What do you do for Tanksitters

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So the deal with the sitters is usually $60/day. Stay at my crib or not, use the pool, have friends over, whatever. And I overstock fridge with whatever booze & food they like.

I think we have the solution. Premeasured shot glasses labeled for each tank. Gunna color code them as well.

Heck, lemme know the next time you're going on vacay! I'll take one too... To your house! Lol (only half joking )

 

[Gernader]

Dang! Wish I could help you out but I’m about 1 hour away from you and I have other things to do . Otherwise, I’m down to take care of your tanks, swim in your pool, and have drinks lol. Hope you can find someone who is experienced!

 

[TnFishwater98]

I’ve been visited and been attack a few times by the vacation boogie man… It’s not fun. I now have cameras I set to watch the tanks and have someone on call if I see or hear anything wrong. Cameras are key because you don’t feel like you’re making someone drive over to check something for nothing.

 

[WirelessMike]

What I would do is set up your food in small condiment cups with lids. I defrost my food in batches for a week supply.

Make up your food and then dose out what you normally feed into individual containers. Simply feed a container at each feeding and done.

You could also look at one of those dethawing devices that uses the heat of the tank. I saw them on bulkreef not too long ago. Then you just have to proportion the frozens (I use a daily pill container when I have someone feeding) and keep in the freezer til they come. Maybe label each container to each tank and they just drop it in the dethawer and done.

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[mtraylor]

I let apex do the tank sitting. I have tank directly connected to rodi unit so there is endless supply of water. Have the apex feeder to feed the fish. Other than that. There is nothing else to do but enjoy vacation.

Of course everything else is automated as well.

In your original post. You had qt tanks going. If this was new fish before your vacation....then you should have plan better for the next ones. If it's sick fish from display. It would probably be best to take them to lfs in nfs copper setup.

I'm sure a lfs would do service on tank for you as well if that's the route you feel comfortable with.

I always let apex do the job. Also one tip. Never change anything like 4 weeks before you vacation... like add new equipment or change something up right before you go. That's always recipe for disaster

 

[Jedi1199]

Honestly, at this point, it’s worth the round trip ticket. Come on down, beers cold.

I'm down.. I'd love a vacation in TB.

 

[fish farmer]

This will likely be repetitive at this point in the thread, but between our two high-maintenance dogs, lizard, and fish tanks, we hire an in-home house sitter when we're away for more than a few days at a time. I typically have this person over (usually the same person) a day or two in advance to go through the routine and any changes since the last visit. I also email or text any photos or videos of what "normal" looks like, along with written instructions. We also pay what I think is pretty well and request daily updates, including the fish tank (so I get photos every day to verify it all looks good). We have almost everything automated so really all she has to do with the tank is visually verify everything looks the same, and toss the frozen foods in once a day.

We do pretty much the same... written instructions for dog, cats, reef tank, things labeled on freshwater/saltwater bins. I don't do frozen when I'm away, use a specific scoop for pellet food.

I'm lucky that our usual home sitter is a coworker with fish/animal husbandry experience. She could change out a return pump if needed. I think I payed her $40 a day when we were in Florida for 13 days.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I'm realizing I'm blessed beyond belief. I'm seeing that some are paying for a sitter and are still having disasters. Never paid for a fish sitter for the most part. Always just swapped sitting duties when it comes to the dogs and my father/sister/brother watches the fish. We grew up with saltwater so both siblings can handle their own pretty well.

 

[HBtank]

Tank is automated and can go weeks without human interaction. Camera and remote monitoring.

Sitter is only for emergencies.

 

[MBruun]

Prepare your tank: clean all filters etc. , fill ATO .....
Prepare food: all food measured for each feeding or use automated feeder ( I use reefcicles from Smartereef.com)
Show the sitter how to do, and what to do if something is not as expected
!!! make small movies of how to do, also what you not expect to happen

The movies are super helpfull and easy to make with your phone

 

[nosduj]

my neighbor's son has tank sat for us a few times, usually when we're out of town for more than a weekend. I let him feed flake/pellets, premeasure into a small container for each day, I fill up my ato before we leave, he just has to push a button to turn off the wave makers and put food in. Dosing is setup on a timer, pump is connect via wifi so I can keep an eye on it. If we're only going to be gone for a long weekend, I feed heavy before we leave and just leave it alone.

 

[reef_1]

I am 2-0 so far with most recent setup.

- Lid and AIO tank, so very little evaporation (no ATO)

- wifi feeder

- wifi mains plugs so can turn on/off everything remotely

- wifi cameras

I could go away for months based on evaporation rates.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Afternoon all,

Just curious what everyone does for tanksitters while you’re out of town. I’ve had some horrible results lately:

Vacation 1:
Came back to Ich in my DT. Turns out our friend was using the water from the QT tanks to thaw food. Rip apart DT, Fallow, etc.

Vacation 2:
Same friend from #1 forgot to feed my second QT for two days. Didn’t notice the fish because of their size. Lost 3x Tiny Juvi Lemarks and a Biota Regal.
….Honestly she’s my girl’s friend. Disowning wouldn’t be too difficult…..

Vacation 3:
Different friend, same result as Vacation 1. Apparently I didn’t stress it enough. Just found out today. I’ll have time in about 2 weeks to tear everything apart. Again.
Can’t wait……..

So I’m 0-3. Any ideas? I’m in the Bay Area if anyone knows of an LFS that offers tanksitting.

“Hey man what do you do before hand to prep the tank sitter?”

“Hey Rick, thanks for asking. I take videos showing the individual how I feed and what to feed so they can refer back to them. Then walk them through it in person 1-2 weeks in advance, and again the day/day before we leave.”

Fixed that for you.

Afternoon all,

Just curious what everyone does for tanksitters while you’re out of town. I’ve had some horrible results lately:

Vacation 1:
Came back to Ich in my DT. Turns out our friend was using the water from the QT tanks to thaw food. Rip apart DT, Fallow, etc.

Vacation 2:
Same friend from #1 forgot to feed my second QT for two days. Didn’t notice the fish because of their size. Lost 3x Tiny Juvi Lemarks and a Biota Regal.
….Honestly she’s my girl’s friend. Disowning wouldn’t be too difficult…..

Vacation 3:
Different friend, same result as Vacation 1. Apparently I didn’t stress it enough. Just found out today. I’ll have time in about 2 weeks to tear everything apart. Again.
Can’t wait……..

So I’m 0-3. Any ideas? I’m in the Bay Area if anyone knows of an LFS that offers tanksitting..


Hey, thanks for acknowledging me @Ricks reviews
Just from your write up I guess you have/ a bad experience in the past, my reply to your posts was a simple guide/ suggestion on how to progress in finding a good sitter as your post suggest you have had bad experience? On numerous vacations ??

My advice was/ is simple and plain to maybe help you as a suggestion but that's all it is.. advice.

If your aquarium is so complex with feeding schedule, cleaning schedule then you should ensure the person you employ to maintain your aquarium is up to the same standards as you are???

You can employ a dog sitter that looks after a dog that is relatively easy but when it comes down to aquarium... That's your choice

 

[Pneumatic_Addict]

Afternoon all,

Just curious what everyone does for tanksitters while you’re out of town. I’ve had some horrible results lately:

Vacation 1:
Came back to Ich in my DT. Turns out our friend was using the water from the QT tanks to thaw food. Rip apart DT, Fallow, etc.

Vacation 2:
Same friend from #1 forgot to feed my second QT for two days. Didn’t notice the fish because of their size. Lost 3x Tiny Juvi Lemarks and a Biota Regal.
….Honestly she’s my girl’s friend. Disowning wouldn’t be too difficult…..

Vacation 3:
Different friend, same result as Vacation 1. Apparently I didn’t stress it enough. Just found out today. I’ll have time in about 2 weeks to tear everything apart. Again.
Can’t wait……..

So I’m 0-3. Any ideas? I’m in the Bay Area if anyone knows of an LFS that offers tanksitting..


Hey, thanks for acknowledging me @Ricks reviews
Just from your write up I guess you have/ a bad experience in the past, my reply to your posts was a simple guide/ suggestion on how to progress in finding a good sitter as your post suggest you have had bad experience? On numerous vacations ??

My advice was/ is simple and plain to maybe help you as a suggestion but that's all it is.. advice.

If your aquarium is so complex with feeding schedule, cleaning schedule then you should ensure the person you employ to maintain your aquarium is up to the same standards as you are???

You can employ a dog sitter that looks after a dog that is relatively easy but when it comes down to aquarium... That's your choice

I disagree with your review of your comment, Rick.

 

[Jeeperz]

I trust no humans to do anything with my tanks besides top off the rodi with buckets I've filled. That said, I trust pretty much no humans to do anything right.

 

[KristineV]

Afternoon all,

Just curious what everyone does for tanksitters while you’re out of town. I’ve had some horrible results lately:

Vacation 1:
Came back to Ich in my DT. Turns out our friend was using the water from the QT tanks to thaw food. Rip apart DT, Fallow, etc.

Vacation 2:
Same friend from #1 forgot to feed my second QT for two days. Didn’t notice the fish because of their size. Lost 3x Tiny Juvi Lemarks and a Biota Regal.
….Honestly she’s my girl’s friend. Disowning wouldn’t be too difficult…..

Vacation 3:
Different friend, same result as Vacation 1. Apparently I didn’t stress it enough. Just found out today. I’ll have time in about 2 weeks to tear everything apart. Again.
Can’t wait……..

So I’m 0-3. Any ideas? I’m in the Bay Area if anyone knows of an LFS that offers tanksitting.

I'm going to be gone all of June and already stressing about this! I was gone 10 days and came home to entire tank dead in September. I'm in Prescott AZ. I've been trying to find other reefers near me with no luck.

 

[Homey D. Clownfish]

I’m in Saint Pete. Lakelands a little over an hour away.

I am going to circle around to a few of the shops and see if there’s any takers.

I was about to say we can fish-sit for each other, but I live in the other “expensive” Bay Area. I used to live in Largo, though. We were practically neighbors. It’s stressful to go out of town, especially when your dealing with sitters that aren’t hobbyists.

 

[radiata]

My Neptune Apex.

 

[Pneumatic_Addict]

I was about to say we can fish-sit for each other, but I live in the other “expensive” Bay Area. I used to live in Largo, though. We were practically neighbors. It’s stressful to go out of town, especially when your dealing with sitters that aren’t hobbyists.

Almost moved to Largo. SP property taxes have gotten ridiculous. Can’t imagine what y’all’s are.

If you have any suggestions in the area, I’m a stones throw from Maximo Park.

 

[anabechara]

“Hey man what do you do before hand to prep the tank sitter?”

“Hey Rick, thanks for asking. I take videos showing the individual how I feed and what to feed so they can refer back to them. Then walk them through it in person 1-2 weeks in advance, and again the day/day before we leave.”

Fixed that for you.

Your problem was not the prep... your problem was the density of the tank sitter's mind... ‍