Honeymoons over

[Ctg0209]

So I recently got married and spent a week in St. Lucia on my honeymoon. While there I had someone checking on my tank and feeding the tank. I was pretty excited to check on the coral growth when I got back. I’ve had pretty good growth the past couple weeks and was anxious to see what a week without me tinkering with the tank would look like.

Before I left I did a 25% water change and filled a brute can and set my ATO up in the can. I had cleaned out the skimmer cup and it’s been pretty solid since I dialed it in. The whole tank was on cruise control or so I thought. When I got home here’s what I found.

The good: Everything’s Alive! My montiporas are growing at about the same rate as before I left. My cyphastrea frag is almost encrusted over the entire plug. My favia has some of the best polyp extension I’ve ever seen.

The bad: Algae everywhere. I’m not sure how much they got fed but I’m sure they were fed a lot. I think in addition to overfeeding my 2 mp40s we’re turned all the way down and off of their normal schedule. Cyano has started to grow on a couple lower flow frags. (I think this is due to the low flow area being even lower with the power head mishap). Also my alveopora and zoa frags are ticked. The zoas are completely closed up and the alveopora frag is about halfway closed up.

The ugly: My sump was flooded. I have a trigger triton 34 sump it was filled to the top. With the water levels maxed out, my skimmer overflowed the collection cup dumping all the skimmate back into the system. I first thought one of the float switches malfunctioned and dumped the entire brute can of ATO water into the sump. I immediately checked my salinity to make sure it hadn’t dropped off too low and it was 1.024. I keep my tank at 1.025 so I was confused to say the least. Eventually I looked at the skimmer and the dial had been moved so I guess I need to have a talk with the person who was supposed to watch my tank.

My solution: I am currently prepping for a 30% water change. I’ve already fixed the power head issue. I am also going to drain the sump to get my water levels back to normal. Unfortunately I’ve also been running without a skimmer since it was just over flowing, not pulling out any skimmate. Reducing my water levels will allow me to get it back on and then have to dial it back in.

Me and my wife really enjoyed our honeymoon and are already talking about where we want to go next. Unfortunately I think I need to find someone else to watch my tank next time. So what do you guys do to set your tanks up for success while on vacation? And I’d like to hear your guys stories on leaving your tanks in someone else’s care.

P.S. I might be taking applications for a tank sitter in the future LOL

 

[Bob Weigant]

I live very close to my LFS so when I leave I make sure someone from the shop stops by daily. Sorry to hear about your disaster. Hopefully its not too bad and your tank recovers

 

[mahindra.dev]

I hear you. Thanks for sharing.

Im going on a 3 week trip to India. I plan to have my LFS person come and do weekly maintenance for those 3 weeks while feeding is going to be auto feeder once a day.

 

[sghera64]

You might be interest in remote control and monitoring of your system is you plan to travel much: perhaps an Apex controller is in your future.

A tank-sitter is still a good thing. A tank-sitter with real-time feedback is even better.

 

[Ctg0209]

That’s not a bad idea to ask the lfs next time. If you are comfortable buying from them and they have quality tanks and livestock it should be no problem for them to maintain your own tank for a week. I did not think about that before. I think an apex is in my future. Just need to convince the wife now lol

 

[sghera64]

I think an apex is in my future. Just need to convince the wife now lol

Just show her the before and after pictures and share how much $ is at risk each time you leave the tank on auto-pilot.

Note: if you wait to do this too long, there is a chance she might go down the path of saying shut it all down so you never have to worry or risk again. But, this is a low risk unless she is a statistician. [emoji6]

 

[Ctg0209]

Just show her the before and after pictures and share how much $ is at risk each time you leave the tank on auto-pilot.

Note: if you wait to do this too long, there is a chance she might go down the path of saying shut it all down so you never have to worry or risk again. But, this is a low risk unless she is a statistician. [emoji6]

Haha no she actually really likes the tank. The first thing she did when we got home was start cleaning the glass. She has taken an interest in the hobby and is even attending reefapalooza with me.

 

[lbacha]

I was just gone for 10 days in the Caribbean getting married and when I came back I had a bad infestation of Dino's (snot everywhere) my Phosphate dosing got messed up and it bottomed out. Good news is it's a month later and my tank looks better than it ever did. Hopefully yours does too.

 

[Tiger-Paws]

I was just gone for 10 days in the Caribbean getting married and when I came back I had a bad infestation of Dino's (snot everywhere) my Phosphate dosing got messed up and it bottomed out. Good news is it's a month later and my tank looks better than it ever did. Hopefully yours does too.

Interesting tank, looks like a lot of flow for such a small tank?

 

[mandarinn]

I also had my honeymoon in st Lucia last year! I had my mother in law watching my tank she has no experience with salt water fish tanks but it worked out fine. I showed her how to fill the ato and used a weekly pill container with the food measured out in it each day. I wish you luck on your next adventure and hope this helps [emoji1360]

 

[ZoWhat]

When I go out of town with the Family:

1) I have an Apex and the App on my phone. I've been known to have my toes the sand a 1000 miles away looking at Temp, pH, and all the devices are ON/OFFing when they should.

2) I leave fish food pre-measured out in individual Ziploc baggies with a Sharpie written on the Ziploc, "Thurs, June 14th feeding only. Dump contents only this Ziploc in the tank. Missed Thurs? Throw this June 14th baggie in trash and feed next marked-dated bag. Please and thank you".....then I have as many M,T,W,T,F,S,S ziplocs as I need for the trip.

Hth.

Welcome to married-life where you'll never be correct ever again. LOL!

 

[Ctg0209]

I was just gone for 10 days in the Caribbean getting married and when I came back I had a bad infestation of Dino's (snot everywhere) my Phosphate dosing got messed up and it bottomed out. Good news is it's a month later and my tank looks better than it ever did. Hopefully yours does too.

Nice looking tank. I have a few angry corals but others are doing well. Hopefully get rid of this algae quickly.

 

[Ctg0209]

That’s a good idea to premeasure the food and label it. I guess the common theme here is to make it completely idiot proof

 

[lbacha]

Interesting tank, looks like a lot of flow for such a small tank?

Lots of flow in the tank I have a cor15 as a return that turns out about 80-90gph via the return (I have a manifold running g other stuff as well. The 2 mp10's run reefcrest at 70%. With the barebottom I can really crank the flow and the sps loves it.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I don't trust people to take care of my tank to my liking lol so I automate everything. I run apexs on both my systems with a camera to monitor sump/underneath stand,skimmer,tank,ato resouir. Then I use two Auto feeders on each system to give the food needed to keep the fish fat and happy. One tank has an external skimmer so I run a very dry skim on that. The skimmer that is on the other tank is internal so that I just leave on whatever setting its on and if it overflows it only goes back in the sump. If power goes out I have a generator that auto kicks on to run the whole house My dosing is done by a DP4 and is stopped if PH goes above a certain number just in case my DKH line keeps on dosing.

 

[cancun]

So I recently got married and spent a week in St. Lucia on my honeymoon. While there I had someone checking on my tank and feeding the tank. I was pretty excited to check on the coral growth when I got back. I’ve had pretty good growth the past couple weeks and was anxious to see what a week without me tinkering with the tank would look like.

Before I left I did a 25% water change and filled a brute can and set my ATO up in the can. I had cleaned out the skimmer cup and it’s been pretty solid since I dialed it in. The whole tank was on cruise control or so I thought. When I got home here’s what I found.

The good: Everything’s Alive! My montiporas are growing at about the same rate as before I left. My cyphastrea frag is almost encrusted over the entire plug. My favia has some of the best polyp extension I’ve ever seen.

The bad: Algae everywhere. I’m not sure how much they got fed but I’m sure they were fed a lot. I think in addition to overfeeding my 2 mp40s we’re turned all the way down and off of their normal schedule. Cyano has started to grow on a couple lower flow frags. (I think this is due to the low flow area being even lower with the power head mishap). Also my alveopora and zoa frags are ******. The zoas are completely closed up and the alveopora frag is about halfway closed up.

The ugly: My sump was flooded. I have a trigger triton 34 sump it was filled to the top. With the water levels maxed out, my skimmer overflowed the collection cup dumping all the skimmate back into the system. I first thought one of the float switches malfunctioned and dumped the entire brute can of ATO water into the sump. I immediately checked my salinity to make sure it hadn’t dropped off too low and it was 1.024. I keep my tank at 1.025 so I was confused to say the least. Eventually I looked at the skimmer and the dial had been moved so I guess I need to have a talk with the person who was supposed to watch my tank.

My solution: I am currently prepping for a 30% water change. I’ve already fixed the power head issue. I am also going to drain the sump to get my water levels back to normal. Unfortunately I’ve also been running without a skimmer since it was just over flowing, not pulling out any skimmate. Reducing my water levels will allow me to get it back on and then have to dial it back in.

Me and my wife really enjoyed our honeymoon and are already talking about where we want to go next. Unfortunately I think I need to find someone else to watch my tank next time. So what do you guys do to set your tanks up for success while on vacation? And I’d like to hear your guys stories on leaving your tanks in someone else’s care.

P.S. I might be taking applications for a tank sitter in the future LOL

Glad you getting everything back on track....I do a 20% wc the day before I leave, my mother-in-law stays at my house for the week to watch my dog....she knows not to touch anything on the tank. I feed frozen Mysis cubes so I put those in baggies for her to feed one cube twice a day. I think my husband scared her by saying how I will freak out if something is wrong with my tank when I get back. I also had my dad come over and gave him a crash course in installing heaters etc if something happens. So my mother n law knows to call him if the temp is out of whack. LOL.....I think I worry about my tank as much or more than anything else when I am on vacation.

 

[dylana407]

I hear you. Thanks for sharing.

Im going on a 3 week trip to India. I plan to have my LFS person come and do weekly maintenance for those 3 weeks while feeding is going to be auto feeder once a day.

Test the feeder for 3 weeks as if you were on vacation.

 

[lbacha]

Test the feeder for 3 weeks as if you were on vacation.

I can't agree more I added the feeders an made a couple other minor changes the week leading up to my trip and I feel it is why I got a Dino infestation