Getting a tanksitter

[BrettMallette]

Everyone needs a tank sitter at some point. What does everyone look for whe getting one? What all do yall expect a tank sitter to do in your absence?
Im going to Ireland for 2 weekz at the end of the month. Have my old room mate staying at the house for the 2 weeks. I have no worries he can take excellent care of my tanks. I just dont want to overwhelm him with stuff to do. So he will be limited to manual dosing/topoff daily, feeding and emptying skimmer cup nice and basic. Hopefully it all works out.

 

[Johniejumbo]

I just look for someone who can follow instructions really well. I have had complete novices take perfectly good care of my tanks. I just make sure my instructions are simple and clear. And that they have my phone number lol. But yeah mostly just expect them to feed and dose per my schedule and top off as needed.

I learned to keep my different tank additives in different places. I had a buddy tank sit for a couple of weeks. He had his own reef tank and basic knowledge. He decided the tank needed a little buffer so he mixed up a little and dosed the tank as per instructions. Only problem was it was lake Malawi cichlid tank buffer. Said so in big letters on the front. He dosed the tank with the stuff several times. A lot of stuff died before we figured out what he had done. my fresh water stuff is always kept separate now. The labels did kinda look alike.

 

[Robink]

Just dosing, feeding and top off. I try to keep it simple and I write everything down for them and label stuff.

 

[BrettMallette]

Awesome thanks guys. Exactly what i had planned. All additives ans foods will be labeled properly with date to b used anx what it is. He haz also dosed for me before so shouldnt b a major issue. Plus knows a good chunk about my tank from living together and being interested in tanka himself.

 

[vlangel]

I always make a brute can of circulating salt water at the correct salinity in case something goes wrong, in addition to having food premeasured and labeled. A water change can fix a lot of things should it be needed and having it premade is a big help to the fish sitter.

 

[BrettMallette]

I always make a brute can of circulating salt water at the correct salinity in case something goes wrong, in addition to having food premeasured and labeled. A water change can fix a lot of things should it be needed and having it premade is a big help to the fish sitter.

I like this idea will fill my empty 20 gallon and set it up so all he has to do is drain 5g buckets of water and turn pump on to refill to clearly visible "fill line" wrote with dry erase on tank itself I should add i dont have a sump so theres no plumbing things to worry about. And its not a crazy sophisticated setup so not much that could go catastrophically wrong.

 

[805reef]

I try to make it so they don't have to do anything but look to see if the fish are alive. several years ago we took a trip to Miami, my family checked on the tank but late at night when lights were off. I came home and everything was dead and water was cold. the gfci had tripped and who knows how many days went by without anybody noticing.

with that said, we have another trip coming up next month! at least I can monitor it from my phone now