Vacations & Leaving your tank alone

[sen5241b]

I left early Friday and spend a long weekend at the beach. I came back late last night (Monday) to find the water tank sputtering bubbles and the temperature down 4F from its norm --probably due to so many air bubbles. I didn't have enough water in there when I left. Also, my hermits finished their feast on my last Mexican turbo. I had someone drop by Sunday morning to feed the fish.

Question: can you leave a mature tank alone for 2 weeks assuming you have an automatic top-off (ATO) and an auto feeder? (While I'm gone, I can put my computer battery backup on my tank pump and heater to deal with an hour or two power outage.) I'm going back to Costa Rica next December so I have plenty of time to rig up something and test it for weeks if not months in advance.

[Rcpilot]

If you got ONE trusted friend in the entire world--you got months to train him/her how to top off and feed your tank for a couple weeks while you're gone.

The person only needs to come over every couple days to top it off and feed. Maybe 5 or 6 times in 2 weeks?

Thats what I'd do. Mechanical stuff always finds a way to work perfectly while you're around. Then, when you leave town for a few days, it always gets jacked up somehow and kills the tank.

[cumminz]

That is very true

[SSalty]

You can only expect the worse when you leave.

Find someone to babysit your tank when you are gone. IMO, its harder to leave a SW tank than it is leaving a dog or cat.

[McCrary]

An ATO is going to be a huge help when it comes to leaving a tank alone for a couple weeks. As said above, having someone come over every other day to feed the fish and check on stuff is necessary for most people. Its not a big deal though, I just leave a very, very detailed set of instructions and give the person my cell and thats that. You don't need someone who knows fish to look after your fish, although it helps, instructions are the key.

[yote]

Originally Posted by SSalty

You can only expect the worse when you leave.

Find someone to babysit your tank when you are gone. IMO, its harder to leave a SW tank than it is leaving a dog or cat.

I'd rather leave the kids at home alone than my tank.
But,A good ATO and a good friend to feed and check on it,will do go a long way.

[Piggy]

Anything can happen. To prove my point I have never had any major problems with my ATO. But when I got up this morning my tank was blowing micro bubbles like crazy. To come find out for some reason my ATO stopped working. I haven't figured out why. But I got it working again. So I would finnd a tank sitter and write down step by step instructions.

[sen5241b]

Originally Posted by Piggy

Anything can happen. To prove my point I have never had any major problems with my ATO. But when I got up this morning my tank was blowing micro bubbles like crazy. To come find out for some reason my ATO stopped working. I haven't figured out why. But I got it working again. So I would finnd a tank sitter and write down step by step instructions.

Sheesh, what kind of ATO was it?

[Reefrookie]

duplicate post

[Reefrookie]

Originally Posted by Piggy

Anything can happen. To prove my point I have never had any major problems with my ATO. But when I got up this morning my tank was blowing micro bubbles like crazy. To come find out for some reason my ATO stopped working. I haven't figured out why. But I got it working again. So I would finnd a tank sitter and write down step by step instructions.

probably that dam clown