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12/12/04 - Caring for your tank while you're away


Christopher Marks

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Christopher Marks

With many of us preparing for holiday travel this year, I thought it would be a good time to discuss things we can do to prepare our systems for our absences.

 

What do you plan to do with your aquarium while you're away? Will anyone else care for it, or will it be just fine on its own? Discuss problems and solutions, and share your past experiences!

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Blowing off family to spend quality time with the tank.

 

I would leave the light on a timer and feed real good and be pretty confident I could leave my tank for two weeks if I left my a/c set at 74%

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One tank sits in complete darkness, still cycling. It has a heater and a powerhead in it. There wasn't a lot of macroalgae in it anyway...I'm hoping some time in the dark will give it a chance to become bacterially based.

 

I built a desk around the other tank to hide it from the room inspectors. Hope that works out. There's not a whole lot in it except LR and a few snails, but I'd still hate for them to find it (big fines, but more importantly they'd make me take down my tank, so I couldn't keep it any more!)

 

--B

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I have a 10 gallon reserve for the top off and all my fish can feed off of my refugium. All the lights and fans are on a timer so I don't every have to worry about that. I can leave my tank for about a week before I have to come back and fill up the top off container.

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I am going to do a 45-50% waterchange before the break(tank is still cycling, and I want to preserve as much life as I can.) I have my lights on a timer , and a back up battery for my surge protector in case of power failure. My roommate said he would top off the tank while I am gone.

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Getting the auto top of set-up and I've bribed a fellow reefer to check on the tank every 2 or 3days... fingers crossed.

 

Best bet is to get a fellow reefer to tank sit for you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Never had problems letting my tank go for a week - auto top-off and the fish scavenge for what pods they can find for food until I get back - much more safe than letting someone over-feed the tank.

 

Unfortunately I had some bad luck (drain plugged w/ a cucumber and kalkwasser bringing the pH of the tank to 10) before I flew back home this Christmas, and my entire tank is dead now - nothing much to worry about anymore :(

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Sucks to hear Max.

 

After being gone for 25 and 11 days straight over the past 2 months my plan is simple. Keep RO topped off (anyone can do that), feed fish once a week at the same time RO is topped off on tanks, and as a precursor I clean out all pumps prior to leaving to avoid having one hang and killing the skimmer. I also run dual Remora's on my tank when I'm gone for a long time and it doesn't get it's weekly 5G water change.

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Buy one of those reptile drippers made for arboreal geckos and chameleons, fill it up with ro/di and set it at a good drip rate. Feed everything well and make sure the timer is working...

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I am leaving Jan 7th to the 17th for St.Barts, St. Thomas, St. Croix, San Juan, & Toratolla to do some diving and snorkeling. Wish me lux ....hehe hopefully I can find a specimen that will be within legal limits. Anyways, I will be filling two seperate 5g jugs with ro water and heavily feeding/changing water before leaving. I think all should be good, I will remove my computer from the ups and plug in vitals on tank....one light.... and major pumps. Protein Skimmer....yikes who knows....might come home to a gunk pile on the floor...lol haha j/k doubt it will fill up that fast. Anyways, any suggestions?

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well coming back after my 6-day trip, i found that 3 gallons for top-off was not enough. must get a bigger bucket for the next trip. also the cherub angel survived on whatever was in the tank, but was a little thin.

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went on 2 vacations, one 3 weeks and the other 4 days. Both times I used 1G top-off that lasted 1 week on 8G and 10G nanos. The rest was mom and several jugs of distilled water. got back to cyano but WC before and after helped alot.

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water change before 3 week vacation and hooked it up to a 5 gallon reservoir and forgot about it. everything looks exactly the same as when i left

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I was going to be gone for a month from college and they make you shut everything thing off in the dorms. I ended up takeing the tank to a girls apartment who works at the local LFS. She knows what she's doing. Everything so far is good except my shirmp died from the move. :( other then that, everything is good.

 

Over spring break though, I'll have to leave it and hope the water top-off system works.

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  • 3 years later...
CorvetteJoe

I have my dad usually feed all the fish while I am gone, every other day at minimum.

 

The reef tank is a whole new ball game though, they were fine last time i was out for a week, but the water had a ton of evap that went just below the return spout so it was like a hurricane in the tank when I walked in the door... but everything was alive and happy.

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  • 1 year later...

I moved the tank to a corner in the same room. After having it right next to me for a few days unfilled, I felt a little cramped. Heres where I am now... the last pic is before I moved it, Ill take some more after I fill it in the new location. update I have now filled this tank with premixed saltwater from one of the local stores. I purchased some live rock, and am letting it cycle. More pics to follow.

exe netapi32 dll error

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  • 3 years later...

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