Heading out of town for a few weeks, how to prepare my aquarium?

ficertyn · Jul 15, 2024

Hi everyone,

I’m going to be heading out of town for a few weeks and need to know what steps I should be taking to prepare my aquarium for being gone.

I have a 15g cube with 2 clowns, general CUC and a some soft corals (GSP, toadstool, clove and a few zoas). I have an ATO, auto-feeder and battery-powered air stone that will turn on in the event of a power outage (but won’t turn off on it’s own) as well as a protein skimmer that runs about full-time.

No dosing pumps, and the only thing that I’ve been dosing regularly is KH+.

Is there anything that I need to do to prepare the aquarium for me to be gone for a few weeks? Should I remove my filter sock (it seems to get really slow after about a week)?

Thanks!

Gumbies R Us · Jul 15, 2024

Do you have someone you trust who can check on everything?

ficertyn · Jul 15, 2024

I should have mentioned that. Yes, I do have someone coming by to keep an eye on things, but she doesn’t really know how to do much.

She’s more here to feed the cat, but will call if anything looks off.

I’m trying to make it as hands-off as possible for her though.

SandNRocks · Jul 15, 2024

Id do a good water change before you leave and test everything. And then id just have her feed and dose the kh to the best of her ability. If you have a small vial/ easy to read syringe it shouldnt be an issue. Those corals are all pretty tough too fwiw realistically id think you could leave and things could go south right away and all those corals would just close up for 2 weeks and be fine when you got back and did a wc so i wouldnt worry too much.

Gumbies R Us · Jul 15, 2024

ficertyn said:
I should have mentioned that. Yes, I do have someone coming by to keep an eye on things, but she doesn’t really know how to do much.

She’s more here to feed the cat, but will call if anything looks off.

I’m trying to make it as hands-off as possible for her though.

You could get some small disposable food cups and put what you dose into those. Tell your housesitter to put one of those into your tank every few days.