Best option for week away

[chopdrop]

I have a Fluval 13.5 with stock lighting. I am leaving in the morning for a week and have been dismayed to discover my little plug in timer thing isn't working anymore.

My options are to leave the lights off or keep the blues running 24/7. My corals are all soft corals, mostly mushrooms that are growing like crazy. There is decent ambient light in the room and I can throw open a shade for a little extra light.
Which would you do? I know either option is suboptimal but I gotta make do.
Thanks!

 

[MNFish]

I have a Fluval 13.5 with stock lighting. I am leaving in the morning for a week and have been dismayed to discover my little plug in timer thing isn't working anymore.

My options are to leave the lights off or keep the blues running 24/7. My corals are all soft corals, mostly mushrooms that are growing like crazy. There is decent ambient light in the room and I can throw open a shade for a little extra light.
Which would you do? I know either option is suboptimal but I gotta make do.
Thanks!

Man that is a tough one... I would personally leave the blues on for the week but dont know if that would be the best. I do have the 13.5 and use the stock light as well.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

The ambient light should be fine.
How are you going to handle the evaporation/top off?

 

[MNFish]

I regularly leave my 13.5 for a week if you use the factory set up lid and light it can easily go a week without a top off.
That is something that annoys me everyone that buys a this tank than immediately updates light and lid and .....

 

[chopdrop]

The ambient light should be fine.
How are you going to handle the evaporation/top off?

Well I'm hoping the guy I quoted below is right! I have an ATO but I've never set it up before and I don't think this is the right time to find out if it works.

I regularly leave my 13.5 for a week if you use the factory set up lid and light it can easily go a week without a top off.
That is something that annoys me everyone that buys a this tank than immediately updates light and lid and .....

I have had good luck with the light and I am wild for the lid. I seldom have to worry about top offs. I do wish they made a light that fit the hood that I could automate and customize a bit but all in all I'm happy!

 

[MNFish]

Well I'm hoping the guy I quoted below is right! I have an ATO but I've never set it up before and I don't think this is the right time to find out if it works.



I have had good luck with the light and I am wild for the lid. I seldom have to worry about top offs. I do wish they made a light that fit the hood that I could automate and customize a bit but all in all I'm happy!I

I agree some more options with the light would be great, but I feel that light is vastly under rated.

 

[Drewerd7]

I have a Fluval 13.5 with stock lighting. I am leaving in the morning for a week and have been dismayed to discover my little plug in timer thing isn't working anymore.

My options are to leave the lights off or keep the blues running 24/7. My corals are all soft corals, mostly mushrooms that are growing like crazy. There is decent ambient light in the room and I can throw open a shade for a little extra light.
Which would you do? I know either option is suboptimal but I gotta make do.
Thanks!

Are there fish in the tank?!
If there are, I vote ambient light only.
If no fish, blue light only!

 

[chopdrop]

I went for ambient light only and we ended up having such a nice time that we stayed for 3 extra days. Almost (grr! "almost"?) all the hair algae died off and while the star polyps are still a bit angry, everything else looks amazing: regular and hairy mushrooms, ricordea, acans, zoa's.
Evap was surprisingly minimal, I draped a towel over the back section so air exchange was just through the feeding hole in the stock hood.
I'll probably swap out the GFO and carbon but I'm very pleased!

 

[MNFish]

I went for ambient light only and we ended up having such a nice time that we stayed for 3 extra days. Almost (grr! "almost"?) all the hair algae died off and while the star polyps are still a bit angry, everything else looks amazing: regular and hairy mushrooms, ricordea, acans, zoa's.
Evap was surprisingly minimal, I draped a towel over the back section so air exchange was just through the feeding hole in the stock hood.
I'll probably swap out the GFO and carbon but I'm very pleased!

I find sometime my Reefs do amazingly well when I leave them alone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a Fluval 13.5 with stock lighting. I am leaving in the morning for a week and have been dismayed to discover my little plug in timer thing isn't working anymore.

My options are to leave the lights off or keep the blues running 24/7. My corals are all soft corals, mostly mushrooms that are growing like crazy. There is decent ambient light in the room and I can throw open a shade for a little extra light.
Which would you do? I know either option is suboptimal but I gotta make do.
Thanks!

I travel quite a bit and have someone who stop each day to feed the fish and check on tank. I went to Florida in October and he was not available. I did water change two days in advance and filled the tank to the brim and turned Off my ATO.
When I returned, the tank was sparkling clean and fish were hungry