Tank sitter care/contingency plan

[tzylak]

I got an established reef tank 8 weeks ago. It is doing fine. I am to leave for 3 weeks and will leave it in care of a friend. I might be out of reach for the duration of that time.
To what degree should I involve him in its maintenance??
-Here is my list, please add more if necessary:
1 Feed a specified amount every day or even every other day.
2 Replace micro-filter sock, and top off with RODI every week.
I'm thinking of skipping with the burden of calcium supplements, the daily staring at the tank for 15 minutes (or more) and admiring its beauty. . .
Should I burden him with instructions to test or change the water?
Please advise.
Tom

Tank: 50g hex, overflow, sock filter, 23 gal sump, 2 pumps, 3 in-tank circulators, 5 UH fluorescent, chiller 650, heater 150W, no skimmer (yet), established for over 15 years!!
Fish: 2 Clown, 1 Green Mandarin, 1 Royal Gamma, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Fire Shrimp, 1 Corral Banded Shrimp, 1 Arrow Crab, bunch of Bristle Worms.
Reef: 50 lb. Sand, 70 lb. Rock, Frog Spawn, Button Polyps, Mushrooms, Kenya Trees, Feather Star, and recently, several aiptasias. . . :-(.

 

[acabgd]

I would ditch the filter sock while you're not at home. Nothing dangerous should happen. I would also feed only ever other day amd be very specific about the amount of food. Maybe feed frozen and only 1 cube every few days.

 

[Sk8r]

If you don't have an ATO, you need one. A week between salinity adjustments is quite long. This should be done by the teaspoon.

Cut feeding to every 2 days unless you have particularly delicate fish (most can go two weeks unfed) and have food doled out in tiny ziplock bags or specified as to number of cubes per go. Feeding is one of the most dangerous things you can ask a sitter to do.

If he is capable of acquiring skills, teach him how to read the refractometer, and run the alkalinity test, hand him the log book, and tell him to write down those two numbers, and that they should look like the other numbers. And have your phone number evident. If he runs into trouble, a call to you might prevent him doing something he shouldn't. Don't leave him to guess.

Otherwise make your instructions bulletproof.

 

[overskim]

Keeping it at the right salinity is as easy as drawing a line on the sump somewhere. That should be easy to figure out.

I don't see a lot of things that need a lot of calcium in your description. That is your call. With no skimmer I would make sure they can identify things like cyano or dinoflagellates. I would start with daily feeding on the fish at least and wait for a phone call. I try to never make any changes or add any equipment before a trip. They should to be able to do the bare minimum for three weeks.

I don't usually recommend Aiptasia-X but if you don't have a lot of time before your trip you can at least hold back the onslaught for a few weeks with it.

 

[tzylak]

Thank you all for the input!! :dance:
Tom