What do you do when you come home to a flooded house, a tank full of air, and a stench that causes your next 3 divorces? Learn! Pinpoint what caused this catastrophe and don't let it happen again, if you still even have it in you after the devastation.
Better yet: use preventative measures!
One thing I always had a problem with was my protein skimmer. It would always flood when I went out for more than a day...if I stayed home it worked fine! Hmmm. Well I don't want to risk having a low o2 reading on behalf of my fish, but I can deal with some extra algae if I have to.
To Counter the flood risk I decided that I did not want it to suck in any air. I opened the valve to the outlet so the water was nowhere near flood zone.
In the reaction chamber i inserted a regular air stone and an air pump so that I had a good amount of gas exchange and a place where bubbles can splash without making a mess.
It doesn't filter at all, but the water is not lacking the oxygen it would if I turned it off completely. Sometimes these are sacrifices you have to make when you have your mom house sitting for you, not to mention the bloated cats whom she over feeds every time because they meow.
I use a 55g sump at 50% full when off. On vacation I fill it to 90% so there is less chance of running the pump dry, but still not enough to flood during power outs.
This weekend is a short one. We will be back on Sunday so I will leave the lights off to simulate A storm while I am gone. I also have the powerheads temporarily pointing straight at a few corals that may grow algae on them if something were to go wrong. Mainly the sea whip.
I also did a mass feeding to hold them off. I know my mom has big eyes and I don't have the scrubber hooked up for a failsafe haha.
If we do have a power outage I have battery powered air pumps and tons of batteries.
So what kind of things are you doing to prevent issues while away?
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon."
Better yet: use preventative measures!
One thing I always had a problem with was my protein skimmer. It would always flood when I went out for more than a day...if I stayed home it worked fine! Hmmm. Well I don't want to risk having a low o2 reading on behalf of my fish, but I can deal with some extra algae if I have to.
To Counter the flood risk I decided that I did not want it to suck in any air. I opened the valve to the outlet so the water was nowhere near flood zone.
In the reaction chamber i inserted a regular air stone and an air pump so that I had a good amount of gas exchange and a place where bubbles can splash without making a mess.
It doesn't filter at all, but the water is not lacking the oxygen it would if I turned it off completely. Sometimes these are sacrifices you have to make when you have your mom house sitting for you, not to mention the bloated cats whom she over feeds every time because they meow.
I use a 55g sump at 50% full when off. On vacation I fill it to 90% so there is less chance of running the pump dry, but still not enough to flood during power outs.
This weekend is a short one. We will be back on Sunday so I will leave the lights off to simulate A storm while I am gone. I also have the powerheads temporarily pointing straight at a few corals that may grow algae on them if something were to go wrong. Mainly the sea whip.
I also did a mass feeding to hold them off. I know my mom has big eyes and I don't have the scrubber hooked up for a failsafe haha.
If we do have a power outage I have battery powered air pumps and tons of batteries.
So what kind of things are you doing to prevent issues while away?
"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon."
