Vincerama2
Guest
It's the longest I've been gone ... three weeks! I came back and all fish were fine. Whatever hardy coral I had was still hanging in there, despite my mystery tank crappiness that killed off other stuff. Aiptasia was happily multiplying, of course.
Since everything is basically automated the only things that needed extra attention was;
1) Feeding the fish, which if you have no fish is easy! But I used two auto-feeders, and tossing in those "food pyramids" which is a block of calcium-something that slowly dissolves. Not sure what's in the block. I had a friend check to make sure the feeders were full during the weeks, he never topped them off as they were still loaded when he checked.
2) Skimmer - The cup was full, and probably over flowing back into the tank, but the bubbles were working and aerating the tank, so it's all good.
3) Auto-top-off reservoir. In the past, this was the biggest issue I had. I would "preload" the sump by topping it to the top with fresh water, then attach an extra 5 gallon jug to the 10g reservoir via a siphon hose.
However this time, I took my trusty 44G rubbermaid garbage pail (my water change container) and used that. It still had probably 10-15 gallons in it when I returned. This allowed the system to work normally without needing to top off the sump! Awesome!
But I counted fish when I got home and everything was OK! Whew!
V
Since everything is basically automated the only things that needed extra attention was;
1) Feeding the fish, which if you have no fish is easy! But I used two auto-feeders, and tossing in those "food pyramids" which is a block of calcium-something that slowly dissolves. Not sure what's in the block. I had a friend check to make sure the feeders were full during the weeks, he never topped them off as they were still loaded when he checked.
2) Skimmer - The cup was full, and probably over flowing back into the tank, but the bubbles were working and aerating the tank, so it's all good.
3) Auto-top-off reservoir. In the past, this was the biggest issue I had. I would "preload" the sump by topping it to the top with fresh water, then attach an extra 5 gallon jug to the 10g reservoir via a siphon hose.
However this time, I took my trusty 44G rubbermaid garbage pail (my water change container) and used that. It still had probably 10-15 gallons in it when I returned. This allowed the system to work normally without needing to top off the sump! Awesome!
But I counted fish when I got home and everything was OK! Whew!
V