they just don't get it

[andyg1960]

I recently went camping for 5 days. Left this note for my sister in law.
--Please pour both bags labeled sat here (arrow pointing to refugium). Fill water in bottom tank to the line. Feed cup marked sat to main tank. Cups in fridge, second shelf on right. Thankyou
Bags are in stand and water is in bucket on floor. --

Came back to find no water added for top off, no food fed, and no cal or alk added!!!!
Turns out she took a 1/4 lb of blackworms in 3 day old water fro.m the left side of the top shelf and dumped it in the fuge! Omg, I can't believe the tank looks filthy but fine otherwise. Testing, corrections, and apologies to my babies today :-(

You get what you pay for.

 

[Wiz]

Pay for? It was a family member. Somebody who I assume cared about something they know I care so much for. Somebody I thought I could trust. You don't get much better than that as far as someone to take care of your stuff. Lesson learned

You get what you pay for.

 

[Wiz]

Even in my fantasy it seemed a little drastic but I still fantasize. LOL

Clearly you need to find someone better than her FOR SURE!!

It it was me and she did that, I would kick her until she was dead !!

There is just NO excuse for that kind of STUPID!!

 

[malira]

I used the video method. My son has a 90g mixed reef tank and I was very familiar with how it worked but when he left for college I had him make videos of how he tested, cleaned, fed, and acclimated. It was reassuring.

 

[Mike W]

I have the same problem with getting someone to watch my tanks when I go out of town. That is the perfect example not just with our tank's but all the coral reef's around the world on a grander scale. We know how fragile and balanced our tanks need to be, just imagine in the ocean's coral reefs and people's misunderstanding about the delicate balance that needs to be maintained.

 

[PJS]

It always makes me nervous leaving the tank for extended periods, almost as nervous as the thought of losing power. I have been lucky with having a really close friend of mine who's able to feed while we're away. We are going National Park hopping in September for 3 weeks so I have a guy from our LFS who I will be paying to come and tend to the tank upkeep. It's still hard to totally relax knowing it doesn't take much to get things out of whack.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

The picture is from the "PICU Post", when my tank-sitter (fellow employee and best friend) killed my horses...... and lost my dog. Wasn't a good experience. LOL! It was a fun little newsletter we would put out monthly at work.

I've lost fish on 3 separate occasions.

One time instead of using water from the many many carboys surrounding the ATO bucket (the water she was instructed to use), my tank got 3 weeks of tap water. This was a different sitter.

Another they turned off the powerbar turning off all the equipment to my tank. Different sitter.

I forget what Dana did to kill the horses.

 

[Flashy Fins]

One thing I started doing was I make a quick iphone video of where the stuff is and how to do what I want them to do and send it to them so they can reference back. But if they don't care then it doesn't matter anyway!

That's really it - do they care or not? No amount of instruction, walking through, etc. will matter if they aren't interested. We had a couple of guys stay at our place while we went on a vacation last year, and even though I personally walked them both through every step and left written instructions, I came back to my coral/invert QT dead (they did no top offs during the week, then dumped all the freshwater I left in on the last day) and my firefish in another QT swimming upside down (they fed him a week's worth of food on the last day, giving him extreme gas; thankfully, I was able to help him with frozen peas). Needless to say, those guys don't sit for us anymore.

We're going out of town in July, and I'm already nervous. I have ATOs on my tanks now, so that will help, and the gal sitting for us genuinely seems interested in getting things right, so I'm hoping luck is better this time. I don't want to be someone who dreads vacations!

 

[Ontheway]

The note was too complicated. There were three jobs which is too much.

Choose most critical one and hope for it.
IMO, Its much better to let livestock starve for 5 days, instead of leaving it to unwilling hands.

 

[malira]

We have a 90g mixed reef. We went on vacation for 7 days last year. I bought 2 back up batteries that would last 5 days. The power hasn't been out in our place for more than 2 hours in 20 years, I setup a 15 gallon ato (it lasts 13 days), and I set up an ehiem auto feeder. It feed a minimal amount of flake. I did a 25g water change when I can back. My wife wouldn't let any one house sit.

 

[Chrisfish]

You should never leave your tank.

I'm terrified to even leave it with my husband, oh wait he's the only one I'm terrified to leave it with, lol

 

[choff]

Ouch, that sucks. I left my tanks in the hands of my twin 10 year olds when I was away and out of touch for 3 weeks. Everything looked better than when I left. [emoji2]. They weren't very involved with the system prior to that, but since then they now have the bug.

 

[sde1500]

The picture is from the "PICU Post", when my tank-sitter (fellow employee and best friend) killed my horses...... and lost my dog. Wasn't a good experience. LOL! It was a fun little newsletter we would put out monthly at work.

I've lost fish on 3 separate occasions.

One time instead of using water from the many many carboys surrounding the ATO bucket (the water she was instructed to use), my tank got 3 weeks of tap water. This was a different sitter.

Another they turned off the powerbar turning off all the equipment to my tank. Different sitter.

I forget what Dana did to kill the horses.

Oh God, I thought at first you meant like actual horses. Was trying to figure out how someone screws up so bad they kill a horse. Sea horse, while still terrible, makes a bit more sense lol.

I have a dozen chickens, a llama, 3 goats, a fish tank, 2 cats and a dog. There are only a couple people I trust to take care of the place when I'm away. Typically they stay at the house to do it. Haven't left since I got my bigger tank, so we'll see how it goes when I vacation in a couple weeks. Posts like this make me worry.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I'm blessed to have a mother-in-law and a sister who comes who care very much and understand what the tank means to me.

 

[cnseekatz]

To be honest, I didn't really understand your note either! I've been keeping reefs for years, and it was too complicated for me to understand without reading it three times...

 

[FrankAbagnale]

Yeah....I'm not going to lie. Your note was a little confusing...

 

[briancarterkc]

My neighbor is a nurse. Nurses are great tank sitters. Understand measuring, importance of accuracy, and follow instructions well. She doesn't have to do really anything as I've automated most systems, but she used to dose vodka, alk, calc, feed, etc. a trick I learned from my corporate training days was to actually watch them do everything you want them to do once so you can correct and they have confidence in what they're doing.

 

[Gamma]

I have not left my tanks for a year now. Took forever to get it back in shape from last summer being over fed and not topped off frequently enough. Have just spent last few weeks ordering ATOs and auto feeders hoping to avoid a repeat when I leave this month but only a week...will never go more than that again. So far it is all running smoothly.

 

[briancarterkc]

I have not left my tanks for a year now. Took forever to get it back in shape from last summer being over fed and not topped off frequently enough. Have just spent last few weeks ordering ATOs and auto feeders hoping to avoid a repeat when I leave this month but only a week...will never go more than that again. So far it is all running smoothly.

Good on you. Make sure everything is set up and running smoothly for at least two weeks before you go.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I have a good friend that has a pond and several planted fresh tanks. He is really particular and is usually who sits our house for us. I trust him with my reef tank.

If not for him ... I would cringe at the thought of being out of town.