Pinner Reef Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 So I'm going out of town for a little over a week for my yearly 4th of July pilgramage to grandma's cottage. I was just wondering if anybody had any suggestions as to what i should or should not tell my fill in aquarist. The guy is not an aquarist per say but does really with his animals. I've used him on shorter trips with good success however this is the longest by far. Anyway he's coming by tomorrow for his third and most intense totorial in reef keeping. LOL Everytime the list grows longer. LMK about pitfalls you peoples have come by in terms temporary aquarist. Thanks -Pinner Link to comment
lgreen Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 What all are you having him do? Link to comment
alizarin Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 I told my neighbors who had zero aquarium experience to feed an exact amount and to call me if anything looked like it was sick, the temp was off, the lights were off, or water was on the floor. I think overfeeding is the danger with people who don't have reef experience. Link to comment
silicon_dt Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 Just tell em to feed the tank "one cube" of frozen brine a day. Depending on your tank this might be too much? But cubes are easy to measure. Instead of saying, ya feed umm like a chunk of this stuff and a pinch of that.. He will end up feeding your tank a cup of this stuff and a handfull of that. Turn off any auto topoff systems you have, and have him manually top the water off. Have a few gallons of RO/DI for him. Just tell him to fill the tank up until it gets to this point. Maybe make a mark with a temp marker or something? Just DONT leave your autotopoff on for like 5 days. The reef gods will make it stick and flood everything. If you have a magfloat, ask him to do a quick daily cleaning of the glass. As for lights and temp. Just have him do a quick look. 1) Are lights on? OK CHECK 2) Is the temp below 85deg? OK CHECK If anything is wrong call.. (yourname) I think the best thing is to keep it simple for him, and turn off anything that could fail (autotopoff) Link to comment
smokieroom Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 What silicon_dt said is the way to go but i would like to add if you feed dry foods just measure out how much for each day and label them. If you have a ATO show him or her how to turn it on and off so they can only topoff when they are there. Link to comment
mels95yj Posted June 29, 2006 Share Posted June 29, 2006 Yeah, I did the same thing with my nephew when we went out of town for a week. He was scared to death something bad would happen! If you have softies, you may let him know that they shrink at night. The first night we left, my nephew called me frantic. My leathers had shrunk after the lights went off and he thought he killed them. Mel Link to comment
Pinner Reef Posted June 29, 2006 Author Share Posted June 29, 2006 Thanks for the tips everybody! Yeah I tried to keep it as simple as possible. My tank is pretty simple to care for anyway. Basicly all he has to top off, check temp, make sure lights come on/go off, and scrap the glass for my blenny. I also showed him how to feed the Candycane and Ricorida because he really wanted to see it and because he was there when the lights were off. He is going to bring his GF over to show her so he convince her to get a tank (we may have a new member here soon). Anyway we'll find out how it goes after about twelve days -Pinner Link to comment
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