College?, I didn't even see it comming/Please help

[sting_ray29]

First my tank-
45 ilbs live rock
55 gallons
power filter from walmart
fluval 404
prizm skimmer
3 powerheads
some scarlet hermits
some snails
1 flame angelfish
2 clowns
2 damsels (blue devil)
1 domino damsel
1 spotted hawkfishhawkfish
Alright- going across the U.S.
Fish tank 55 gallons
Won't fit on plane
????
What should I do? I'm leaving for college Thursday mourning and leaving my tank at home. i won't be back until december for 3 weeks and then back to college until summer break in may.. I am planning on having my mom take care of the tank.. She knows some stuff, but not much. She will mainly feed the fish, clean glass, and change power filter media. Also will put top offs of pure distilled water from walmart when water gets low.. I think my Fluval 404 will be ok until chrismas when I will clean it out again if I clean it out real good tomorrow and replace everything in
it. What do you think? I was thinking about just unhooking the prizm skimmer caus it doesn't seem to collect muich and stops running now and then (water stops running up it)... It doesn't seem to work that well anyways. What do you think??? Please respond soon. I don't want to admit it but this summer I was so busy I really slacked off this summer with taking care of it. I only had one loss, arrow crab, which i had for a year. I have never took water out of the tank, only top offs. What do you think of that, is that ok? it seems to stay clean between the large power filter and fluval 404, and cleaners in tank.
Thanks for any responses

 

[yaoming713]

top off wont do it..u or yuor mom actually gonna have to vaccuum your gravel and put in clean water..make sure salt level is steady with water changes...feed sparingly as u dont want your parameters off..good luck!!!

 

[nflnutswif]

I'm leaving for college Thursday mourning
Quote:
Just had to laugh! (Mourning)

Good luck

 

[ndpb6b]

I would suggest that you teach your mom how to do water changes, even if only 5-10 gallons a month. It's not to hard, like said before check salinity or think about selling it off.
Good Luck with the Higher Education, best years of my life,

 

[sting_ray29]

Well, being I have had it for 1 1/2 years and never did a water change I thinkn it will be ok if I Just clean all the filters out...I might still do a water change for a first time, I'll see how it goes. But one question, what about the prizm skimmer, should I unplug it so she doesn't need to worry about the useless thing?