Being away from your Tank

RareEarthCorals · Sep 15, 2015

So walking away from my tank for one week and thought I would note my anxiety and worries. I feel I am such a part of the continued success of my tank. It is due to my daily intervention which is so important to keeping everything alive and healthy. Keeping corals upright, keeping my inverts off my corals, feeding, monitoring levels, and things only you catch day to day.

Reef 'N ain't easy!!!

It is hard to step away for any amount of time without worry. We try to ease our minds by buying products to monitor and take place of the activities that we manually do. Feeders, ATOs, and Systems that all take place of what we do and keep us in the loop while we are away. I have a camera pointed at my tank to watch and look in on the environment just so I can ease my mind. If something were to go wrong I don't know if anything can be done, other than worry waiting to get home and assess the damage.

How does everybody get by? How do you make it easier on yourself so you can enjoy your time away?

Tahoe61 · Sep 15, 2015

Following.

I need to start planning now for a get away...dosers....ATO, ok now I feel the stress.

Joshky · Sep 15, 2015

Get everything automated weeks before you head out! Absolutely do not change a thing a few days before you leave, worst idea ever. When I left my tank for vacation this year I briefly did some tank maintenance the night before that could have waited, but by doing so I forgot to plug in my ATO. Luckily I had my cousin stopping by and he called me to let me know my tank water was getting low, after 30 minutes of troubleshooting we figured it out. He has freshwater tanks but that really doesn't prepare him for the intricacies of saltwater. This could have been a big problem on a larger system with a sump, luckily it was a 20g with a hob skimmer, so everything was fine by the time he noticed.

I find having someone stop by in person every other day really helps me take my mind off of it, it definitely helped me this year and we adverted a minor issue.

ReeferJohn408 · Sep 15, 2015

Just relax and plan ahead of time. Also it's always favorable to make a TO DO LISTS OR CHECK LISTS.

Joshky is correct, do not make changes nor simple maintenance a day or night before leaving unless it's an emergency or you have a check lists.

We travel 2-3x yearly for a week to 3 weeks without any major issues in all 3 of our tanks. The only issue I had with our other tank before was the Neptune Controller's network being stuck or lagged online with our router when I was checking online when we were in the bahamas for Christmas. Probably, network interruption. Lights didn't turn off for a week and algae was all over the glass and bleached a few sps colonies.

From now on, I don't touch the Apex controller while away on vacation. I have nobody to come to the house to check if something happens anyway. So, I'd rather rely on the Neptune 100% without me causing any interruptions.

Never had any issues since. Longest vacation we had was a whole month. Most common issue, fish jumping on the overflow. Fixed that issue as well. So far so good.

Good luck

steelheader.262 · Sep 15, 2015

Yeah, are tanks are like babys.
Once vacation time comes around I always get worried.
I'm lucky enough to have the guy that got me started in this hobby to stop in every day to check on my system.

eric3316 · Sep 15, 2015

I setup my Android tablet facing my tank and set skype to auto answer. At anytime I can then video call my tablet through skype with my cell phone and see my tank in action and all my worries are put to rest as I watch everything in my tank doing just fine.

RareEarthCorals · Sep 15, 2015

On vacation I was checking my tank more than I ever did emails from work. It can burn down at work but something looks weird in the camera and Im sweating and looking at it fifty times an hour. I thought my auto feeder fell in the water and I was taking pictures and videos asking fellow vacationers for forensic videographers. It was a shadow but one can never be to sure.

mochaclownlover · Sep 15, 2015

Probably one of the hardest parts is when you are on your way home and have no idea what the tank will look like

peedee · Sep 15, 2015

I just got a 75gallon started, my first marine, with a few fish and coral when I was tasked with a short notice business trip. Two days before I left ich broke out and the fish went into quarantine. I've been gone 6months now with the tank in my wife’s hands. Although she wasn't happy with the situation she has done really well. She quarantined the fish, got them back in the main tank and even added some coral and a clam as a surprise. She has been battling bubble algae and now something new has popped up I believe it may be byrosis. I'll be happy to get back and take care of it.

brandon429 · Sep 15, 2015

this is one aspect where when people were saying small tanks are harder than big ones they were 180 degrees off from accurate, my reefbowl can be left alone w no topoff for up to 12-14 days max shift from .023-.025 a reasonable shift up when conducted over two weeks, there is no ato or anything other than a heater and an airpump.

Its unheard of stability, and in that i do not mind not having any fish or a large tank although automations help there for sure. The KISS model of pico reefing is actually among the most stable tank designs we currently have, which explains the lifespan when compared to a thousand large $$ tanks that came and went. KISS and evap control make time away from the reef tank a non issue, and this isn't very helpful for large tank keepers to read lol. But it should make fringe pico reefers happy to know they compete very well in the stability dept depending on design@!

RareEarthCorals · Sep 15, 2015

ATO aside and other automated services that we think will bail us out during our absence. One power outage and you can be back at square one with the cave man mentality at reef n'!

We cross our fingers really and hope our overgrown water ballon doesn't pop.

evolved · Sep 15, 2015

With a controller, everything automated, lots of failsafes, backup batteries, a webcam, and last but not least - at least one great reefing buddy on standby you can call if somethings up.

Personally, I don't do the whole tanksitter thing; I feel that adds more risk rather than reduces it.

I trust myself to set it on autopilot more than someone else to take care of it.

Oh, and also a backup generator and portable AC unit ready to go in the garage, just in case...

Lots of programming makes life easier: http://www.reeftronics.net/En/evolved/apex-status
(yes, I know; I need a firmware update. Sometime this week

)

Paul B · Sep 15, 2015

I have taken many extended trips away from my tank over the decades and my theory is that, it is a hobby. A hobby means it is not that important to anyone except to us, and maybe the fish. I eat fish almost every day and no one worries about them. My tank is usually better when I leave it along for a while. I think the fish are tired of seeing my ugly face and party while I am gone. I am sure some of the newer crabs do the macarana while the older ones may do the Twist, I am not sure.
There are many more things you can worry about if you feel you should worry about something. I heard Angelina Jolie gained a couple of pounds. Now that is a problem. Your fish will be fine. Take a trip.

I wrote this about this hobby
http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/relax-have-fun-its-a-hobby-5280/

ReeferJohn408 · Sep 15, 2015

Very well written Paul.

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/relax-have-fun-its-a-hobby-5280/

Paul B · Sep 15, 2015

Thank you. I am sure my grammar and punctuation could have been better though.

ReeferJohn408 · Sep 15, 2015

Paul B said:
Thank you. I am sure my grammar and punctuation could have been better though.

Like you said. Relax, it's fine.

( Subscribed )

Reduck · Sep 15, 2015

Yep. Given all the automation we have available, it should be fine. We can only think we've prepped for anything until some other unknown occurs.

I still check the apex and drop cam 10x a day. Whether I'm at work or on vacation. I know when the feeder will go off and I watch the piggies eat.

As stated, never ever set something new up two days before you travel. Make sure your ato and auto feeder are full and the skimmer cup is empty or on a bucket..then go relax. It'll be ok.

ReeferJohn408 · Sep 15, 2015

We also set our AC at 78F every time we leave on summer days to help out the sump fan. We no longer use chillers eversince we switched to LEDs.

RareEarthCorals · Sep 15, 2015

Time to check in, lets see what those little crumb catchers are doing??? Is that coral overturned? Is my acan turn over on my blastos?? Agrhhh!!! That's it for those darn hermits and that sketchy emerald crab with one good eye, to the bouillabaisse they go. Any good recipes out there?

RareEarthCorals · Sep 20, 2015

Ok, We have returned from our 10 day stay at our beach condo to finish out the summer. It was great and alot of fun as always. I ran to open the door when we pulled up to get my first glimpse of the damage and triage the wounded. Amazingly only my hammer was yanked out but survived. The glass was brown with algae and the filters brown with detritus. All the other corals look good and healthy. I cleaned the glass and washed out all the filters and sponges. I will do some testing tonight to see where my ranges are.

My feeder fed daily which was too much as I feed every other day. I believe that added to the build up. My ATO worked perfectly and the temps stayed between 79-82 deg. I ran through 10oz of water a day which was acceptable. Overall happy with the outcome and feel safe with leaving for extended periods.