Holiday weekend- What are your plans ?

vetteguy53081 · May 25, 2023

With the first unofficial start to summer and Holiday weekend, many of us will travel, whether camping, weekend getaway, to visit friends and family, etc.

How will you prep or monitor your tank while gone for the few short days and what steps have you taken for such weekends?

At times, especially for a weeks' vacation, we can do too much and return to minor disasters such as stuck heater, RO unit overflows and disease.

I typically do Nothing. If tank is running good, I will not do a major water change, nor add any additional additives, etc. I do fill auto feeder, change filter socks the day before and leave air conditioner on auto (which I can control from my phone) and monitor levels via Apex Fusion. I also have a trusted person who is Very experienced come after work daily to drop in a frozen meal and observe tank and fish overall.

lynn.reef.nerd · May 25, 2023

I have my systems monitor by Hydros: leak detector, temp sensor, ato, etc. so any issue I will get notify through my phone.

I am lucky to have a neighbor down the street who is also a reefer. He comes and check on the system daily and to feed the fish and check on my doggies. If things are off he would recognize it.

I also have cameras in the fish shed to monitor visually.

I also have a secondary friend who is close by I can call if an emergency does arise and my neighbor cannot be reached or cannot come.

If there is a power outage, a battery backup for just the return pump will automatically turn on and stay on for several hours. That gives my neighbor enough time to start the gas power generator that we keep for this particular instance.
We ran the system for 3 days straight with this generator before and it worked really well so that is a good assurance.

We keep rubbermaid tubs on hand, so if there is ever a leak in any of the tank, all livestock can be moved to a different tank or into the tub for the time being while things get fixed.

vetteguy53081 · May 25, 2023

lynn.reef.nerd said:
I have my systems monitor by Hydros: leak detector, temp sensor, ato, etc. so any issue I will get notify through my phone.

I am lucky to have a neighbor down the street who is also a reefer. He comes and check on the system daily and to feed the fish and check on my doggies. If things are off he would recognize it.

I also have cameras in the fish shed to monitor visually.

I also have a secondary friend who is close by I can call if an emergency does arise and my neighbor cannot be reached or cannot come.

If there is a power outage, a battery backup for just the return pump will automatically turn on and stay on for several hours. That gives my neighbor enough time to start the gas power generator that we keep for this particular instance.
We ran the system for 3 days straight with this generator before and it worked really well so that is a good assurance.

We keep rubbermaid tubs on hand, so if there is ever a leak in any of the tank, all livestock can be moved to a different tank or into the tub for the time being while things get fixed.

Nice plan and coverage

fish farmer · May 25, 2023

Working the holiday weekend and I'm due to do some maintenance, hopefully I'll find the time.

Lbrdsoxfan · May 25, 2023

fish farmer said:
Working the holiday weekend and I'm due to do some maintenance, hopefully I'll find the time.

Same. I have a house guest thats been here since monday that leaves tomorrow. Ill hopefully get time for some tank luv.

Otherwise saturday is monday for me!

iamacat · May 25, 2023

Gumbies R Us · May 25, 2023

Probably staying home this weekend, so should be relatively easy to maintain my tank this weekend haha

exnisstech · May 25, 2023

I'll be staying home. My Gal works in the medical field so there are no holidays just holiday pay.
I do have dosing pumps I just received to set up to dose alk in 3 tanks so I'll be dipping my toes in the pool of automation. Alk is the only thing I dose right now so at least in the future I'll be able to stay away over night if I have to.

vetteguy53081 · May 25, 2023

exnisstech said:
I'll be staying home. My Gal works in the medical field so there are no holidays just holiday pay.
I do have dosing pumps I just received to set up to dose alk in 3 tanks so I'll be dipping my toes in the pool of automation. Alk is the only thing I dose right now so at least in the future I'll be able to stay away over night if I have to.

I dont miss the "working the holidays" in the medical field. Rarely did i get a holiday weekend off. Of course my GF is a physician but she does get many holiday weekends off

Lebowski_ · May 25, 2023

Last weekend was the holiday weekend up here in the frozen tundra of Canada, and I spent it doing hard manual labour landscaping my house. Yay!

harrylarry · May 25, 2023

Going on a cruise this weekend l! Tank will be just fine for 4 days.

Cheezle · May 25, 2023

Drinking Coors light, watching the Indianapolis 500 and spending time with the family. That and sleep. Gotta catch up on some sleep lol

Oh and only maintenance I need to do is scrape the glass. Pretty easy!

Dburr1014 · May 25, 2023

Working Sunday and Monday for double time.

We just got back from Ft Lauderdale so I don't mind at all.

MichaelReefer · May 25, 2023

Sleep
Not work 11 hour day
finish my back fence.
Sleep

Rmckoy · May 25, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
With the first unofficial start to summer and Holiday weekend, many of us will travel, whether camping, weekend getaway, to visit friends and family, etc.

How will you prep or monitor your tank while gone for the few short days and what steps have you taken for such weekends?

At times, especially for a weeks' vacation, we can do too much and return to minor disasters such as stuck heater, RO unit overflows and disease.

I typically do Nothing. If tank is running good, I will not do a major water change, nor add any additional additives, etc. I do fill auto feeder, change filter socks the day before and leave air conditioner on auto (which I can control from my phone) and monitor levels via Apex Fusion. I also have a trusted person who is Very experienced come after work daily to drop in a frozen meal and observe tank and fish overall.

You have a holiday this coming weekend ?

ours was last weekend . This being our short work week

PhishMonger84 · May 25, 2023

This is the first time in three years that i can string together 4 days off, in a row, that i have no plans for, nowhere to drive.
I intend to rehome by two wild Caught oscars and shuffle fish around in the many tanks in my basement living room. I'm also likely to add a few chromis or something else to my 40breeder which has now been running for a week with live sand and rock.

Basically, a bunch of fishy stuff on Saturday/Sunday hopefully getting closer to converting one of my large tanks to salt- i'm up in the air between my reef ready 180 with 45gal trigger systems sump and jaebo cross flow or my 125 with external overflow & 40 breeder sump- either way its exciting.

then Monday, a whole lot of nothing, maybe grill

Tuesday, turn 39 and continue to mourn my youth.