Extended Vacation Tank Checklist

[cope413]

My wife and I are embarking on a 1 month vacation, and I've got 5 weeks to make sure the tank is ready for me to be away for that long. I've never been away from it for longer than a week, so I'm sure there's something I'm not thinking of.

Pretty much everything runs through my apex.

I just added a 2nd heater, and I will be making a temporary ATO tank that holds 20g of RODI instead of my normal 5g. I also plan to hook up a drain on my skimmer to a 1 or 2g container so that won't have to be emptied.

I'll be using an eheim autofeeder (I'll be asking some friends to check on it periodically and feed it something other than pellets, but all my fish take pellets well)

I'm going to make 40-50g (I've got about 80g total volume) of SW in case there's an emergency so that whoever is helping can do a quick WC.

Would appreciate ideas, reminders, or any other tips for extended time away from tanks...

 

[Busa1340]

I plan on getting a cheap wifi webcam for when I go outa town. Just find wifi and connect threw your phone to check up on the tank. Nothing like apex lol but one web cam in the sump seems legit.

 

[Mike in CT]

I would put one heater in DT, just in case return pump fails and warm water can't make it to DT. I would be careful with the skimmer drain, just in case it goes wonky and over skims and drains your water out.
I also unplug my return pump from GFCI because I don't want a quick power fluctuation to turn my pump off till I can reset it. Just a few things I can think of. Good luck!

 

[ultimatemj]

Dry run a no maintenance week or so...and make sure any changes made are in place for a week before you leave...changes introduce variables and mistakes

Ditto on risk of skimmer pumping out volume. What happens when your ATO runs dry? My sitter didn't understand the ATO res was built into the sump...so the sump continued to evaporate to the point the temp sensor was measuring air and kicked on both heaters (primary and back up)

 

[pciscott]

I put a Post it Note with arrow where sump level, tank level, skimmer maximum, ATO, and make the tank watcher a check list to look at these 4 labeled spots. I also measure food in shot glasses and make it easy for them to feed my fish. I have a list of phone numbers in case there is a problem of a couple local tank friends and a Aquarium maintenance company if there is a emergency. I do not like to let my tanks run my vacations and I personally now have a Hobbyist tank sitter stay at my home, with instructions not to call me even if it nukes! Vacation and family time is more important than my tank and I have back up frags with several friends. I have cameras and Apex Fusion alarms go to sitter because a few years back I was so stressed out with a tank problem I almost flew home and my wife was over me and the tank because it ruined a vacation.

My tanks became to technical for my Father in Law and he was not enjoying the responsibility of making sure my tanks were ok.

As stated above do not do anything new the week before your trip! Let it run itself for a week and you should be good.

Enjoy your vacation! Forget about it while you are gone!