dosing and top off question.. please help

[skirrby]

hey guys, im about to leave on vacation for a week.. im gonna give my mom a key to my house so she can take care of my tank while im gone... but i want to make it as easy on her as possible. i know i evaporate a gallon a day from my 55 gallon sps tank. so im going to make 7 gallons of water ahead of time for the top offs. BUT i really dont want to make her have to dose my tank at 6am like i do every morning, then have to come back later to top off and feed the fish.
so im wondering.. when i make the water in advance.. can i just dose the cal and alk into each of the gallon jugs that will hold the fresh water for top offs? ive never done anything this way.. just trying to make it easy on my mom cause shes already has to drive 14 miles out of her way every day just to watch the tank for me.
is this a ok thing to do? anyone got some advice?

 

[lion_crazz]

Skirrby, email me and I will give you a link for a great/cheap auto-top off unit. This way, your mom could just come over every other day to feed the fish, and she would not have to top it off for you.
My email is Ry84@MSN.com

 

[skirrby]

bump. i leave tomorrow, anyone got some advice

 

[roadrunner]

first of all, can you let me know what you do when dosing? i mean what is it that your dosing...is it a 2 part system like bionic or kent part a and b or somethign else...and how do you dose?
then i can help you out from there...

 

[mrdc]

I may be off on this one and someone can chime in if I am wrong. Sound slike you are worried about the ca and alk not being dosed correctly while you are gone. IMO, if you have your ca and alk right before you leave, I would think that you could leave w/o dosing for a week. Or just dose one time whil eyou are away. Ever since I went to weekly water changes, I very rarely have to dose any more. That tells me that the salt I am using is good enough for ca and alk for at least a week. I still add some mag for good measure.

 

[skirrby]

yes i use oceans blend 2 part additive. i was also thinking about going a week without dosing.. the tank is 55 gallons with nothing but sps(mostly) and 2 lps frags in it.. i normally dose about 15ml of each every morning, and do water changes every other week, of 15 gallons. im going to do a 15 gallon change before i leave, and then i guess another 10 gallon change when i get home.. that might keep me from having to dose. i use tropic marin salt, which i feel is very good salt. i really dont want to leave the dosing to somone who has never done such thing. so if i cant add it to the fresh top off water, i wont worry about it at all.