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Questions for People with Office Tanks

MolaMola

MolaMola

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I guess those of you with maintenance clients have a ton of experience, too.
Do you dose Ca/Alk by hand or with pumps? Do you just do water changes instead?
Do you use an ATO?
Do you do anything special to prepare for weekends or what does NOT get done during weekends?
What do you do if you are gone on vacation?

Planning ahead for summer classroom tanks. I have a new small tank thrown into the mix, plus a frag tank we dose 2-part by hand. Considering my options for stability.
 
I had tank in office, one advise is never trust anyone. Not one soul at the office.


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It was a small tank so I just changed water. I didn’t have much in the way of stonies at the time. Had I been there longer I probably would have added a doser. Coworkers like your reef tank when they get to look at it, but many times less so when they have to care for it.

I should add that it was a Biocube, so it really only needed to be topped off every 2-4 weeks.
 
I used to keep a biocube in my office when I was a dispatcher.

Automation was my best friend. I put in a stevesled retro kit and used a typhon controller. Auto top off is a no Brainer. I put in a clam and a couple acro so a doser was eventually used.
 
ashburn2k said:
I had tank in office, one advise is never trust anyone. Not one soul at the office.


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LMAO, although I think you are totally serious.
The science teacher I share a small building with and I take turns going in to look after class pets during breaks. She is reliable for topping off reservoirs and feeding according to directions, so I am lucky!
 
Thank you for the info!
I agree about ATO - my favorite device - and worked this year to get enough for all tanks. Just need to set one up.
Once new low-light tank is ready, I can move suitable corals into it and rearrange frags hanging out in QT for lack of space and take it down for summer so I don't have to get ATO for 10g. Or I will run QT empty with no ATO and let salinity fluctuate.
Still never got around to getting more fish this year, so that will just wait until the fall so I don't have to worry about it now. Clowns will have auto feeder.
I will do a frag tank water change this week, then stop hand dosing it for a bit to test Ca/Alk and see the rate at which it is used.
One last question about that - if it seems supplementation would be good, do you think it is harmful to do it 1-2 times per week? Like could the fluctuation cause more harm than good? I could see what happens with weekly water change instead, too.
 
That depends on consumption. If you consume 1dKH per week do it weekly, maybe even if you consume double that. Not ideal, but it works. That’s basically how using water changes to maintain parameters works. If you have a system consuming 2 dKH per day (an uncommon case) then obviously weekly (or even daily) would not be enough.
 
I've probably lugged a tank to every job I've had. Lol. Plus, i travel a lot. My latest is an IM 20G...

As mentioned before, ATO and autofeeder (eheim) is a must.

I used to do weekly water changes of about 20% that then became bi-weekly or less. Now, i just do ATO and dose trace elements manually.

I've also been testing out Sea Lab No. 28 blocks. Seems to work well for maintaining Ca+. My DT tank has shown really positive response on the SPS front.

I put a block into my IM 20 at work recently so will see.

All ibdo before weekends and trips is just make sure my ato and feeder are full. That's it.
 
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