I just realized that now that vacation season is here, I am going to have to think about what to do with my tank critters while I am gone.
I know that I am going to be buying some dosing pumps because right now I dose with calcium and magnesium every day. Any advice on pumps? Which ones are the best for less $$$? I am thinking kent marine pumps.
For my fish I can just set up the auto feeder with some pellets, but i have a chili coral that I feed phyto and zoplankton every night. I have no Idea what to do with it while I’m gone. I really don’t want anyone else sticking their hands into my fishtank so I need another plan. Since I will be going away for about a week at a time I don’t want to skip the feeding that long. I don’t know if it will survive with a week without food.
Any Ideas/suggestions?
The chili coral will survive in your tank for a week with out being fed. You feed it phytoplankton and zoplankton and unless your tank is extremely sterile(to the point where everything else is already going wrong to begin with) then there is some plankton in your water column. Not enough to keep it alive long term, but for a week it should be fine. Just out of curiosity when you were told you had to feed it everyday had you given up on ever leaving home for a couple of days? 
Do not set up something cheap the week before you leave to dose calcium and Magnesium. Research now and have them running for weeks before you go.(also don’t do a water change or even touch the tank for two days before you go) What else do you dose? If that is all you dose then your not dosing enough to be of much concern over the course of a week or you are doing water changes fast enough to correct the in-balance. What are you dosing and how much?
What from Kent Marine were you thinking of using? Were you thinking there drippers? They products in my opinion are often cheap and kept on the shelves by inexperienced hobbyist. If you really want to go that around look for used and it won’t be hard to find.
Calcium reactors and Kalkwasser reactors/stirrers can help, but I wouldn’t recommend using either until you understand what they do, how they do it, and the draw backs to each. These will take a lot of the maintenance away from a heavily stocked reef tank, but can cause more headaches then they help if you don’t understand them.
I only dose 1 tsp of calc daily and 3 tsp of mg daily so it isn’t a whole lot. When I got the chili coral,yeah, I really don’t know what the hell I was thinking! But now that its there I am going to skip a few feedings and see how it does. I only feed it a VERY little bit.
As far as Kalkwasser, there is no way I am messing with that. The calcium additive is working and I am not in danger of ph swings b/c of it so dont want to fix it if it aint broken. Calcium reactor to me is not necessary if everything is doing well with calcium supplement. I am going to break down and buy a good dosing pump but don’t want to spend a ton of money.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:2, topic:4224”]
What else do you dose? If that is all you dose then your not dosing enough to be of much concern over the course of a week or you are doing water changes fast enough to correct the in-balance. What are you dosing and how much? [/quote]
Or straight “calc”? Not Calcium Chloride Dihydratre or an off the shelf name brand? I highly doubt you are adding the solid element Calcium to the tank. If you are adding a dry calcium supplement to the tank 1tsp daily is a decent amount, if you are adding 1tsp of liquid off the shelf then yeah it is practically nothing and you may add as much to your tank by griding your teeth above the tank once a day.(your paying for a lot of water and a lot of gas to get that water to your house)
If you are set in your ways then stick with it. Bulk Reef Supply sells some cheap dosing pumps I haven’t had much of an issue with.(running four of them between myself and my clients and have a spare in my vehicle I have never had to use) Actually they claim they’ve never had a failed model. I would repeat though that I would highly recommend setting up what ever you plan to do as early as possible and monitor it for a while. The biggest mistake people make with vacations is trying to do too much the day before.
You can always set up a third dosing pump to dose plankton(or really a fourth because I am pretty sure your “calc” and “mg” are not providing a balanced solution). Though by this time I am sure you are aware that plankton left out in the open in liquid at room temp… fouls pretty quickly. People do set up mini refrigerators with holes drilled in them to allow dosing of refrigerated plankton supplements. Actually this is one way I have seen reefers be successful with a chilli coral in a smaller aquarium long term.
Oh good lord don’t give her any ideas about drilling anything else - her husband will stroke out on us!!!
Jess - I personally use one of these when I go on vacation. I was away for the last 11 days and not only did it make sure my parameters stayed in check, my water level never dipped, and my fish didn’t get hungry - I think it fragged a couple things to make room for new growth.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:5, topic:4224”]
I think it fragged a couple things to make room for new growth.[/quote]
Only a small fee to pay for such services! ;D
[quote=“IanH, post:6, topic:4224”]
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:5, topic:4224”]
I think it fragged a couple things to make room for new growth.[/quote]
Only a small fee to pay for such services! ;D[/quote]
Of course I also haven’t seen my percula clown or my flame angel >:::
As far as dosing pump goes I been using this for year now without any problems,
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/pumps-and-plumbing/dosing-pumps-and-auto-top-off-systems/bubble-magus-dosing-pump-bm-t01.html
Like Jon said cal/mag is not a balanced sulution, look in to BRS 2 part kits, I love their stuff, great price and pure grade chemicals.
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/products/calcium-alkalinity-magnesium/two-part-calcium-and-alkalinity-solution/two-part-starter-kit-1.html
I have left my tank for 10 days in few ocasions without feeding and didn’t have any problems at all.
As side note, think about getting controller with net acces, than you can log in and monitor(play with it), while on vacation.
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:7, topic:4224”]
[quote=“IanH, post:6, topic:4224”]
[quote=“Cdangel0, post:5, topic:4224”]
I think it fragged a couple things to make room for new growth.[/quote]
Only a small fee to pay for such services! ;D[/quote]
Of course I also haven’t seen my percula clown or my flame angel >:::[/quote]
Hey you didn’t leave anything for the nems to get fed so I improvised…
On topic, I’d think an ATO and pellet feeder and you’d be fine for a week. I only feed my tank every 3 days as it is so another few days won’t kill them. You’ll need an ATO for sure though and I’d follow Jon’s suggestions of making sure the equipment works at least a week before actually needing it.
I also agree with the dosing suggestions, you’ll need to dose all three, Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium to keep it balanced if you are dosing. I doubt you would run into an issue of not dosing for a weeks time, unless your tank is seriously loaded with some calcium munchers. I like to dose kalk as it covers (some will argue this) calcium and alk fairly well, then again I’m not very consistent and switch around between dosing kalk, calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride (hexachloride?)
You could also setup a computer/laptop with a webcam pointed at the tank that you can check on while remote (on vaca), although you can’t parameters, you could see if something is seriously going wrong.
Wow guys-when my husband asks me why we are so in debt I am going to give him your names. Does anyone want to buy a kidney? I have a good one and that should give me enough to pay for all of this equipment. :SURRENDER.
. . . Dibs on the kidney . . . :
:
I would start with the ATO, it is the biggest bang for your buck as far as piece of mind and tank stilbilty goes.
You can add something like Alk 8.3 to the reservoir which should stay mixed ok and will help keep PH and ALK up and you should be OK without any dosing for a week or so.
Invest in the ATO as it is an essential element of tank stability while you’re away. There’s enough food growing in the tank to sustain fish and coral for a week. Dosing, while it is best, can be skipped for a week or two (or 6 years). I RARELY dose anything to my tank. When I go away I do a water change a day or 2 before I leave and another a day or 2 after I get home.
So any recommendations on ato? I have been trying to look online and I can’t seem to find what I think I am looking for. What do you guys use?
Neptune Apex
[quote=“Gordonious, post:15, topic:4224”]
Neptune Apex[/quote]
The Apex would be great if they already have one, but to buy one to use as a ATO would be a bit overkill
You can go with http://www.autotopoff.com/
I like JBJ ATO as it’s standard configuaration uses two switches and one as a pump protector in the reservoir and it also has a pump on time limit bulit in.
I believe Paul had a JBJ and had many issues with it. BRS sells both JBJ and Tunze and highly recommends the Tunze over it. By the time you’ve spent $200 on the Tunze and a stand along pH controller you might as well have bought a Neptune controller. If your into the hobby and plan on keeping more advanced corals you’ll likely end up with a controller at some point, but if it isn’t in the cards at this point then it isn’t.
If you use any top off make sure to set it up in advance with a small reservoir and get a general idea of how often the reservoir needs to be topped off and have your tank sitter/feeder come more often and fill it up.
jon is right about my dislike for the jbj. i eventually got it to work right by hooking it up to a timer that went on and off every 15 minutes. otherwise, it never, never, kept the levels right. i had it for about 5 months.
JBJ did have issues with some units a while ago but have heard they will stand behind their warranty and replace units without hassles, with mine I had to swap the sensors as the one I had in the sump would error out after one or two fills but after switching the one in the reservoir with the one in the sump it has been working fine.
And if they can wait till June Neptune is due to release their new APEX Jr. which looks like it will be setting a new standard for budget controllers and would be a good way to go.
If I was buying new I would get a unit from autotopoff.com with dual sensors and then plan on getting a controller APEX Jr. when they came out.