Going away for a week need advice!!!

Henressy · Mar 16, 2022

Hey reefers I need some help

I m going away for a trip for five days…Canada Here I come …

I have a 35 gallon tank with a
blue eyed tang
Two clowns
Engineer goby small
Three green blue chromis
one pincushion urchin
Cleaner shrimp
What’s the best procedure to leave a tank hit a week ??
Should I buy auto feeder and should I do a water change 24 hours before I leave?
What’s a good auto feeder??

thanks for help
Any comments will be appreciated
HENRESSY

Jmcg89 · Mar 16, 2022

I open all the doors so I can see the sump and have a camera on the tank, wyze cameras are super cheap and mine works great. I also use an auto feeder, I would get it early and test it though for sure for a few days. When I first set mine up the pellets were going right down the over flow so I had to move it. I have a buddy who comes every day or other day and feeds a little frozen also.

Henressy · Mar 16, 2022

Jmcg89 said:
I open all the doors so I can see the sump and have a camera on the tank, wyze cameras are super cheap and mine works great. I also use an auto feeder, I would get it early and test it though for sure for a few days. When I first set mine up the pellets were going right down the over flow so I had to move it. I have a buddy who comes every day or other day and feeds a little frozen also.

Thanks for the tips my drop came ain’t working I think I’m have to invest in some Wi-Fi cams

Idech · Mar 16, 2022

Eheim has a nice auto feeder.

I just got a holiday cup for my skimmer that will hold months of skimming. When I have to leave, I’ll also make 15+20 gallons of rodi water and use a big rubbermaid bin for the ATO. I will buy a doser for my AFR. And last, I’ll make a water change a few days before leaving, and when I return.

Dburr1014 · Mar 16, 2022

Henressy said:
Hey reefers I need some help

I m going away for a trip for five days…Canada Here I come …

I have a 35 gallon tank with a
blue eyed tang
Two clowns
Engineer goby small
Three green blue chromis
one pincushion urchin
Cleaner shrimp
What’s the best procedure to leave a tank hit a week ??
Should I buy auto feeder and should I do a water change 24 hours before I leave?
What’s a good auto feeder??

thanks for help
Any comments will be appreciated
HENRESSY

Yes, an auto feeder is a great idea. Just remember to set it up a couple days before hand so you make sure it works!
I also would do the water change a couple days before to make it all is well there too.
Do you have an ato, fill it.
Have a buddy that can do a check up?

Sean Clark · Mar 16, 2022

Don't turn your heat down where you live to try and save money while you are away. Your tank will be affected by the lower temp. Sure your heaters might keep up just fine but don't risk it. Plus you will be spending the money you would have saved on the increased electric to run the tank heaters more.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 16, 2022

I just full up my ato. Stock 40g of fresh rodi right next to it. I leave my doors on my stand.
Going to Carolina soon and flordia to hit Disney world. Think I'll be gone little over 7days so I'm gonna give my little little brother a key to feed the tank and possibly top off my ato tank with the fresh rodi.
That's all. Lol!
D

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 16, 2022

Fill*

ApoIsland · Mar 16, 2022

Henressy said:
Hey reefers I need some help

I m going away for a trip for five days…Canada Here I come …

I have a 35 gallon tank with a
blue eyed tang
Two clowns
Engineer goby small
Three green blue chromis
one pincushion urchin
Cleaner shrimp
What’s the best procedure to leave a tank hit a week ??
Should I buy auto feeder and should I do a water change 24 hours before I leave?
What’s a good auto feeder??

thanks for help
Any comments will be appreciated
HENRESSY

The WYZE cam is good advice. that's the way I do it. I also pay a neighbor $100 per week to go over every day and feed/top off evap water. I don't want anything automated that can fail when I'm gone. That $100 per week is a fraction of the cost of your vacation and well worth the piece of mind to have someone visit the tank every day.

Also don't make any changes the week before you leave. You see plenty of stories where someone quickly added something automated to aid in maintenance just before they left and it turned into a disaster. If you go the feeder route I would make sure it is running flawlessly for a couple weeks at least.

Duncan62 · Mar 16, 2022

Henressy said:
Hey reefers I need some help

I m going away for a trip for five days…Canada Here I come …

I have a 35 gallon tank with a
blue eyed tang
Two clowns
Engineer goby small
Three green blue chromis
one pincushion urchin
Cleaner shrimp
What’s the best procedure to leave a tank hit a week ??
Should I buy auto feeder and should I do a water change 24 hours before I leave?
What’s a good auto feeder??

thanks for help
Any comments will be appreciated
HENRESSY

I left mine for 10 days last summer. I rigged 15 gallons in a siphon loop to my ato and hit the road. My mother in law sent me a pic every other day. Lol. Better to not touch it than risk a mistake by a friend. Camera is good. If you do water changes then do one. A regular one. Get a friend to send you a pic. It'll be fine. Don't worry.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 16, 2022

Cameras are good but we have face time now. Lol. Live feed. I can duo call or zoom call someone at any time... lol
Just saying. Get a relative or friend or neighbor to train with u a little and watch u feed the tank.
D

moorjames · Mar 16, 2022

I went away for about 5 days recently, and I have a couple cats that I wanted to be checked on. I used the app Rover- and ask the sitter to also check on my tank and left a jug of water on my counter so she could top off the tank (I don't have an ATO) when it needed it. I bought an auto feeder on Amazon and that worked just fine. I will say- that Rover app made things so much easier- and she was happy to even change out my filter when it got dirty

snorklr · Mar 16, 2022

well you should know how much top off and maintanence you need over a week...my "ATO" is a 5 gallon picnic jug with an eshoppes manual float valve in the pump chamber of the sump...i'll have a bunch of one gallon jugs of ro/di made up so my buddy can dump them in as the level drops...40B with a 20 gal sump usually use about a gallon a day...was gone for a month so pulled the socks as they clog in 5 days and shut off the skimmer so it wouldnt overflow...without the skimmer it used about 14 gal for 4 weeks...i feed LRS frozen...got some one ounce clear plastic cups with lids on amazon and put chunk of frozen in each one, got my sister in law to come over and dip the cup in the tank, let the food thaw and break it up a little and dump it in...did a water change a day or 2 before i left and another after i got back...everything survived and parameters fine...fish can miss a meal or 2 also... you might be able to have someone just come over once or twice....one time the girl that was supposed to feed my freshwater tank completely forgot and they went 2 weeks without food...oops...

All_talk · Apr 12, 2022

I work away from home and am away from my tank 5 days every week. I use an auto feeder, cameras and fair bit of automation to keep things going. I think the best advice you have gotten here is to make no drastic changes just before you go, prep in advance and make sure things are working as intended a week or two beforehand.

Gary

vetteguy53081 · Apr 12, 2022

Auto feeder help.
I rely on a trusted friend to stop over pre-portioned solo cups I leave for them and to observe tank for any issues.

Sean Clark · Apr 12, 2022

Make sure you get that auto feeder "dialed in" before you leave. You do not want to set it up and then leave. Make sure to give yourself some time to know that you are happy with the feed amounts and schedule first.

The Ehiem feeder has a solid reputation and is pretty cheap.