Fear of leaving your tank

[justdeb1107]

I have an Apex, pet sitter who has a saltwater tank, whole house generator, and cameras on both the tank and sump. Like others mentioned, having a huge can of RO/DI water for the ATO, as well as running the skimmer to a collection container would help, as well. We don't go on vacation that often, but when we do, it's usually overseas for 2 weeks at a time. I still worry, but not too much.

 

[thedon986]

Vacations are why I’ll never have more than one tank. One tank lets you take multiple week vacations with one person just feeding if the system is set up properly. Too much life out there to enjoy rather than being chained to your house.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Fish can go without eating a week. Brute 20 or larger can serve as a temporary ATO to avoid salinity creep and that can be reduced further by adding a plastic top to slow evaporation. Turn the heater off by disconnecting from the wall. Raise house temps to 75. All will be alright and oxygen levels will rise. Goal being reduction of what can go wrong.

Something I plan on doing which don't seem discussed is turning dosers off and bring my levels high enough over the coming weeks so that they aren't too low on return. Seems based on others that having 14 dkh and calcium 550 with mag 3x calcium hasn't caused catastrophic failure and also seen where having these levels drop to 5 and 350, respectively have been survived assuming change was slow.

Last I want is something going wrong and additives dumped at an alarming rate or thermostat going off. Can't trust family to follow directions. Can't trust Murphy to not happen.

Could also keep lights off for a week to slow consumption of nutrients. Storms could darken the skies for a week or longer. Perhaps dim the lights down to half intensity. Corals have seen worse in transit from seas far away and fish won't care. Inverts likely clueless. Key is slowing life down as if in brumation and preventing the worse from happening. Which means turn that skimmer off too. Last one needs is wife returning to a house that smells like Fulton Street on a hot summer day.

I like your idea of raising the house temperature to heat the tank. I too have done the dosing thing where I will raise my nutrients higher than normal in my tank, and let them slowly go back to where they were while I’m out of town.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I frequently travel overseas for 4-6 weeks.

The tank just runs completely unattended (no one at home).

GHL profilux controller, Auto testing and dosing, roller mat, a dosing pump empties the skimmer, ATO plumbed direct to the RODI filter. 2 x Eheim autofeeders.

If I need I can turn on a remote camera, but normally don't worry about it.
My only dream is a robot glass cleaner because the glass gets a film of algae after 4 weeks or so.

LFS is on call if the Profilux sends an alarm.
Been running this way for several years.

I don't worry about it at all

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I frequently travel overseas for 4-6 weeks.

The tank just runs completely unattended (no one at home).

GHL profilux controller, Auto testing and dosing, roller mat, a dosing pump empties the skimmer, ATO plumbed direct to the RODI filter. 2 x Eheim autofeeders.

If I need I can turn on a remote camera, but normally don't worry about it.
My only dream is a robot glass cleaner because the glass gets a film of algae after 4 weeks or so.

LFS is on call if the Profilux sends an alarm.
Been running this way for several years.

I don't worry about it at all

haha, I wish there was a robot glass cleaner.

 

[GARRIGA]

I like your idea of raising the house temperature to heat the tank. I too have done the dosing thing where I will raise my nutrients higher than normal in my tank, and let them slowly go back to where they were while I’m out of town.

Thought I was the only one thinking that and perhaps just another one of my dumb ideas

 

[revhtree]

Thought I was the only one thinking that and perhaps just another one of my dumb ideas

There actually is one or two on the market!

Robosnail

 

[Gumbies R Us]

There actually is one or two on the market!

Robosnail

Looking this up later today!

 

[GARRIGA]

There actually is one or two on the market!

Robosnail

Was referring to raising nutrients prior to extended leave but this RoboSnail seems interesting and not just when on leave. Let er rip 24/7 as that's one less thing for me and was getting one of those floor robots that sweep. Might as well help myself out too.

You'd think farms would implement this and especially on bare bottoms. Less CUC too.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

The longest I've gone was 4 days. And boy was it nerve wrecking. Came back to a green tank. Found the culprit which was a dead snail. Ammonia was good but it caused a phtyo/bacterial bloom. Pulled the snail out and ran UV. 2 days later its clear again.

For my bigger tank I am doing hydros automation. The rest are just ATO's. I thankfully have someone to look at them. I keep spare heaters and 20 gallons of fresh saltwater on hand.

 

[AlyciaMarie]

We (Gumbies and I) fill up the ATO and pre-prepare frozen food. Then, a family member comes to feed the tank every second or third day. We only dose AFR a few times a week, but we pause that when we're out of town to make it less complicated for our family. This has worked for us so far!
But we only have a 20g with a few fish and LPS/Anemone, so there isn't much that requires care anyways.

 

[bezj]

Hi. Live in UK and have had numerous 7 or 14 day vacations over the last 4 years with 100+gallon 3x3x2 cube.

Glass/plastic cover for tank is a must to reduce ATO limits. Mine would normally only last 7 days max.

Pretty stable DKH and salinity important. Not too fused if nitrate/phosphate move around. Currently a little on the high side ; nitrate 30+ and phosphate 0.3+ but corals (soft, LPS, SPS) have never looked happier! I dose All For Reef/k elements and NP Bacto balance so nice and easy.

I run my DKH around 8 so I need something drastic to happen for that to move too much.

Red Sea reef wave 45s, doser, Matt and x4 LED 90s so lots of control on the app.

Reef factory temp control, level sensor and level keeper all app controlled. The level keeper comes with x2 sensors low and high which is really useful and I use the additional sensor at return pump intake level.

The weak point is the return pump. Vectra M2 with battery backup controlled by reef link. Like other users I find the pump return rates fluctuates a lot! You almost have to change it daily.

The reef factory sensors are great but with the problems with the M2, always felt like I was guessing if I had to make adjustments so this year bought x2 relatively cheap video cameras so can now actually see what’s happening!

Also have a couple of Bluetooth plugs for the cabinet light and Refugium light.

Turn on the Cabinet light and hey presto!

The other improvement for this year was air conditioning in the room which again I can control from anywhere in the world!

 

[Doctorgori]

I just keep a LFS employee of Aquarium maintenance guy on sorta a retainer …. I give em access to Apex Fusion and my text #

I also go ahead and pay them well as one loss could equal hundreds

 

[bezj]

Forgot to mention food! Normally feed pellets x1 per day (ehiem) frozen and algae a few times a week.

Bit of extra leading up and whilst away pellets x2 a day.

Might look into the Avast auto feeder when I get back.

 

[ukgeoff]

I just got back home from a 21-day vacation, the longest I've been away since setting up my tank 2 1/2 years ago. I run an Apex controller with Neptune tester and dose all4reef, phosphate and nitrate daily into my tank to keep the parameters in the recommended ballpark.

The week before I left, I replaced all the Neptune reagents with brand new ones and also put in a new 1-litre bottle of all4reef, which I knew would last the three weeks I was away. I had someone come over every second day to feed my fish and clean the glass with a flipper magnetic scrapper.

I normally do a 1% daily water change, but this was put on hold while I was away. When I got home, the tank was okay, but a few corals (Candy Cane and Gonipora) didn't like my absence and suffered. I'm still trying to get the tank back to how it looked before my holiday. My Apex reported stable parameters while I was away, so I put the corals' unhappy appearance down to the lack of water changes.

Before Vacation

After Vacation

Edit:- I just remembered, the receding Candy Cane had a massive aptasia growing next to it (just visible in the picture) which may also be the reason it receeded. When I got home, I killed the aptasia with some Joe's Juice, so hopefully that will help!