What to do when on vacation?

[goody]

I'll be going to Hawaii for 8 days. I have an auto feeder for the fish, but what should I do about my water parameters, in particular, my Ca and Alk levels?

I've started acquiring more sps over the last several months, so I recently started dosing 2-part. Other than having a neighbor come over, what are my options?

I have a 10g ato reservoir, can I put a weeks worth of doses in this water?

 

[reefsmokinFOOL]

I ran into this same problem and because i use a liquid 2 part i went with the spectrapure doser. They are also 15 min from me so i was able to get this done in 2 days.

 

[gonorth16]

I'll go in your place and you can stay home and watch your tank :bigsmile:

 

[stunreefer]

How fast is the Ca/Alk being used in your tank... in other words how much are you dosing?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Personally I wouldn't let a neighbor dose 2-part, and you don't want to rush and set something up right before you leave - that's when the "bad stuff" happens.

 

[Emoney]

Pray!..lol...have a fellow reefer stop by!

 

[reefermadness]

My local LFS owner comes by..$100 bucks for 2 weeks of babysitting. Worth more than I can explain!

 

[luisgo]

One thing I will recommend is to install a webcam. That way you can watch your tank when away from home.

If there is a problem you can call your neighbor and ask him to move the camera around the tank. That way you can give him instructions on the phone to make corrections.

I have one in my tank on the side glass. I have another spare camera which is intalled looking at the sump when on vacations.

When I am at work I can watch my tank, call my wife if there are bubbles, etc...

Yes my daughter calls me the fish geek... not sure why

http://www.prtc.net/~luisgon/luisgoreefcam.htm

 

[Mavjoy]

Might need to invest on a couple of doser pumps for CA and ALK and a controller, like a RKL, to have some peace of mind. I'm going on a vacation too and my only worry is to get a reliable fish feeder. What do you guys use?

 

[ddwbeagles]

I'll be the lone voice here, but....
* You can not dose two part via the ATO
* Depending on how much time you have, you get automate the two part dosing (Bulk Reef Supply) has some decent stuff & even videos explaining it
* You do have a huge ATO - so (here it comes......) go on vacation and don't worry about it.

The second my tanks become a worry or a choir, this stops becoming a hobby and starts becoming a nuisance. If you can automate this, you'd be better off, but that too takes a some time and a lot of testing to get the dosing amount via timers right. IMO you'd be better off not attempting this before you go on vacation if you don't have three or four weeks to dial the system in....(plus get the equipment itself). Over dosing could do more harm than not dosing at all. Eight days isn't that long.

 

[ddwbeagles]

Oh and fish feeding.... Personally I think many people feed their fish too much. I only feed twice a week and use very conservative amounts. In a reef tank, there is plenty for them to nibble on (copepoids). Even with skimming, overfeeding the fish also can degridate the water quality pretty quickly. Feeding them, would be the last thing I would worry about.... If fact, I would bother if it's only a 8 day absence

 

[kingfisherfleshy]

Oh and fish feeding.... Personally I think many people feed their fish too much. I only feed twice a week and use very conservative amounts. In a reef tank, there is plenty for them to nibble on (copepoids). Even with skimming, overfeeding the fish also can degridate the water quality pretty quickly. Feeding them, would be the last thing I would worry about.... If fact, I would bother if it's only a 8 day absence

I do this with my BIGGER fish...but with my little reef fish I like to feed a little bit more. I try to feed very small amounts a couple times a day. With that being said...sometimes I go on week long vacations, and let the fish go because I know that they have more than enough "live" stuff in tank to feed on.