Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday Am Quick Tip #73: Pack Your Bags But Leave This Untouched
Vacations should be relaxing and this tip will help.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Vacations should be relaxing and this tip will help.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Good Tip Mark! Everyone needs a vacation even from their Aquarium 😛
totally good tip, NEVER clean your skimmer the day before vacation, I always like to clean it a week or a few days before leaving, just in case it’s not dialed in.
TGIF! I’m leaving for the weekend and was about to clean it!
In addition to this, take pics of your entire setup, the display, the sump, plumbing, wiring everything.. So if you do have to walk a buddy through fixing things, you have a visual representation of your setup to look at.
Smartphones are awesome for this..
great idea Ryan!
Alicia…a light cleaning – scraping the glass, doing a regular water change isn’t a bad idea before you leave. However, doing a heavy cleaning, adding new equipment or fish to your tank, those are things to avoid before a trip. Enjoy your vacation!
You never get a vacation from your tank Jeff as even when you aren’t at home you are constantly thinking about it!
Mark, what is your prop in the video? I can’t quite tell.
James…that’s someone’s sump in a room behind their tank.
I’m actually going on vacation a week from today for ten days and was going to add a Reef Angel controller to help run the setup while I’m gone. Would you stay away from all additions, even a controller?
Russ…that’s a great question. If you feel that you can get it setup and be familiar with it within the 10 days, go for it.
Old V8 Theory… If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Same principle applies… 😀
Nice tip… nice sump area!
With facetime on iphone and video plus wifi spots everywhere its no longer a requirement to work blind if your Reef Buddy is kitted out with a decent enough phone… Worked a treat for me when helping out a friend 🙂
The question is if your friend doesn’t have a capable phone is it wrong to buy one to leave next to your tank in case of emergency’s? No… I’m not suggesting your fish ring you when the ATO packs in 😛
Good tip, I’ll be going on my honeymoon week after next and just got a gift card to the LFS. I was going to rush out and get a fish today, now I might rethink that. haha
Hey Mark I think it is time for you to do a update on your new tank
Oh so true Mark. Unfortunately, I always seem to tweak something before holidays and regret it afterwards.
There was the great Cyclone of 2011, The dosing pump affair of 2012 and the list goes on.
What I do now is have two remote cameras setup that can be monitored and controlled via the internet. Under $200 to setup and once or twice a day you can view the equipment and display.
Camera 1, No flahing lights or alarms ringing. All’s good in Sumpland.
Camera 2, Fish doing all the stuff they do when I’m not looking. All’s happy in Displayland.
Back to enjoying a cold beer overlooking the beach in some far away place.
Another bit to add to your tip…. leave at least one brand new, spare heater in case yours stops working while you’re vacationing. Been there… There’s nothing like getting that panicked call from the son taking care of your tanks while you’re out of town…”Why are there ice cubes in the tank this morning!” Okay… it wasn’t quite that bad but felt like it while we were 800 miles away from our babies when the heater died.
We have 2 manual binders that have all of our equipment and one that has all the information on what fish we will get from scientific names to what they eat so anyone can access it and know whats happening while we are gone. I say this with all sorts of pre-planning in mind as we are going to set-up our 180 gallon tomorrow! I’m soo excited!!
Anyway, our first two week trip to our cabins this year will be in July and with a few months learning on my sister’s behalf, a local reef fanatic back-up, our Apex system, and loads and loads of easy to follow manuals, a “what do i do if it looks or sounds like this” instruction sheet, ABC instructions complete with photos, and a ceiling mounted camera near the tank, we can observe and be aware of what’s happening on many levels.
Now, hopefully we can relax….lol
You guys and gals have some really impressive travel plans when it comes to setting up tank buddies who are watching your tanks. I’m impressed and taking notes!
What about a 3 DAY get-away? Can I get away with keeping my “stuff” running with light timers and survive?
whats the dealio with your tank then mark? 😛
I always clean my skimmer the day before I leave. Not the entire skimmer, just the collection cup. I have a ReefDynamics INS 135 running on my 90 gallon (with another 35 gallons in the sump). Since I clean it every 3 to 4 days, my skimmer stays dialed in and there is no need to re-tweak it after cleaning. It is a fact that skimmer performance decreases as it builds up scum. Cleaning a skimmer less often than once a week is simply insufficient.
Hi Roger,
You can hook up a drain and reduce that schedule. If you dial the skimmer to run on a longer cycle you wouldn’t have to get a minder to clean it if your away for more than a week.
If you use airtight connections on the drain and collection container, you can run another airtight line back to the skimmers air feed. That way when the container is full the skimmer will start to draw skimate and shut down(and the bad smells are trapped in a closed loop). No flooding if the skimmer goes nuts from random spawning or any of the other strange events that go on while your not looking.
If tweaked correctly my skimmer gets just over a fortnight before it becomes a waste of electricity. I’ve pushed it to three weeks but the collection cup drain starts to gurgle on the thick sludge.
Two weeks should get you a decent holiday.
Mark i love your quick tips
can you provide a quick tip for cleaning the sand bed in the aquarium cant seem to get the sand clean please help.
Wow! what a nice back office Sump Setup!
Mark you “ROCK” 🙂