WHat do you do when you are out of town?

What do you guys do to your reef tank when you are out of town, and there is nobody that can take care of it for you?

Anyway, family, friends, and I are going to vegas for 4 days during thanksgiving...not for awhile now..but anyway. There will be noone home to look after my reef tank. I have biocube 29 gallon, with stock compact lighting. What should I do?

 

do you have your lights on a timer?

and get an automatic feeder

 

Lights on a timer, and 4 days should be bad food wise. What fish do you have?

 

feed the fish the night before you leave, then do a small (5-10%) water change following the feeding.. I leave the lights off when I go away for a weekend (up to 4 days) to lower my evaporation, and also helps to prevent any crazy algae growths.. Your fish and corals will be ok without the lights and you dont have to worry about as much evap..

 

what is your thinking behind doing a water change before you leave?

 

for a 4 day trip, I'd just feed right before i left and when I got home and not worry about that.

I had my bro come over for water top-offs but I have since gotten an ATO on a backup battery so that's a non issue for me now.

I have my daily dosing done by pumps on timers, so that's a non-issue.

Your lights should be on a timer anyway... so that should be a non-issue (I don't see any reason to turn them off for 4 days just bc you aren't going to be there...

otherwise, you'll need someone to do water top offs... 4 days of evaporation will raise your SG too much most likely... if nothing else, it will stress the tank.

 

also if you trust your neighbors you can ask them, thats what i do

 

I think a water change helps to remove excess nutrients and since you just fed your fish extra stuff is going to be in the water column potentially causing undesirable algae or nitrate levels..

I feed twice a week.. once on wednesday, a fair amount.. and then again on sunday I feed a lot.. I usually do a water change after my big feeding.. ever since doing this my GHA has never come back, and nitrates stay at 0

 

if all else fails ask a local reefer/friend that you trust.

 

I agree a WC removes excess nutrients... just wondering why they would be there for a 4 day trip...

For me, I'd rather not introduce the excess (i.e. not feed a lot) than do WC more often... whatever works for ya though!


(I feed mine about 2-3 times a week, however, they've gone 4 days without several several times now)