Vacation

[AndyNH]

Hi, been reading a lot and two questions have come up. So it seems that the maintenance of the tank is pretty intensive. That is great since I have a 6 year old who is very into science and this would be a nice entry into chemistry. So what do you do when you go away on vacation? Do you have someone who watches your tank for you?

Also I was thinking that with the RO/DI filter it might be good to have a reserved container to store the water so that it is ready for when it is needed. Is there a specific type of plastic I should use? If you store the water do you run into issues with leaching from the plastic or other materials?

Thanks.

 

[Bifferwine]

There is more maintenance involved with a newly set up tank. Once the tank has been established for a few months, the time and effort involved usually goes down. If you go on vacation, it's a good idea to have someone watch the tank for you, but they should really only have to feed the fish and top off for evaporated water. If you have an ATO (auto top off) system, they don't even have to do that. But for peace of mind (and you will worry about your tank while you are gone!), it's good to have someone checking in on it. They don't even need to come over every day -- every other day or every couple days is fine, depending on your tank.

If you are going to be gone for more than a couple weeks, you'd probably have to teach that person how to do a water change.

Many people use food-grade plastic containers to store their water. I have always used either 5 gallon buckets from the hardware store or plastic trash cans (which someone else has posted here is food-grade).

 

[d2mini]

The gray Rubbermaid "Brute" trash cans are chemically stable and very popular in the hobby for storing water.
I would definitely set up an auto top off system (you can check autotopoff.com as one solution) regardless.
And like biff says, once every couple days is good to have someone feed, maybe clean the glass, make sure nothing is wrong like a temperature spike, and see if the skimmer cup needs to be emptied. Don't tell them how stinky it will be. ;)

 

[wontonflip]

+1 biff & d -- when I go, I have a neighbor's kid watch my tank (and dogs). They only do the feeding (I premeasure each feeding so there's no accidental overfeeding unless they do it on purpose by feeding more than the 1 pack). I also have them check my sump area, just to make sure there are no leaks. If there is, I have my lfs on stand by who can stop by the house and somehow get the problem resolved :) But so far, everything's worked great! The simpler you make it, the better for your pet sitter.

And DON'T do anything major to the tank within a week of travelling. You'll need time to make sure everything is working as it should.

 

[AndyNH]

Great info everyone. Thanks.