What do you do with your tank on vacation

[stan450z]

What does everybody do with their reef tank when away for an extended period of time and tank has to be left alone? 1 week or so... Or longer...

Auto feeders? What about tanks without dosing pumps?

just curious how others do it. I live alone now don’t have dosing pumps, won’t really need it now as I have just a few frags. I know may be tougher for those with a large collection of corals. How long can they go without food (AB+, etc) My auto feeder with pellets is probably good enough for 4 days or so For the fish but don’t think they would be too happy with that for longer periods. My ATO is good for at least 7 days. Maybe 8 or 9

 

[nanoreefer22]

Automate as much as you can.
Double check everything before leaving.
Having a controller (Apex or similar) can help a ton if anything malfunctions, like your ATO. You can setup alarms and fail safes.
Keeping your system simple can also help as it reduces points for failure.
Do a water change before you leave so dosing doesn't become an issue.
Invest in an autodoser.

Be ready to come back to something having gone wrong, as much as we plan things inevitably seem to go wrong as soon as we're not around.

 

[Paul B]

I ask an out of work Supermodel to take care of it for me. The last time I did that, we were in Germany and I found that she let my water level drop about 7"

The corals above that, didn't have a sense of humor and turned into snot.

 

[afernandez]

I ask an out of work Supermodel to take care of it for me. The last time I did that, we were in Germany and I found that she let my water level drop about 7"

The corals above that, didn't have a sense of humor and turned into snot.

I guess you haven’t learn your lesson ??

 

[afernandez]

What does everybody do with their reef tank when away for an extended period of time and tank has to be left alone? 1 week or so... Or longer...

Auto feeders? What about tanks without dosing pumps?

just curious how others do it. I live alone now don’t have dosing pumps, won’t really need it now as I have just a few frags. I know may be tougher for those with a large collection of corals. How long can they go without food (AB+, etc) My auto feeder with pellets is probably good enough for 4 days or so For the fish but don’t think they would be too happy with that for longer periods. My ATO is good for at least 7 days. Maybe 8 or 9

Like nano said automated as much as possible and if you have a reefing friend that can check in just to make sure everything is still running and doing well, that’s wat I and a couple of friends do.

 

[grsfish]

I have a doser. An ATO with enough water. An automatic fish feeder. One of the biggest things for me that gives me piece of mind is having a Wyze camera set up so you can see and hear if anything is off. You also need someone to be able to stop by if there is something off. Also don’t do any changes the day before.

 

[Paul B]

I guess you haven’t learn your lesson ??

No I haven't. I will let any Supermodel care for my tank. I have priorities.

 

[IBernE]

Let's say I leave Saturday. I'll do a large water change the Sunday before to make sure everything is working well. Anytime my ato or skimmer get out of wack is right after a water change so this week gives me time to make sure everything is working well. I cover my tank with the glass lid to reduce evaporation and keep my ac at a 77° to help with temperature. I have an eheim feeder on all of my tanks. It's enough to feed my two 45g cubes for upto a month since I don't have many fish. I never actually left it that long, 2 weeks the most but I realised I could have gone at least that much. I reduce the amount of food because auto feeders can help grow algae. Fish really dont need to be fed as much as we might think. I left once for 5 days and I forgot to set up my feeder in one tank and they were fine. Hangry, but fine. I was using a jebao ato doser in one tank and kalkwasser in my ato in the other and both worked well. Only thing is due to temperature fears and fear of my ato going dry I never travel in the hot summer days when my ato would dry out faster. But with a lid and a 6 Gallon ato I could go 2-3 weeks max anytime besides summer.

 

[Timbo]

Water change + ATO + auto feeder.
Can set up a web cam to keep an eye on the tank witH someone on stand bye in case of an emergency.
Definitely want a battery back up of some kind just in case. We installed a generator for the house so no need to stress on that any longer.

 

[mikeymike12]

I ask an out of work Supermodel to take care of it for me. The last time I did that, we were in Germany and I found that she let my water level drop about 7"

The corals above that, didn't have a sense of humor and turned into snot.

I guess that’s why she’s out of work

 

[reefman]

ato good for at least 10 days, auto feeder , ipcam live feed. backup keys to someone close by. dont do any maintenance last minute that may increase chance of something goes wrong later.

 

[Hson365]

i hate thinking of vacation time with a tank. Stress sets in . lmao

 

[Donewiththisplace]

I take mine with me