vacation question

[wid]

I am going for a week vacation, will the fish ok with no food for a week ? or once a day (with the auto-feeder) ?
thanks
Wid

 

[lovethesea]

we have timers for the lights and digital auto feeder. Everything goes fine. We have a neighbor stop in once just to check, but he has never had any probs.

 

[elfdoctors]

I don't use my automatic feeder for trips ~1 week. I have gone on two 9 day trips without feeding and have had no losses. Many more fish die from overfeeding then from starvation. I make sure they are well fed before I leave.
The biggest concern I have is salinity. I make my water slightly more dilute (with a good water change) before I leave as I will be unable to top off the water while I am gone. (I am looking at an auto-topoff system to remedy this).

 

[wid]

Doc,
your are the best, I didn't think about the water. will do what you said.
thanks.
Wid

 

[fire30b]

Is there such a thing as a auto top off system? That will be very nice. Let me know if you find one.

 

[reefer1]

I made a auto top off by placing a "t" on my DI/RO line and attatached 1 line to a float in my sump, the other goes to my vat for making water. both lines have a cut off valve to control flow. I also have a sink in my fish room that the DI/RO is hooked and the water is always on. My only problem is the water from the RO/DI needs to be buffered, but my reactor handles that.

 

[stacyt]

I travel a lot. What I do before I go for a week or 2 is make sure my water changes have been done. Usually 25% a couple of days before I leave. I normally remove all the mechanical filtration just so I don't have to worry about anything getting clogged, and I don't need to rely on someone to clean them. I put into individual baggies the food that needs to be fed for each meal, and label the bags for the day and time to be fed. I also keep plenty of RO water on hand for topping off the tanks. I put a peice of tape on the sump that marks where the water line should stay. Of course I have someone stay at my place when I'm gone, so there is someone there most of the time. Also I leave a few phone numbers of some other tank owners, that I trust completely, in case of a tank emergency.