Tank Maintenace when on Holiday ....

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Hi Guys,

I was wondering how, what or who takes care of your tanks when you are on vacation or away for a week or two , maybe three ??
 
I went overseas in January for a week and had a family member move in to the house to take care of our dogs and the tank. I did a massive water change the weekend before leaving and made sure that all parameters were 100%. Prepared frozen food in advance and left detailed instructions on what needs to be done(mostly feeding). The key thing is to automate as much as you can(lights, topup etc). Also make sure you have enough RO water for topups and show the person how to make more if needed. Go through all your equipment and make sure it's all working 100%.

Most importantly, if the person looking after your tank has no clue on Marine Tanks, leave the number of someone who does(Or trusted LFS) so they can help out in the case of an emergency.
 
fellow reefer?
 
You could either ask some knowledgeable friends ( I say knowledgeable because from reading about others experiences, mum and dad or big brother just don't seem to hack it) or perhaps try someone like Nemo's Janitor that specialises in tank maintenance.
 
I am also in centurion and I use a guy that does it as a business and he also is in centurion. He is a reefkeeper himself and has a lot of knowledge about reefkeeping. I was away in december for 3 weeks and when I came back everything was tip top. His rates are good too. PM me if you want his details. I have used him 3 times now and am very happy with his service.
 
Mom and Dad
But we spend time every day on the phone to make sure everything is still OK.

Especially when my old man had to clean the scrubber.
He remembered to switch return pump off, but did not wait just one or two minutes so that the overflow can stop.
Oh, water still running, and he started unplugging everything. Also my emergency backup unit. No power, hey, I must work, and the backup unit kicked in, pumping water with its own pump.
Old man, what the hell, there is still water, switching the backup unit off does not help, because off actually means ON. Not knowing what is running he pulled plugs and more wires until he got the connector out of the backup unit and only then it stop. Including all lights and powerheads, heaters. everything was unplugged.

Then it was another 45minutes on the phone to get everything back on.

Coming back I expected the worst. But everything actually fine. Only had to clean the front glass.
 
Well im going away for 3 weeks in march and im in the motion of training my sister on the basics,feeding,topup,cleaning skimmer cup,what can possibly be wrong etc etc,then also going to leave a HOW TO guide for her.

But luckily my neighbour is into marines aswell,so im lucky
 
viper357 very kindly suggested us (Nemo's Janitor) as a minder. Thanks Dean. To be honest, we could not compete price wise with the house sitters and pet minders. Our business is based on system management, not "house sitting" and "window cleaning".

We are very busy at the moment, compounded by AVDiver having got vertigo after our Sodwana trip last week end. Hence my limited time on line right now. I will write up a recommended "got to leave the tank a while, forgive me inhabitants" thing for the articles forum when i get time as well as a "what the maintenance companies do"

Just use CDF and most important hide the spare food. Common issue from my side is that the minder feeds 3 to 4 times the amount of food to save on a visit. Yes Family too...
 
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