Vacation Time! Tips for your reef tank.

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BRS
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Really helpful info here. I know I will be freaking out going away. But it's good to know it's possible to go away feeling good as long as you prepare for it ahead. I also like the idea of making a vacation trial run to see how things react and how to be prepared when you return.
 
Nutramar Foods
TY for the thread! It's very through, insightful and precise. I can see there's more to add to my to-do lists prior to our getaway for our 40th anniversary in June. I've been worrying myself sick about the 'what-if's' while we're gone. Our granddaughter will be spending the week here taking care of the tank, dogs & cat. There are no local clubs or maintenance companies or sitters here in this rural area. I believe I'd rather find out afterward that she had a party here in our absence than to learn she only fed the fish once (right before our return). LOL, don't tell her I said that! I plan on freezing portions of the fish food along with written directions & reminders of what to do when, etc. I plan on only having her feed them every other day which should cut my anxieties in half as well. I also want to be sure I have anything readily accessible that might be needed in case of having to add top-off water, make a measurement of anything that could arise, place a stool near the tank in case she needs to upright a tipped coral, spare old towels in hand, etc. Most everything is automated now, but the webcam is a great idea that will be installed for more than one reason, Thanx for the tips! <*}}}><
 
Deltec
Well, it's that time of year again, and this is a great article to cover my upcoming vacation! :)
 
I went on a long weekend vacation just a couple of weeks after adding my first fish and corals, and then another 10 day vacation after a week back at home. The tank was definitely in the back of my mind both times, but fortunately I came home to no issues and am a lot more comfortable leaving for a while now.
 
Older thread, but still a lot of helpful tips, thank you for the write-up! Although I don't have all these things implemented yet I am very grateful to have two sisters who are reef savvy enough to handle things while I'm gone. Definitely is going to make me feel better while I'm away for the weekend at RAP.
 
Chewy.com
The author is hoping to be at RAP also...lol. I'm still working out some details.
 
May have already been said, but when I go on vacation, I always take a 1L polar seltzer bottle, fill it with RO/DI and put it upside down in the tank. When the water level drops, the opening will be exposed and the water will come back up. This does dilute the salinity a bit so if you have fish/corals that are really sensitive to salinity probably dont do this.
 
I just got back from a week in the eastern sierras. Everything was all set then the day before I left my return pump psu died... Lfs had the same model in stock thankfully but sadly they changed the design a bit and it went from a 6A psu to a 5A psu. They also changed from American 1-1/4"threads to what appeared to be metric....
 
Nutramar Foods
This is so helpful! My tank is in my office and I was worried about being gone for Thanksgiving. Because it’s longer than I’m usually gone I was getting concerned as to what to do.

Definitely worth a bump at this time of year.

Thank you for this post.
 
Nice tips...Just returned from a 13 day trip with no sitter/no issues other than dirty sump and detectable ammonia. 125g w/55g sump. FOWLR with male blue throat trigger, yellow angel, 2 peppermint shrimp, urchin, and multiple snails and hermits.

Equipment for vacation:
1. Tunze ATO with 20g long RODI (used just over 18g in 13 days)
2. Eheim auto feeder 3 times a day with NLS pellets. Fish are used to a variety of frozen foods. Trgger eats pellets as well, but angel will not touch them. I assume the ange foraged since it still looks bealthy.
3. 15% water change and cleaned sump prior to departure.
4. Removed filter socks since they clog after 3 or 4 days.

Was really concerned about my Eshopps overflow. I've use them for years without issue or loss of siphon, but the thought of a flood was always in my mind. Next tank will be drilled. Just wanted to share a good news story as I didn't know what I was going to walk into when I first returned. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
 
Nice tips!
 
ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
On the topic of power outages, timely notification is everything. I found I can use a free app to ping my home internet modem automatically at one minute intervals. In the event of a power outage my modem will go down and immediately send me a notification on my phone. Very handy and all for free.
 
TheKyle said:
On the topic of power outages, timely notification is everything. I found I can use a free app to ping my home internet modem automatically at one minute intervals. In the event of a power outage my modem will go down and immediately send me a notification on my phone. Very handy and all for free.
Click to expand...

Nice! What is it?
 
revhtree said:
Nice! What is it?
Click to expand...

It’s called Pingdom. Surprised it has not been mentioned in the Reefing community more. Would love to spread the word on it since who doesn’t like a free solution to a challenge we all face?

I know next to nothing about network administration but was able to figure it out with a few google searches. Basically you set Pingdom to monitor your WAN IP address, possibly change a few settings on your router to allow outside pings, set the interval of pings and your done. Not foolproof since there are things that could effect power to the tank but not your modem and vice-versa, but it should notify you of any and all full house power outages.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
I use R-U-ON to monitor my firewall, it is not free but is a similar solution.

Of course, there are a few issues with monitoring in this way. First, the internet could be down but the power on - false negative. Second, most residential internet connections do not guarantee a static IP address, so without a solution like dyn.com if your IP address changes you could get false positive or negative results.

A battery backup on your router and a device like a watchdog15 with the power outage sensor is a more reliable solution. Of course for the cost of the watchdog you could get a basic controller and get similar alerts and much more.
 
JoeIII said:
I use R-U-ON to monitor my firewall, it is not free but is a similar solution.

Of course, there are a few issues with monitoring in this way. First, the internet could be down but the power on - false negative. Second, most residential internet connections do not guarantee a static IP address, so without a solution like dyn.com if your IP address changes you could get false positive or negative results.

A battery backup on your router and a device like a watchdog15 with the power outage sensor is a more reliable solution. Of course for the cost of the watchdog you could get a basic controller and get similar alerts and much more.
Click to expand...

These are excellent points. In general I have not known my IP address to change but it certainly could. Probably should combine this approach with ddns (dynamics domain name system) hosting as mentioned. Looks like there are a few website that provide free hosting like the mentioned dyn.com
 
BRS

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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