What Do You Guys Do With Your Tanks While On Vacation?
- Thread starter Drew Shark
- Start date
paranoid reefer part 1
Here's my last experience:
My whole SoCal extended family and I went on a 2 week carribean cruise last summer. The only neighbor my wife trusted to come in the house was in New York. There was no one left, so I had to do everything automated...
reef tank:
1. I fed them of lotsa frozen, flakes, pellets, live brine/bloodworms everyday for 1 week before.
2. Eheim autofeeder 2x per day feeding spectrum small pellets and flakes.
3. Eheim autofeeder once every 5 days at night feeding powdered colar food.
4. for my CBB, moorish idol, & mandarin who like live food: 3 gallon CPR in-tank refugium in my sump with 4 portions of live brine, its pump was on a timer set to go off 30 seconds every other day...it actually worked...
5. changed to an in-sump skimmer with drain cup attached to hose draining into 2 gallon bucket that was half submerged in the sump, filter socks out, ozone off
6. Neptune apex on internet, web cam in front of tank
7. tunze ATO attached to 50g RODI water
8. 50g water change pre made, stirring in garage
9. 2x vortec battery backups
10. backup chiller feeding from sump, also installed into the apex next to the main chiller
1 month before the cruise I did a test run where I did not touch the tank for 2 weeks. It worked. So I did not mess with the tank except for maintence/feeding the 2 weeks immediately before the vacation.
During the cruise I checked the apex parameters and tank visually (including the sump) on the internet nightly from the cruise ship.
When I returned all fish were alive, the coral actually grew. No equip leaks. No problems.
If there were a problem that I couldnt fix remotely, I promised to myself not to ruin the vacation, just turn off the tank remotely. Then return and leave reefing...
Here's my last experience:
My whole SoCal extended family and I went on a 2 week carribean cruise last summer. The only neighbor my wife trusted to come in the house was in New York. There was no one left, so I had to do everything automated...
reef tank:
1. I fed them of lotsa frozen, flakes, pellets, live brine/bloodworms everyday for 1 week before.
2. Eheim autofeeder 2x per day feeding spectrum small pellets and flakes.
3. Eheim autofeeder once every 5 days at night feeding powdered colar food.
4. for my CBB, moorish idol, & mandarin who like live food: 3 gallon CPR in-tank refugium in my sump with 4 portions of live brine, its pump was on a timer set to go off 30 seconds every other day...it actually worked...
5. changed to an in-sump skimmer with drain cup attached to hose draining into 2 gallon bucket that was half submerged in the sump, filter socks out, ozone off
6. Neptune apex on internet, web cam in front of tank
7. tunze ATO attached to 50g RODI water
8. 50g water change pre made, stirring in garage
9. 2x vortec battery backups
10. backup chiller feeding from sump, also installed into the apex next to the main chiller
1 month before the cruise I did a test run where I did not touch the tank for 2 weeks. It worked. So I did not mess with the tank except for maintence/feeding the 2 weeks immediately before the vacation.
During the cruise I checked the apex parameters and tank visually (including the sump) on the internet nightly from the cruise ship.
When I returned all fish were alive, the coral actually grew. No equip leaks. No problems.
If there were a problem that I couldnt fix remotely, I promised to myself not to ruin the vacation, just turn off the tank remotely. Then return and leave reefing...
paranoid reefer part 2
Here's my last experience:
My whole SoCal extended family and I went on a 2 week carribean cruise last summer. The only neighbor my wife trusted to come in the house was in New York. There was no one left, so I had to do everything automated...
Predator FOWLR:
1. I fed them lotsa goldfish/silversides everyday for 1 week before.
2. Eheim autofeeder 1x per day feeding large spectrum pellets.
3. To feed some live food, a large fishtrap at the bottom of the tank under a rock, with 10 chromis inside, door down, tied to string, attached to autofeeder that was set to turn 10x, 7 days later and open the door to let the fish out... it worked...
4. skimmer off, uv off, filter sock out
5. reefkeeper elite net on internet, web cam in front of tank
6. tunze ATO attached to 30g RODI water
7. 30g water change pre made, stirring in garage
8. tunze batter backup for tunze streams
1 month before the cruise I did a test run where I did not touch the tank for 2 weeks. It worked. So I did not mess with the tank except for maintence/feeding the 2 weeks imm before the vacation.
I checked the reekeeper parameters and tank visually (including the sump) on the internet nightly from the cruise ship.
When I returned all fish were alive. No equip leaks. No problems.
If there were a problem, I promised to myself not to ruin the vacation, just let the fish die and dont watch. Then return and get rid of the tank...
Here's my last experience:
My whole SoCal extended family and I went on a 2 week carribean cruise last summer. The only neighbor my wife trusted to come in the house was in New York. There was no one left, so I had to do everything automated...
Predator FOWLR:
1. I fed them lotsa goldfish/silversides everyday for 1 week before.
2. Eheim autofeeder 1x per day feeding large spectrum pellets.
3. To feed some live food, a large fishtrap at the bottom of the tank under a rock, with 10 chromis inside, door down, tied to string, attached to autofeeder that was set to turn 10x, 7 days later and open the door to let the fish out... it worked...
4. skimmer off, uv off, filter sock out
5. reefkeeper elite net on internet, web cam in front of tank
6. tunze ATO attached to 30g RODI water
7. 30g water change pre made, stirring in garage
8. tunze batter backup for tunze streams
1 month before the cruise I did a test run where I did not touch the tank for 2 weeks. It worked. So I did not mess with the tank except for maintence/feeding the 2 weeks imm before the vacation.
I checked the reekeeper parameters and tank visually (including the sump) on the internet nightly from the cruise ship.
When I returned all fish were alive. No equip leaks. No problems.
If there were a problem, I promised to myself not to ruin the vacation, just let the fish die and dont watch. Then return and get rid of the tank...
Update
So I went on the vacation super worried, when I came back all the fish and corals were fine. The only problems were: 1-the tube from the skimmer pump to the skimmer body became loosened and my tank was crowded with a bunch of micro bubbles, 2-the acrylic got covered in algae(which isn't a big deal to me, it just took forever to clean it all up). So thanks for all your ideas.
So I went on the vacation super worried, when I came back all the fish and corals were fine. The only problems were: 1-the tube from the skimmer pump to the skimmer body became loosened and my tank was crowded with a bunch of micro bubbles, 2-the acrylic got covered in algae(which isn't a big deal to me, it just took forever to clean it all up). So thanks for all your ideas.
