Vacation away from Aquarium

This is the first time I am going away for a week in 2 years. I have a neighbor who will every night put top off water mixed with kalk and will put some food also. I will do a water change right before I leave. Is their anything else I am forgetting to check?
Thanks,
Adam

 

make sure your filters are clean so they won't clog when your away

 

It might be worth giving your neighbor a rundown of the entire system if they aren't familiar with it (electrical, plumbing, etc.) and what to do in certain scenarios. I.e., if you see sparks flying from under here, hit this switch to turn off power, etc.

I would pre-measure the food you intend for them to feed.

You might also want to give them a number to a LFS or aquarium service company (that you trust) in case something catastrophic happens and they need professional help.

 

I would pre-measure the food you intend for them to feed.

+1 on this comment. you may want to only feed every other day while you are away.

 

If you tell him everything he needs to know he may want to get paid or maybe pay you for good knowledge. Joking aside I had a power line go down last week (see link below) make sure he know what to do so your sump don’t overflow if there is a power loss if this may apply.
http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/my-dailey-scare-53359.html#post498961

 

How long are you going to be gone if it is only a few days. I would tell them to not feed the tank. If you are going to be gone 5 days or more I would have him feed it once.
The risk of your helper overfeeding is high which we all know can lead to headaches.

I travel 4 days a week every week and do not feed my system except for lettuce for the tangs and angels. My fish are all fat and happy. Except my lousy black and white damsel he hates everybody.

 

Yeah, I would feed them once before you go, then four days later, then when you get back. And measure it out for the one feeding they do. That's what I am going to do. And a run down of the system is a good idea. If you have a sump, put a minimum and maximum mark with two pieces of tape.

Also, before you go, write everything down. Get on the computer and enter the wonderful world of word processing. Remember your first day at this whole thing. Your neighbor will be worse. I plan on giving my niece a $100 bonus if there is no death in the tank when I get home. I want her to pay attention. Bribery works.

Now.......don't worry about your tank the whole time you're gone. It will survive just fine.

 

I feed my tank now every day with little frozen and maybe some cyclopeze or oyster eggs. I thought I would put the food in 7 separate plastic cups and place in refrig so my neighbor can just add tank water and dump in. Should I have her feed maybe every other day? I just don't want the corals to starve.
Adam

 

you will probably have to pay your neighbor if you are going to give a run down of the system. It is amazing how much faster people learn when money is involved plus this way you know that he/she will pay attention when you are explaining things. I went out of town a couple of months ago and i set everything up for one of my neighbors to take care of everything and i didn't pay her. I ended up coming home to all of the tank lights being on at 1am in the morning. Luckily i came home that morning to turn them off. This is when i realized that i should set up a timer and pay whoever takes care of the tank. lol

 

Over feeding/under feeding won't be detrimental over the course of a week.
The idea of daily top up's with kalk however makes me a bit on edge.
If you're only going to be gone 1 week, your tank can handle going without kalk for that time period. Just get him to top the tank off with fresh RO water for that week. Than when you get back you can do some tests, and start a slow compensation for what needs to be adjusted. Think about it.