What do you do when you go on vacation?
- Thread starter canesfan
- Start date
DawnOctopus
Octopus in Training
I'm going to Mexico this summer and I'm making my husband stay home to take care of the tank! Yes, really - But he wasn't that excited about going anyway. 
The obvious answer , since you have already spent a fortune, and since all reef keeping is a richmans hobby.
A web cam and, www.crestron.com
The best fully custom automation, web access and all
A web cam and, www.crestron.com
The best fully custom automation, web access and all
jonnydalejunior
New member
i plaster my rig with sticky notes and pay my little sister to stop by once a day to make sure nothing has gone horribly wrong (i have had so many things turn against me that i am now paraniod i will come home to a black hole where my tank once was) check the water level, and feed. i used to think the fish could just go with out food for a while, until i went scuba on some reefs and noticed that all fish do all day in the wild is eat. i want to make my fish feel as natural as possible in their 24 cube ft world.
One thing I learned the hard way, is not to add anything into the tank the week before you go away. I bought a fathead anthias, 3 days before I left for a 3 day weekend. He was fine for the 3 days before I left, and died during the 3 days I was away. He was pretty decompsed by the time I returned. Could have been worse, but I lost a small 2 headed hammer coral, 4 heads out of the 7 on my frogspawn, a small Xenia, and my firefish must not have been happy with the water conditions and committed suicide and jumped out. (had him for about 6 months before that). A lot of other corals looked pretty poor, but the rest, thank God, recovered.
I go away a lot for 2 or 3 days and I don't worry about food. Just feed them well the morning I leave, and when I get back. My auto top-off resevoir is built into my sump and is a little over 4 gallons, so that's enough for a 3 day weekend.
For a week, I set up a large rubbermade to use as a top-off container, and pull the pump from the built in auto-topoff reservoir in my sump and place it in the rubbermade. I use a autofeeder, but I have a possum wrasse and now a longnose hawkfish that don't eat flake, pellets or freeze dried cyclopese. Hopefully they finds some pods to eat. I do have someone come in twice during the week, just to visually check that everything is ok, and feed some frozen food. I portion out the frozen food so that they don't over-feed. I put enough food for one day onto a small tupperware lid, and place the lid into a ziplock back in the freezer, and then hide the rest of the food. They are instructed to thaw and just toss in the food from ONE tupperware cover.
I ask them to leave a voicemail on my cell phone to let me know if everything looks ok.
I also have a heater and a powerhead on a UBS, and have the following batter operated airpump, in case of a power outage while I'm away. It runs off of two D batteries, and will at least put some air into the tank, if the UBS runs out of juice. I have a lot more room on the UBS for more items, but I want it to last the longest for the heat and a powerhead, so I don't plug in the skimmer, or lights, or backup heater and second powerhead.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...Ntk=All&N=2004&Ntt=battery operated pump&Np=1
I go away a lot for 2 or 3 days and I don't worry about food. Just feed them well the morning I leave, and when I get back. My auto top-off resevoir is built into my sump and is a little over 4 gallons, so that's enough for a 3 day weekend.
For a week, I set up a large rubbermade to use as a top-off container, and pull the pump from the built in auto-topoff reservoir in my sump and place it in the rubbermade. I use a autofeeder, but I have a possum wrasse and now a longnose hawkfish that don't eat flake, pellets or freeze dried cyclopese. Hopefully they finds some pods to eat. I do have someone come in twice during the week, just to visually check that everything is ok, and feed some frozen food. I portion out the frozen food so that they don't over-feed. I put enough food for one day onto a small tupperware lid, and place the lid into a ziplock back in the freezer, and then hide the rest of the food. They are instructed to thaw and just toss in the food from ONE tupperware cover.
I ask them to leave a voicemail on my cell phone to let me know if everything looks ok.
I also have a heater and a powerhead on a UBS, and have the following batter operated airpump, in case of a power outage while I'm away. It runs off of two D batteries, and will at least put some air into the tank, if the UBS runs out of juice. I have a lot more room on the UBS for more items, but I want it to last the longest for the heat and a powerhead, so I don't plug in the skimmer, or lights, or backup heater and second powerhead.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produ...Ntk=All&N=2004&Ntt=battery operated pump&Np=1
Does anyone add anything in their auto feeder besides flake, pellets and freeze dried cyclopese? Would be nice to find something that my longnose hawkfish and possum wrasse would eat (they will only eat frozen). I use the following feeding ring with my auto feeder so that all the food doesn't go right into the overflow before it has a chance to sink.
Ocean Nutrition Feeding Station
Ocean Nutrition Feeding Station
I do the same thing I ever I go on a carnival cruise for a week or so. I will feed the fish hearty for the days just prior to me leaving, then right before I leave I will clip a good size sheet of seaweed on my food clip and call it a day. aside from equipment, I have a JBJ ATO setup on there that is always worked wonders. Skimmer worked fine along with everything else. i tried not to mess with too much equipment because "if it's not broke, don't fix it" if you do want to change stuff, make sure you make your adjustments a few days before you go on vacation so you can just make sure your adjustments are okay.
The "ONLY' adjustment I make before I leave is if my vacation is in the summer time, I will turn my halides back 2 hrs so they lights aren't on too long since I'm not there to monitor the temp.
Came back 8 days later and everything was fine.
The "ONLY' adjustment I make before I leave is if my vacation is in the summer time, I will turn my halides back 2 hrs so they lights aren't on too long since I'm not there to monitor the temp.
Came back 8 days later and everything was fine.
HBtank
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11887804#post11887804 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by darkcirca
Put a network camera on the tank and monitor it while your away. Then if something goes wrong, call someone to go fix it. We had our ACJr temp probe fail while we were away before, noticed it due to the camera and had to get someone to reprogram the thing...
I setup an autofeeder and make sure my ato is full before I leave, as I generally go away for 1 week and my tank drops 1/2 gallon at least a day...
How did you notice a temp probe problem with a network camera?
How did it exactly fail?
