vacation worries

[gordonjh]

So, I am headed on vacation for 8 days. My roommate is clueless, so anything he does will have to be incredibly basic. I use kalkwasser, and 2 part (don't know why they call it 2 part when there's 3 parts.) Any basic tips or experiences with leaving your tanks for awhile, there are busy weeks I've had where I will come back after just topping off with some kalk and my kh will be down around 6, doesn't seem to hurt stuff short term, is this low enough to start messing with stuff after a week. I am kinda worried, there are probably around 20 SPS colonies and frags that I would like to still have when I come back.
What I am thinking is mixing a 1/2 strength kalk batch and having roommate top off with that.

 

[bertoni]

Some corals might respond negatively. That's hard to predict. I'd be tempted to stick with full-strength Kalk. Having someone dose the 2-part does seem a bit dangerous. I just had a friend move the topoff input hose from the empty bottle to the new bottle, and had her feed the animals. I would avoid having anyone feed the tank in the future. That part didn't go very well.

 

[ChimolaFish]

You can pick up the jebao dosing pump for 100 dollars. It has 4 dosing pumps, so should do everything well for you.

 

[mindi]

i just left my 100g for 20 days with two auto feeders going in tandem and the Jebao mp4 doing my normal Randy 2pt, Nopox and brightwell phos E.......all was well except expected algae on glass. All fish and coral fine.
Am now away for 16 days and this time have taped newspaper around sides of tank to test my suspicion that glass algae is driven largely by room light...then no more travel foreseeable future. Feeders are Eden 901 very good food does not clump from moisture but they do have a design fault IMHO in that the minimum dose of one "shot" is too much ...I have modified to reduce this...easy to do. I give one feeder an 0830 shot and the other 1630 so if one fails I have some backup. They have never failed though.

 

[nuxx]

When we leave we have my parents or my wife's stay at the house for our dogs and fish.

Basically just need them to feed three times a day and let me know if anything looks weird.

Apart from that everything is automated and I can check in with a tank cam and apex.

Why not try to just set up something and test while you're at home having your roommate look over it? Then assess...

 

[swk]

If an auto feeder isn't an option, just make bags of a single feeding and label them. That way all your roommate has to do is dump a bag of food in 1-2x a day. Makes over feeding a non issue.

I agree that tank monitoring via a controller, automated 2 part dosing and auto feeder can sustain a tank for a long time. The only thing that really should have to be done is to add water to the top off reservoir.

 

[mindi]

Absolutely..I didn't mention that. I have a Tunze auto top-off which normally runs out of a 12 gal food container but when away I bring inside a 30G wheelie bin and fill it with RO...it lasts more than 2 weeks and I sometimes have to get someone come and tip a 5 gal container of RO into the bin.

 

[bertoni]

If an auto feeder isn't an option, just make bags of a single feeding and label them. That way all your roommate has to do is dump a bag of food in 1-2x a day. Makes over feeding a non issue.

That doesn't always work. If the helper forgets a day or two, they might just decide to dump in a whole bunch of food, speaking from experience.

 

[mindi]

Oh dear...that is so true. I intuitively hate the autofeeders but to be honest they have made travel possible for me. I just cant trust them enough to rely on one. But that is not based on any actual bad experience at all.

 

[gordonjh]

thanks for the feedback, my one worry with him topping off with full strength kalk is that I know he will forget a day or two and I don't want him to top off with a whole bunch of full strength kalk mix... This is only a 26g with no sump, so I don't want him dumping a gallon of full strength kalk in there if he forgets to do it one day. For sure on the feeding though, haven't decided if I even want him to feed, but if I have him do that, I will cut a cube of mysis in half and tell him to feed one of the halves every few days.

 

[dkeller_nc]

I would strongly suggest ponying up the money for a Tunze Universal Osmolator (about $200) and getting it set-up for a week or so before you leave. This is particularly true if you've never asked your roommate to watch anything for you over a period of days; some folks will do exactly as you fear - forget/neglect your instructions for several days, then try to "make up for it".

If this isn't possible, I'd suggest that you simply give your roommate RODI to top the tank off with. Generally speaking, your coral should be OK with a gradually falling alkalinity/calcium concentration in the tank water for an 8-day period, provided that you correct the water chemistry slowly over several days when you return. But even topping off with RODI only is a risk - your roommate may forget for several days, allow the tank's level to fall by an inch or more, then "make up for it" with a large bolus of freshwater - hence the advice on purchasing and installing an ATO.

As for feeding, my thought is "it depends". If your tank has fish with high metabolisms (such as Anthias, though they shouldn't be in a tank that small), feeding may be an absolute requirement. If, however, you've just a few smaller fish that have lower metabolisms and are browsers/grazers, such as gobies/blennies, cardinalfish and the like, I'd suggest that you'd be taking less of a risk by not feeding them for the week that you're gone than asking an inexperienced person to feed them.

The best possible option would be to contact a local reef-keeping club and ask if someone might be willing to check up on your tank/roommate. Many club members are more than happy to make a couple of vacation visits rather than see a tank get nuked by an inexperienced person.

 

[mindi]

+1 to all that, I have the Tunze and it is a very precise and reliable piece of equipment, if sometimes a little touchy. and +1 to the feeding.

 

[bertoni]

I've used auto feeders, particularly one of the ones that rotates one slot per day. There is very little danger of overfeeding, but sometimes the food sticks to the doser. Sigh! There's no way to win.

 

[mindi]

Jonathan I have an Italian feeder Eden 901. The really good thing is that the food stays inside a closed and sealed compartment and the whole container comes out electrically before rotating to drop a serve of food. The food never gets clumped or even moist. The weak point of the unit as I said elsewhere is that the minimum serve size is way too big and needs a little bit of simple modification to enable small feeds. I have done this by blocking the drop hole partially with a cut piece of milk container plastic.

 

[Lmax8rn]

I hire someone professional to come by every two days. He only charges me $20 a visit and is very nice and knowledgeable.

 

[gordonjh]

Definitely no anthias or any fish that need to eat constantly, have a tailspot blenny, two black and gold chromis, sixline wrasse, tiny little longnose hawk (1 1/2",) goby and pistol shrimp pair, and a pygmy angel. Only one I would worry about is the hawk, but I think he is helping himself to some of my hermits, more empty shells than usual and floating hermit bodies every now and then.
I think i am going to cut a cube of mysis in half and tell him to feed only that 1/2 cube halfway through my trip. Think I might go with 1/2 strength kalk water, and a bucket of RODI water, and tell him if he forgets to top off for a day to do 1/2 and 1/2 kalk water and RODI water. Think the only thing that I might change is to do a water change before I leave, drop the SG down to 1.022-1.023, so if he does forget, it won't get too high. Then most importantly, I will cross my fingers and hope that leaving the buckets right in front of my door in the hallway will be a good enough reminder... If I had someone that would only charge $20 for a visit, I would be all over that, place here wants $75/hour minimum 1 hour, and I would still have to rely on roommate for topping off.

 

[mindi]

yeah...wonder if the $20 a visit guy will come and do mine in Australia..LOL

 

[dkeller_nc]

I'd be concerned about the pygmy angel and the six-line wrasse with respect to the feeding schedule - both are highly active fish. If you're not leaving for another few weeks, I'd try to convince your roommate to let you "train" him. Specifically, let him feed the tank every day for a week or more with you present. That'll give both of you some confidence that the tank won't be either under or over fed.

Not sure what your evaporation rate is per day, but I'd be very cautious about adding a bolus dose of kalkwasser. That can have a substantial, though temporary, effect on the tank. Again, I'd strongly recommend ponying up the $200 for the Tunze ATO. I'm sure that expenditure right before going on vacation isn't welcome, but it's a whole lot cheaper than 1/10th of the animals you have in the tank.

 

[lizc473]

I am new to the hobby and have often asked myself how in the world I would be able to take a vacation...For consistency purposes and to prevent being held hostage by your tank, I'd say that anything that can be purchased to assist with automation would be worth the investment. Currently my own concerns would be an auto top-off system, how to auto-feed frozen foods, and overflow-prevention for my skimmer collection cup. I don't think that the basics are rocket science...train your friend on the necessities and don't confuse them with things that can wait until you return. If you have a long list of additives or activities that you are doing on a daily basis, it may be time to start thinking about automation equipment anyway (for consistency, less work, and more enjoyment.)

 

[mindi]

train them to eat dry mix of good pellets, crushed flakes, and crushed nori....all my fish eat that happily then go back to mysis and meaty foods on return. I give them a little dry most days to remind them.
Auto top off get a Tunze Osmolator ( or other) and a wheelie rubbish bin. Skimmer less easy but get a large milk container or a cleaning liquid container of about 4-5 litres and run the tube drain into that. Emptying this is one of the two tasks I ask of a visitor. Your additives point correct, a decent dosing pump is a win win win move and if you cant afford a decent one, then cheap Jebao DP4 like mine will suffice for some time. Easy to set up and gives much more consistent dosing