spend on my tank each day. I would like to be able to pack up and go without having to get ulcers each time I am away from home.

Some things i need to accomplish...

Auto Top off - currently I only have a 5gallon gravity fed garbage can for this that needs filling each 3rd day. Was thinking of going with a larger container that is aesthetic enough...
Other option - auto top off with pump, but not so sure this is safe....

Feeding - recommend any feeders that can feed for over a week?

Dosing - need to have something that can dose for 1 - 2weeks...recommendations...anyone have dosers for sale?
I was looking at the aquamedic...

Skimmer - need something to catch skimmate, but not sure how to do this because mine goes awal occassionally and would not want it to overflow and flood my house...how do I solve that?

I obviously know this is stupid to say, but I would like everything to be safe (not risky) and not too expensive...Let me know what experience you have had...I am interested to see what has worked well and if you think things have been more worth it in the long run...

 

[bagged87blayzer]

On the skimmer can you drill the cup and hook it to a 5 gallon bucket with a lid on it? I mean will it over flow that?

 

[Swirlygig]

I was looking at this....

http://www.aquacave.com/auto-shut-off-5-gal-bucketbrlid-by-ae-tech-1770.html

I guess it blocks any more skimmate after the bucket fills...

What do you think? kind of expensive...I wonder if there are any DIY for this...

Jeff

 

[BoricuaMojao]

Feeding - recommend any feeders that can feed for over a week?

If you have a big enough tank, and light livestock density, they can feed of what the tank produces.

 

[Swirlygig]

I have 3 tangs...I think that is enough said lol...They eat like pigs...The last time i cut back on food my blue hippo found a taste for my scoly coral...Great idea though...

 

[Lacy]

I use a tank sitter, but also use the Eheim 3581 Automatic Feeder. This way they get fed twice a day.

 

[hilde123]

Jeff:

This is Craig, Ive talked to you in the past and got several corals from you. I put alot of thought into automation before I set mine up. If you have time some day you should come over and I can show you some of the ideas I came up with. I have mine setup so I can monitor and control it remotely, plus is sends email if something gets out of whack like temp to high; also I have water sensors on the floor so it alerts me if there is a leak, I have float sensors on the sump so it will shut down pumps before they go dry if something, plus I have pressure sensor on return pump which will detect a failure of the pump and run a backup pump. For the skimmer, I would set it up the way I did, I have the skimmer run into a waste container from the collection cup (only a gallon or so) and I fitted it with a float switch which is wired to a relay that turns off the pump whener the waste container fills (only cost $20 or so to build). I may have some other ideas I could discuss with you as well.

 

[Swirlygig]

Sweet...Sounds like a plan!

 

[cur10u5g30rg3]

Eheim 3582 for the fish feeder. I used one of these on my tank when I had tangs I had flakes in ones side and pellets in the other. It worked great.

I also did an elaborate auto top of using a jbj auto top off unit. and my ro mixing station. basically I had a freshwater ro tank setup to fill off the ro with a float switch. there was no way the ro could hang open and fill my dt with fresh water because there was a seperate system that controlled the filling of the dt tannk. This was accomplished by the jbj auto top of that controlled a mag pump in the ro water thru a relay. For the relay I just used a neptune breakout box made for the aquacontroller. It was about the best system I coudl come with. Ofcourse I still had a cable friend check on it once a day. I f you want more info on this let me know.

 

[cur10u5g30rg3]

Oh yeah on the skimmer overflowing, I just made a cheap overflow container for my skimmate, drill the collection cup insert john gusset fitting and drain into collection bottle of choice... I used a coke bottle. ofcourse you have to skim a little wet for this to work well.