No vacations, 2 scared to leave tanks, can't make autofeeder work for all fish

[TBSB2019]

Live in Florida. Have a cabin in North Carolina. We spend a minimum of 4 weeks a year up there. We have a pet sitter that comes in and takes care of our tanks. I have a 180 and a 60 while adding a 330. We have tangs, butterflies, angels, and corals. Try and find someone with experience with salt water tanks. If you have a controller, get extra probes (salinity, ph, etc.) If nutrients get a bit unstable, you can correct them. Dose bacteria prior to leaving if you think you might have some overfeeding. Might help some.

 

[Dom]

Hi guys,

so I have a smaller tank w fish, cuc and rock + a pico tank w fish and macroalgae. Both wokring great and stable.

BUT I don't feel that I can go on a proper vacantion because I'm too scared anything will happen to the tanks and I havn't been able to setup a proper feeding system. I have been away for 4 days tops and my mom and dad has been driving 80 km each day to feed the fish. Not sustainable.

I have tried to set up the Eheim autofeeder but the problem is that if I feed a small amount, not all fish will get some, and if I feed a larger amount the flakes get sucked right into my skimmer. Sinking pellets would be much better for me due to the skimming issue but the problem is that I have a blenny that is a very slow eater and he catches flakes easier.

It has come to the point where I really feel tied down by my tanks. I love them but this is a huge headache.

Can you please tell me about your vacation routine? In details please!

I need some time off.

I just returned from being away for a week. I used the Eheim feeder and everything went fine.

Don't worry about over-feeding while you are away, You can clean up when you do you first maintenance after returning from your trip.

Second, use flake food which is deposited into a feeding ring. This will keep the flakes from floating over to and into the overflow. The fish will quickly learn to go to the ring and feed. And what does not get eaten will eventually saturate and float round in the tank until it gets consumed.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

Eheim also makes a feeding station. I like this better than a ring as it forces the food into the water column.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Worth mentioning again... the Avast Plank feeder while expensive, is leaps and bounds (IMHO) than other feeders. It pushed out a very consistent dose of food every time. I will never go back to the "dump" style feeders.

 

[MissMolly]

I just returned from being away for a week. I used the Eheim feeder and everything went fine.

Don't worry about over-feeding while you are away, You can clean up when you do you first maintenance after returning from your trip.

Second, use flake food which is deposited into a feeding ring. This will keep the flakes from floating over to and into the overflow. The fish will quickly learn to go to the ring and feed. And what does not get eaten will eventually saturate and float round in the tank until it gets consumed.

Thanks a bunch! Glad to hear that it worked for you. I will def try the ring, I have already ordered some online. I have no idea why I never thought of a feeding ring to prevent it from flowing into the skimmer

 

[MissMolly]

Worth mentioning again... the Avast Plank feeder while expensive, is leaps and bounds (IMHO) than other feeders. It pushed out a very consistent dose of food every time. I will never go back to the "dump" style feeders.

Okay I will look that one up. Haven't heard of it but at this point Im willing to spend a smal fortune to make this work!

 

[MissMolly]

Live in Florida. Have a cabin in North Carolina. We spend a minimum of 4 weeks a year up there. We have a pet sitter that comes in and takes care of our tanks. I have a 180 and a 60 while adding a 330. We have tangs, butterflies, angels, and corals. Try and find someone with experience with salt water tanks. If you have a controller, get extra probes (salinity, ph, etc.) If nutrients get a bit unstable, you can correct them. Dose bacteria prior to leaving if you think you might have some overfeeding. Might help some.

This is actually a great advice. I have never thought of paying a "sitter" with experioence. We do have local groups. So maybe someone would be willing. Would be a huge relief. That person would also be able to maintain...

 

[MissMolly]

I don't feed my fish daily when I'm out of town. I've seen some people go almost 4 to 5 days with no fish food and still have successful tanks.

Yeah I know. It's just me. I feed three times a day but I know they can go days without. Would be easier to have someone come help then.

 

[TBSB2019]

This is actually a great advice. I have never thought of paying a "sitter" with experioence. We do have local groups. So maybe someone would be willing. Would be a huge relief. That person would also be able to maintain....

I go as far as put daily stuff in little cups (foods, dosing, etc.) and label them so our sitter basically comes in, puts what needs to be put into the tanks, looks stuff over to make sure it looks good, and she's done. That way you still get the normal into the tank and not worry about stressing the critters from not eating like normal and if there is any kind of spike, you have to blame yourself. Haha

 

[MissMolly]

What is it you’re doing with them takin up so much time each day? I have a 1.1g, a 15g, and a 75g. I spend 30 min a week on them total. Maybe less

hahah okay. Well, I feed thee times a day and it takes me around 20 minutes each time. I feed different foods for dif fish in 3 tanks. Then I change the filter (a small pump with floss filter ish) on my pico. I do that every day cause I like the flow to be maximum and the filter to be clean. It's a setup that works really well for me. It can go 5 days witouh change but I just like it to be clean. Then I use a turkey baster for **** in my freshwater, where I also change about 50 percent a week. I have bamboo shrimps. They need dirty dirty water and lots of food in the column so this messes up the tank a lot and I like it to be fresh-dirty if that makes sense. And then the liitle things, spraying down the salt creep everywhere, cleaning the glass, arranging macro algae that has moved and so on. I know. This is insane. I like my tanks to look very sharp and clean. A lot of marine tanks are down right dirty my opinion. But I'm a girl and my house is very clean too so.. (And before anyone comes at me with the - noo you are cleaning too much: I'm not. My tanks are perfectly balanced, I have tons of pods, green coraline on my rocks, great values.).

 

[ZoWhat]

What's a vacantion?

Is it like...

'Cantion' a piece of music, usually employing a verbal text, composed for the voice, especially one intended for performance by a soloist?

 

[Stang67]

This almost made me tear up. You are absolutely right. I do obsess about this and I do sacrifice a lot. I'm working from home and I'm like looking at and working with these tanks so many timnes a day and it mayve has taken over too much.

I know the feeling trust me I wish I were closer I'd watch it for you.

 

[MissMolly]

Since we have a cat, we already hire a pet sitter, and they are pretty good with feeding the tanks.

Somone else mentioned this and it's a great advice. I have never thoguht about that!

 

[MissMolly]

I know the feeling trust me I wish I were closer I'd watch it for you.

That is very kind of you. That would have been amazing!

 

[Dburr1014]

What's a vacantion?

Is it like...

'Cantion' a piece of music, usually employing a verbal text, composed for the voice, especially one intended for performance by a soloist?

Spelling, vacation. One to many "n".

 

[Dburr1014]

hahah okay. Well, I feed thee times a day and it takes me around 20 minutes each time. I feed different foods for dif fish in 3 tanks. Then I change the filter (a small pump with floss filter ish) on my pico. I do that every day cause I like the flow to be maximum and the filter to be clean. It's a setup that works really well for me. It can go 5 days witouh change but I just like it to be clean. Then I use a turkey baster for **** in my freshwater, where I also change about 50 percent a week. I have bamboo shrimps. They need dirty dirty water and lots of food in the column so this messes up the tank a lot and I like it to be fresh-dirty if that makes sense. And then the liitle things, spraying down the salt creep everywhere, cleaning the glass, arranging macro algae that has moved and so on. I know. This is insane. I like my tanks to look very sharp and clean. A lot of marine tanks are down right dirty my opinion. But I'm a girl and my house is very clean too so.. (And before anyone comes at me with the - noo you are cleaning too much: I'm not. My tanks are perfectly balanced, I have tons of pods, green coraline on my rocks, great values.).

I couldn't work from home.
I'd feed the fish, 2 minutes. Then, what's that, and that. Oh look at the new bud forming, pretty fish.
5 hours later.....

 

[fish farmer]

Since we have a cat, we already hire a pet sitter, and they are pretty good with feeding the tanks.

Two cats, one requiring daily pills, small dog and a relatively automated 29 reef tank. We factor $30 a day for our sitter, but many times the dog goes to day care or comes with us. I used to go away for a few days with just the fish, maybe have someone stop in midweek to check.

Of course my coworker/pet sitter is moving closer to work and won't be driving by my house. I may have to boost the pay.

 

[kornface13]

Hi guys,

so I have a smaller tank w fish, cuc and rock + a pico tank w fish and macroalgae. Both wokring great and stable.

BUT I don't feel that I can go on a proper vacantion because I'm too scared anything will happen to the tanks and I havn't been able to setup a proper feeding system. I have been away for 4 days tops and my mom and dad has been driving 80 km each day to feed the fish. Not sustainable.

I have tried to set up the Eheim autofeeder but the problem is that if I feed a small amount, not all fish will get some, and if I feed a larger amount the flakes get sucked right into my skimmer. Sinking pellets would be much better for me due to the skimming issue but the problem is that I have a blenny that is a very slow eater and he catches flakes easier.

It has come to the point where I really feel tied down by my tanks. I love them but this is a huge headache.

Can you please tell me about your vacation routine? In details please!

I need some time off.

Get yourself a couple smart outlets and a camera. I love my Kasa smart outlets. Each outlet has its own schedule or you can group them or whatever. Mine is scheduled to turn off the power head for two minutes at feeding time. The eheim auto feeder does its thing during these two minutes. I also have my ATO on one and it can only run for 1 minutes a few times per day. So even if it did malfunction and overfill, it can only go for 60 seconds.
Lastly I have my camera sitting in
Front of the tank that I can watch the whole process. I’m currently on my first trip away from home with a new tank and it’s going great.

 

[BristolEVO]

Get yourself a couple smart outlets and a camera. I love my Kasa smart outlets. Each outlet has its own schedule or you can group them or whatever. Mine is scheduled to turn off the power head for two minutes at feeding time. The eheim auto feeder does its thing during these two minutes. I also have my ATO on one and it can only run for 1 minutes a few times per day. So even if it did malfunction and overfill, it can only go for 60 seconds.
Lastly I have my camera sitting in
Front of the tank that I can watch the whole process. I’m currently on my first trip away from home with a new tank and it’s going great.

Love the ATO plug timer to prevent accidental overfills! I'm on it!

 

[Tamberav]

besides what has been mentioned, when I had some difficult to feed fish in a nano, I bought a huge bag of live pods and put it in the tank before my vacation to give them natural food to forage on. The tank already had pods but this way there was excess. You can usually order a bag of 1000+ pods.