SLOreefer Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 Hey guys... im wondering how long is the longest you ahev all left your tanks unnatended without disaster happening. im leaving my tank for about a month right now and i am somewhat worried about it. i set up an auto-topoff and stuff but i am still worried something will go wrong. i know everyone is gnna say im crazy but ohwell....im a risk taker and didnt feel like breaking down and moving the tank again to bring home with me for the holidays. ive done that too many times already. Link to comment
JPF Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 I have left my system 12 completely untended for 7 full days. No problems, but I keep a fairly tough system containing only soft corals, a tight hood and only 1 damsel. Topped off and fed when I came home. Link to comment
glazer Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 ONE DAY!....lol Any longer than that and a friend, cousin, neighbor or "local bum on the street corner" is asked/hired to look in on things. (well we have dogs, cats and guinea pigs too so um, a sitter is always in order...lol) Another person leaving a tank for a month? Wow, I'll be anxiously awaiting the reports mid-Jan on how everything faired.. You really can't take it home with you? There really is NO ONE to look in on it? Well all I gotta say is good luck... no whining when you get back to it, hehe Link to comment
Metznreef Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 i left mine for 5 days but i had some one do top offs for me. that reminds me, i gotta get to makeing that auto top off system......... Link to comment
appstateguy Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 hey. i left a 10 gallon tank for a month. might i suggest a nice waterchange before you leave, and if its near any windows, move it. my only problem was hair algae *raping* my gsp. Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 I'm afraid to say... for fear of banishment... 1.5 to almost 2 weeks, my mom added fish food. But that was it! This is my 12 gallon eclipse. Besides algae on the glass (from over feeding :-/ thanks mom) there were NO problems. I slowly brought the salinity back to normal. BTW, I knew that I was going to be gone for a week so I dropped it to 1.023 over the period of a week before I left. Nothing seemed to freak out. BTW I DON'T recommend this to anyone... and the first thing I did when I walked though the door was run to my tank! Also the tank has gone considerable periods of time w/o water changes. I watched this very closely however... I still did not have any problem when I decided it was long enough, and did the change. I am not irresponsible (besides the 1.5 week leave) I have never done anything to put my tank in jeopardy... in fact I keep incredibly detailed reefing logs... -just wanted to clear that up, before rumors got started . Link to comment
SoS Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 3 days and no Problems. It depends on your evaporation rate. With my auto feeder i could leave my 29Gal reef for a week or two. The 10 gal I'd say 5 days tops before I need to top-off Link to comment
Crakeur Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 10 days back in May. I went to St. Barths and came back with the tank in decent shape. No death, just low on water and a couple of hungry fish. Link to comment
hhasty79 Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 8 days. Aunt given severe instructions to add only water, and only then from a specific bucket I had set beside the tank. Tank looked *great* when I got back, great xenia growth and clowns happy to see me. Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 3 Months 17 days. All that was done was feeding, dosing and auto topoffs. I had one MIA upon return. Not a single person touched my reef. except to refill the auto flake feeder and the B-Ionic resivours. Link to comment
Strife Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 7 days..un-attended here Link to comment
Physh1 Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 3 weeks. Large freshwater makeup tank. All that was done was feeding by my bro. Nothing that an auto feeder couldn't have done. No losses....just a little algae to clean. Cameron Link to comment
tinyreef Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 "Leave my precious? Who's watching my precious? Precious! " five days. total tank crash. water level dropped by about 15% with a corresponding salinity spike and lost half the tank's inhabitants. :*( oh, was this supposed to be a reassuring thread? X) oops! try the seal method over the next couple of days. accurately measure the rate of water loss. if there's more than your auto topoff can handle in the time frame you'd better think about ziploc'ing your livestock back home or rent a tank at a local lfs. Link to comment
flaunt Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 i leave mine completely unattended for periods of 2-3 days maybe once or twice a month, with no adverse effects other than the occasional smearing of algae. i don't enjoy doing that since i feel i'm neglecting the critters and fish, but i've not had any serious problems with it. i'd be nervous about a month though, and i simply wouldn't do it unless i had an auto-topoff and autofeeders that i felt were rock solid. one thing i like about not seeing my tank for a few days is that it's easy to notice changes when i come back to it. that reminds me, i just spotted a huge aiptasia due for a kalking Link to comment
Pikelet Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 10 days on one occasion, 14 days on another. No problems with any livestock. Main problem was dealing with excess phosphate being dumped into the tank from the flake food. That was a major PITA Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted December 13, 2002 Author Share Posted December 13, 2002 well i set up an auto topoff with almost 10 gallons of freshwater...im hoping it will be ok. i left it for a week for thanksgiving without the topoff and it did fine. well 5 days actually and just slowly added fresh back in. before i left i did a 2 gallon water change and made sure all pumps were working correctly. ive never used more than about 3 -4 gallons in a month before so the about 9-10 should be more than enough. if not i guess my pump will catch fire and burn my house down. lets hope that doesnt happen. Link to comment
flaunt Posted December 13, 2002 Share Posted December 13, 2002 you'll probably also want to do a decent-sized water change after returning home... Link to comment
Twobuck40 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 14 days. had a friend top off with fresh water, nothing else, every 3rd day. 10gal. no losses. everything was doing great when i returned. Thanks 'Sea-Lab no28 automatic replenisher', put in 5 tabs before i left. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...d=6&pCatId=4166 Link to comment
Chief Brody Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 4 tanks, 10 days. I had someone come in and feed twice during the time span and add top off. everyone was healthy and happy when I returned. Link to comment
Nishant3789 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 call me crazy but i think its fun to leave the tank for a few weeks or even days because then u get to see how much ure reef has grown in such a short amount of time we really dont notice it because welook at it everyday. btw 10 days here too, did a water cahgne before i left and when i got back everything was ok cept my salinity had dropped a .001. there was no topoff even so i guess it worked . hth nishant Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted December 14, 2002 Author Share Posted December 14, 2002 how did your salinity drop with evaporation and no auto topoff? that sounds odd to me...ohwell...im glad to see that there hasntbeen too many horror stories. im jsut hoping the 8 gallons or so of makeup water will be enough...i think it should...i dont htink ive ever gone through much mroe than 5-6 gallons a month Link to comment
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