Travel Advice/Tips while away on vacation

[kobustabus]

Hello fellow reefers. I am about a week out from venturing out to Phuket, Thailand for my honeymoon for 10 days. I am still a newbie in the reef aquarium world, only having my 24-gallon aquarium set up since March. I was hoping some folks could help ease my worries while I am out of town by providing some vacation advice/tips in how I can keep things safe and sound while away.

 

I do have an A.T.O. and I bought an automatic fish feeder... also a little battery backup airpump, in case crazy goes down and the house loses power (better than nothing). My in-laws live near by, but I do not trust them enough to do anything more than come by and monitor the tank (afraid the mother-in-law would not really know how to clean the collection cup to the protein skimmer... sad, but true). So that would be more of a visual inspection... maybe some dosing of reef essential elements and some invert food. I am going to see if a friend of mine would mind stopping over a few times during the week to check/clean the collection cup.The tank itself has only two clown fish, two blue\green chromis, an emerald crab, some snails and hermits, and my corals are simple (zoas, lobo, 2 monti caps). I am hoping things will be okay.

 

Any advice or tips would be extremely helpful. Thanks for all of your help.

 

 

Greg

[collegeman]

Following since I will be leaving for south Africa for my honeymoon in a few weeks.

[firecrackerbob]

Well, I could relay some personal anecdotes, but that would NOT make you feel any better... on the plus side, 10days isnt toooo long....

 

1)are you absolutely sure your ATO is good? ie you have been using it for a while right?

2)if it was me I would not use the auto feeder. it depends on how heavy you feed your tank, but it can go a few days without food. personally I feed my tank once or so a week... just me though... if it was me I would get 2 or three small containers, put your normal feeding amount in them and have the inlaws stop by and put 1!!!! and only 1 in at a time in over the cource of the time you are gone.

3)does your skimmer over flow much? if so then murphys law will probably apply.

[Coral Hind]

What type of fish feeder do you have? Make sure the unit is secured and the battery compartment is taped closed. I've seen threads where tanks have crashed because of batteries or the whole unit falling into the tank.

 

Make sure to label every cord or valve so the person taking care of the tank can understand what they need to unplug or turn off over the phone. Blue painter's tape works great for fast and easy labels.

[Amuze]

Turn the return pump off and fill the sump up as much as you can before overflowing. This will increase your water volume to it's max and help the ato work a lot less. Make sure you are adding the correct amount of saltwater vs ro water to not jack up your salinity. Easiest way to do this is make sure your tank is topped off before shutting it down. Measure it out to see if it exceeds how much you lose from evaporation over that time frame. Perhaps you're ATO won't be needed at all. These things are known to fail when no one is around (switch gets stuck, switch doesn't turn on, etc...). Running the tank without a skimmer for 10 day will be fine. Check salinity and all water params before you go, do a change if needed and check and compare them again when you return. I would not rely on an ATO and auto feeder if you do not have someone checking on your tank that knows a little about it.

[L8 2 RISE]

I have always had a rule where I don't change ANYTHING on the tank for the same number of days before I leave on my trip as my trip is going to be (for example, you're leaving on a 10 day trip, so set everything up that needs to be set up, then don't change it at all for 10 days prior to your departure). That means set your auto feeder up, your ATO, absolutely everything and don't change it.

 

I was away from my tank for 9 days over Thanksgiving and this is the first time I didn't follow my rule. I added a bag of chemipure to the tank a few hours before leaving (seemed harmless enough). I came back to find that my tank had overflowed, gotten my Reefkeeper wet, and there were salt crystals everywhere. What had happened is that I draped the top of the bag over the back of the tank to hold it up, however this created a siphon that let water slowly drip from the tank over the course of 9 days. Everything seems to be recovering, but I just had to dish out $100 to replace my equipment. Moral of the story: No matter how harmless a change seems, do it WELL BEFORE you leave!

[Der ABT]

Agree with do it all well in advance, do a trial 10 days with no or minimal work

 

if yuo have someone feed for you, measure out their feedings for them...EVERY time someone watches a tank they over feed it, so put some food in baggies for each day.

 

have emergency contacts, post up here and see who is local to you in case something goes wrong, much easier to buy someone beer for the help then pay for a 400dollar phone call that makes you worry the rest of the trip.

[Amuze]

Ahh face it, the tank is doomed. Have fun!

[OldReefer]

I travel at least 200 days a year and I have not killed my tank yet. Clean up the pumps today and then don't touch anything except for a big water change the day before you leave. You have to design in redundancy to make a reef really bullet-proof and you don't have time for that.

 

Try to find a local reefer to come in at least once and check on things. Have a bunch of saltwater mixed and ready to go for a water change if there is a crisis.

 

Enjoy Phuket. Get away from the tourist traps and red-light district as soon as possible. S.E. Asia is magical, but first you have to get away from the Brits and Aussies that overrun the place. Find an open-air expat bar, drink too much, and talk to strangers.

 

Don't let the tank distract you from the trip.

[Spelter]

I also agree with the dont change or do anything to the tank before you leave. I have tried the auto feeder and it always overfeeds. I would leave food portioned out and have someone come and drop it in for you. I draw a low fill line on my sump and a full line, so anyone can see if the ATO is working, and if not contact me. I just went to Austin for the F1 race for 6 days and used the pet sitting service Fetch, to check on the tank. The guy did a great job and kept me informed with daily reports.

[AlanM]

Set up dyndns and an apex and a webcam so you can see tank stats from Phuket? Put a couple moisture sensors on the floor feeding info into apex and texting you and your reef buddy to come drink a beer and please mop while you're there.