Vacation time

[Joe tut]

I'm new to this forum and I am starting up a 72 gal. reef tank in the next couple of months. I'm new to salt water tanks, but I have over 30 yrs. experience with fresh water. When I would go on vacation I'd simply drop a couple of those clay feeders into the fresh water tank and my fish did great for over a week.

Question: What do salt water reef tank hobbyist do when their away for a couple of weeks? Besides having someone come to your house and feed your fish each day.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Daddi0]

I'm new to this forum and I am starting up a 72 gal. reef tank in the next couple of months. I'm new to salt water tanks, but I have over 30 yrs. experience with fresh water. When I would go on vacation I'd simply drop a couple of those clay feeders into the fresh water tank and my fish did great for over a week.

Question: What do salt water reef tank hobbyist do when their away for a couple of weeks? Besides having someone come to your house and feed your fish each day.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Best bet would be to join a local club and possibly another member can pop in.

 

[Daddi0]

I’m new to this forum and I am starting up a 72 gal. reef tank in the next couple of months. I’m new to salt water tanks, but I have over 30 yrs. experience with fresh water. When I would go on vacation I’d simply drop a couple of those clay feeders into the fresh water tank and my fish did great for over a week.

Question: What do salt water reef tank hobbyist do when their away for a couple of weeks? Besides having someone come to your house and feed your fish each day.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Best bet would be to join a local club and possibly another member can pop in.
By the way, Welcome to the forum!

 

[mal7887]

I'm new to this forum and I am starting up a 72 gal. reef tank in the next couple of months. I'm new to salt water tanks, but I have over 30 yrs. experience with fresh water. When I would go on vacation I'd simply drop a couple of those clay feeders into the fresh water tank and my fish did great for over a week.

Question: What do salt water reef tank hobbyist do when their away for a couple of weeks? Besides having someone come to your house and feed your fish each day.

Thanks for your suggestions.

I have everything automated through Apex Controller to include feeding, Top off and water changes. Even have a camera on the Apex dashboard that I can pop in the see if everything is OK.

 

[billdogg]

If it's a week or less, I wouldn't worry too much about feeding - there will be plenty of life for the fish to find. IME, having someone come over to feed often ends poorly due to their overfeeding. When I leave for a longer stretch, food is preportioned and in the freezer with the day to be used written on the container. The other option is an autofeeder, but unless you have spent the time beforehand to get it dialed in, I would not go that route.

Topoff can easily be handled with an ATO, although due to my trust (or lack thereof) in automated systems, I tend to just overfill the sump a bit and then make corrections when I get back.

 

[Xxxtremewv]

Ugh getting ready to deal with this same thing in a couple weeks for christmas. Trying to explain little details to my girlfirends sister (never had a tank of any kind and loves bothing more than to come by and watch the fish at feeding time) gives me instant anxiety

 

[nereefpat]

A couple of weeks?

That's too long for me. I would pay a LFS/service company to check things a couple times.

 

[Reefpuck]

Luckily my neighbor is a reefer too...so we trade off watching each others tanks.

Sorry I'm probably no help...but who knows...there may be someone local to you that shares the same interest...that can help. Check local reef clubs/forums...even craigslist to see if anyone local is trying to sell frags/etc.

 

[101010]

Incase you have a small tank and no autotop off, IMO the first thing to worry about would be evaporation and change in salinity.

Sent from my ASUS_Z00ED using Tapatalk

 

[billdogg]

Ugh getting ready to deal with this same thing in a couple weeks for christmas. Trying to explain little details to my girlfirends sister (never had a tank of any kind and loves bothing more than to come by and watch the fish at feeding time) gives me instant anxiety

Write out DETAILED instructions! Mine are 3+ pages long. Try to cover every possibility. Include phone numbers for the LFS. Premeasure ALL food, hide the rest!!!!!

 

[pfan151]

Definitely set up a camera so you can check on your phone. Cleverdog is cheap and works pretty well. Camera isn't the clearest but it's good enough to make sure everything is working correctly. I recently went on a trip and had a neighbor feeding for me. He thought everything was fine but when I pulled up the video on my phone I could see the level was low and the return pump stalled. I had him go over and turn off the pump to clear the error and everything was fine. If not for the camera the tank probably would have been toast when I got home.

the preportioned bags in the freezer are the way to go. I'd also have them feed half as much and half as often as you would just to be safe.