ricknbecky Posted February 15, 2003 Share Posted February 15, 2003 I bought most of my gear for a nano ( a AGA7 minbow - thanks gill ) But it just dawned on me - I will from time to time have to go out of town ( usually not more than 3 days at a time ) What do you all do - I don't trust my co-workers to remember. Link to comment
Kaxter Posted February 15, 2003 Share Posted February 15, 2003 If it is only 3 days that you are gone you should be fine. I have left mine for 4 days in a row. All I did was dose my B-Ionic right before I left, filled the tank about 1/4 of an inch above the black line, and fed microvert just a little heavier than normal. When I got back I repeated all those steps. Everything was fine. Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 15, 2003 Author Share Posted February 15, 2003 thanks - this is nano 2 - Becky ( Squishie's ) is doing great and we may even have a few frags to transfer to the new tank - We have learned a lot about tanks in the past 4 months - still tons to go, but she is the bio wiz - I am the gear head ( all guys are ) but she is so cool about wanting to learn gear. And we sit in front of the 20G Nano - and watch through a pair of magnifying goggles - its real cool Now that I have a nikon coolpix4300 expect good pics of both tanks soon Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 15, 2003 Author Share Posted February 15, 2003 on the off chance its more, I guess I could pay the guy that does my boss's tank at work to feed them.... I fear the people I work with - even my boss uses a service Ya know it drives me nuts when people want a "pretty" tank and know jack about it ( although he DOES know a few names so thats better than nothing ) Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted February 15, 2003 Share Posted February 15, 2003 just setup an auto topoff...once the tank is stable it can go a long time. over christmas break i left my tank for a little over a month and everything looked jsut as good as when i left it. i wouldnt really recommend doing this on a new system but once it has been setup a while you wont have to worry about it. also 2-3 dasys isnt a problem at all and if you do decide to have someone feed them make sure you put the food in single serve pill cups because ti WILL get overfed. Link to comment
rickjg Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 I don't worry about my tank for only three days. When I left for a week vacation, I showed a trusted co-worker how to to do top off and how many pieces of food (5 only) to feed per day. I had them practice the week before I left. It went just fine. Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 16, 2003 Author Share Posted February 16, 2003 Becky brought up one other issue..... evaporation over a weekend in a 7 gal would be kinda high, and not feeding the tank all weekend - she thought would stress the tank? In my experience I have chosen to take her advice as good and solid - anyone have any thoughts? I may end up moving this to a home tank. Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 not feeding for a weekend will not stress the tank. there is no need to bring the tank home. set up an auto topoff if ou are worried about evap. but over a weekend it would not be an issue. Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 so I take it many of you have office nanos and the weekends arent much of an issue? Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 18, 2003 Author Share Posted February 18, 2003 I am deff. looking at sticking a 1 gallon jug with a float above the tank and use that for a topoff or maybe an IV drip Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 pacing...... lots and lots of fretting and hand rubbing combined with brow furrowing. NO. Just let it be. No sense in worrying about it that anal-e. keep your salinity at 1.023 and if it does spike slightly over the weekend, you can easily bring it back down over the period of a 6 hours or a day. Also having a well fittingtop helps keep it down to only a small ratio Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 18, 2003 Author Share Posted February 18, 2003 thanks for the help - I still am a bit worried - maybe I will start it at home and move it later Link to comment
SLOreefer Posted February 18, 2003 Share Posted February 18, 2003 i understand your concerns...i really do. i used to be the same way but then i moved to college and had to leave my tank at times. the first couple weekends i left it i was really worried. then slowly i realized my tank was more stable than most of us like to believe they are. i then went ahead and left my tank with no topoff for about 5 days. everything looked perfect. thats when irealized it was ok. im glad to see you have such concern and care so much about your little environment. most people dont have the patience to do this much research. but i promise you it will be ok Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 18, 2003 Author Share Posted February 18, 2003 SLO - Thanks for the kind words... this is actually my 2nd reef - Becky and I put together a 20 gallon back in November - which is doing great. As soon as I get this one going we will have to go to the Logical Reef over on the East Coast and pick up some zoo frags and rics I am wondering if it would not be in my best interest to start the tank at home, let it get going then move it Link to comment
MKramer Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 My office tank is a 5g, with a 1.5g sump. Total water volume is in the neighborhood of 4.75g. If I top off Friday morning, putting the SG at 1.024, I can make it til Monday morning, with an SG of 1.026. That's as much as I'm willing to push it, though, especially given this is an anemone tank. A few things to consider: Tank covering - my 1.5g sump is just a tall juice pitcher.... I leave the lid sitting on it at all times, however sicne the supply hose from the main tank goes into the top of the pitcher, there's about a 0.75" gap between the lid and the sump. If after topping off Friday, I forget to set the lid back on it, I lose a LOT more water. S.G. went up to 1.027 once, which is entering the realm of very scary, in my book. The lid on the main tank leaves a 10x2" opening accross the back of the time. Once thing worth noting, tohugh, is that my office is over-zealously air-conditioned, making it considerably dry. Supplements - since people mention their supplement-adding routines for the weekend, I thought I'd jsut put otu there that my tank is going strong with no supplements whatsoever. Just weekly water changes. Even if you want to go the supplement route, I wouldn't worry about missing a weekend or during a short vacation. I'd rather skip than trust someone else. Feeding - Again, I'd rather skip than trust someone else. Excessive and/or sloppy feeding is the first step to tank pollution in these small tanks, and even with good instruction, people jsut need time to get good at feeding. Your fish can easily go a week without food. My office tank only gets fed once a week, actually.... but the only fish is a tiny little clown goby. However, my 10g w/ 2 clowns at home gets feeding ever 2-3 days, and I've gone a week between on several occasions. As long as they get regular feedings more often than not, they'll be happy. I had about a motnh of weekly feedings once, and my clowns started fighting a lot, but upping the frequency immediately put an end to it. When I'm going to be gone for more than 2 days, I have someone add top-off water to my tank. I put a "fill up to this line" sticker on the back of the tank, show them the cup and the water jugs. Unlike feeding and supplementing, screwing up the top-off is pretty dificult. In my case, they can poor right into the sump, so they don't even have to move the canopy or worry about stirring up the substrate. Otherwise, I just give them my cell phone number in case they notice any big problems. Link to comment
ricknbecky Posted February 20, 2003 Author Share Posted February 20, 2003 well I leave work at 3pm on Friday and don't come back in till Monday at 7 am - I guess I could always try it for 1 week and see how it goes plus it will cycle in my office so I can see what happens - Link to comment
MKramer Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Really, I think you'll be just fine. Just do what you can to prevent evaporation while you're away, and you can make it 72 hours minimum. Like i said, mine's in an environment very condusive to evaporation (high air flow, heavily A/C'd year-round). In my opinion, evaporation is the only real issue of concern. Feeding, water changes, and supplementation can all go quite a long time if need be. For me, the only problem I really have with my office nano is convincing security that my 5g jugs only contain salt water when I try to bring them in (I work in the defense industry, and security's gotten anal). Otherwise, my 5g has been going for 6 months without a single problem, with a bubble-tip anemone that's gained a lot of color since it was introduced, and grown a good bit to boot. Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted February 20, 2003 Share Posted February 20, 2003 Take your *weekend* or *vacation* during the week! I have the same fears as you all do by leaving a tank for more than a few days. But from what I've read, a nano is fairly self-sustaining if it doesn't suffer from a bio-load. Evaporation would be the main culprit in a healthy system. So do what I am going to do. Once my tank is set up and running, I'll pretend to go on a 4-5 day vacation. But I'll be there to monitor everything just in case. Once my confidence grows, I can take off without worry. Link to comment
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