What do you do for vacations?

The last time I went on vacation was only for about 3 days, so I didn't do anything. And worst of all, the vacation was targeted at looking at a lot of other aquariums (Monterey Bay Aquarium). I need help.

 

I plan on taking the wife to Hawaii this next summer and we have been testing out a few things to keep our tank "alive" while gone.

Biggest thing, I'm training my neighbor ... lol

-fritts

 

Yup, I was amused at that as well. We are planning a day trip to Seattle here in a month or so to see the aquarium there. Very nice set up. Yes, they have seals. Feeding at 11AM and 4PM. I memorized it last time I went.

 

I wouldn't be able to be at peace with an ATO. What I did for top off was use a slow water drip controlled by an air control valve.

 

Neither would I. I would want that done manually.

 

Oh, but do they have otters?

 

ya you do!

my answer is simple.... i dont go on vacations...:-/

 

With the ATO stuff,
I was impressed at the setup a buddie of mine has here in town.. using a ball-cock assembly for a toilet to do the auto top off...

so much so that I'm thinking of doing the same thing when I upgrade to a larger tank.

-fritts

 

If you have the option to have someone stay at your place, then do that. I just went to Vegas a couple weeks ago and was gone for a week. My brother stayed here and I wrote him out all the instructions and had him over once to show him the ropes. All he had to do was feed them, go over the glass with the algae scraper every morning, and top off. In the instructions the most important piece was making sure he knew which tube from my RO unit when down the drain and which tube went into the jug. He did fine and I was very pleased. But not everyone has this option.

Plus he was around if something went wrong like a power outage or a pump failure. It was a great piece of mind factor.

Maybe you could look into some aquarium maintenance people in your area to watch it for the week? Or maybe you have a local reef club that you might be able to join and ask if someone can give you a hand and come over every other day? Just some suggestions...

 

Artspeaker, whatever you do, don't add any kind of automation now that you want to use while you are gone. You don't have enough time to test it and/or failproof it.

I've left for a week at a time for trips when I had past tanks with no problems. If you are concerned, find someone you trust (pay them, they will do a better job) and give them the very minimal task list. Have them feed half of what you would feed (a lot of non reefers will over feed when you aren't looking just for the coolness factor.)