Does anyone have a tank sitter checklist? How does mine look?

[rdriggett]

Hi all! I'm visiting family for 2 weeks and my family will be taking care of all my tanks.

Here's what I've written so far, I know I have a lot to add so please let me know what needs changing. This amount of work is fine for them.
Fish Care Instructions
Daily AM:

• Make sure all pumps are running
• Make sure green auto top off sensor is above the water height
• Make sure green ATO sensor’s led is white
• Make sure ATO jug is full of RODI water underneath the stand
• Make sure inkbird isn’t alarming and is between 77 and 79
• Make sure voss bottles aren’t empty
• Count all fish
• Check corals to make sure none are flipped over or touching
• Check snails and flip if needed with algae scraper wand
• Make sure urchin hasn’t stolen anything important
• Take syringe and fill with tank water. Rise Refractometer and slide cover 3x. Fill slide cover and close. Point unit at light and read. Looking for 1.026 on the left and 35 on the right. If high, adjust ATO sensor up until desired reading is achieved. If low, adjust ATO sensor down until evaporation helps.

Daily night:
Put tank water in my feeding cup and defrost 1 cube of frozen green brine shrimp or 1 cube equivalent of frozen LRS reef frenzy nano. Mix in some NLS pellets so duke can eat too. Click pause on white Jebao “MDP-2500” controller under my stand. Also click the red button on the blue tunze controller next to my tank. Take off lid and pour food around tank. Step back and make sure all the fish eat.

1. Every 3 days:
   Scrape glass CAREFULLY to not hit the silicone seams or any snails.
2. Refill ATO jug via RODI barrel
3. Change filter padding
4. Click red pause button on blue Tunze controller next to tank. Remove collection cup and rise in sink. Reinstall.

 

[Da_Neefer]

For 2 weeks I'd say skip having them do any testing or scraping the glass. Also reduce feeding to once every 3 days. Checking for jumpers around the tank could easily sub for counting the fish and be much less time consuming. The rest is much the same as I would ask of a sitter.

You could take a few good pics of happy corals for them and say if anything looks drastically different they can call you to go through a more thorough checklist of dosing issues, testing, etc.

 

[JVU]

A lot depends on how much automation you have, what you can check remotely (eg Apex Fusion), how long you are going for (I know you said 2 weeks), and whether or not the person watching the tank is already savvy with reef tanks.

For me, almost everything important is automated. My instructions to someone watching my tank are:

1. Look at the tank everyday to make sure it looks ok and no catastrophe is happening like water on the floor or a coralanche. If there’s a problem, call/video me.
2. If you hear an alarm, call/video me.
3. Don’t touch anything without calling or videoing me first.

I would absolutely not have someone scrape the glass or otherwise stick anything (including hands) into the water who doesn’t normally do it. Unless it’s a real emergency and you are with them in real time like with FaceTime.

Even without any automation or ability to check on stuff remotely I would not have them test anything or take any chemistry corrective actions. Feeding is fine if that’s how your feeding is set up, but you should consider having an automated way to feed that you use when you‘re away. Needs to be tested for a couple days before you leave.

In general, assuming you’ve been careful in how you set things up, you are much more likely to cause a problem than fix a problem when someone who isn’t used to reef tanks starts intervening to try to help.

 

[rdriggett]

For 2 weeks I'd say skip having them do any testing or scraping the glass. Also reduce feeding to once every 3 days. Checking for jumpers around the tank could easily sub for counting the fish and be much less time consuming. The rest is much the same as I would ask of a sitter.

You could take a few good pics of happy corals for them and say if anything looks drastically different they can call you to go through a more thorough checklist of dosing issues, testing, etc.

Unfortunately my ato setup is a bit finicky so they'll have to test salinity and I don't trust the Hanna pen. I only have 5 fish and my family named them all so they're happy to count. Thanks for the reference pic idea.

A lot depends on how much automation you have, what you can check remotely (eg Apex Fusion), how long you are going for (I know you said 2 weeks), and whether or not the person watching the tank is already savvy with reef tanks.

For me, almost everything important is automated. My instructions to someone watching my tank are:

1. Look at the tank everyday to make sure it looks ok and no catastrophe is happening like water on the floor or a coralanche. If there’s a problem, call/video me.
2. If you hear an alarm, call/video me.
3. Don’t touch anything without calling or videoing me first.

I would absolutely not have someone scrape the glass or otherwise stick anything (including hands) into the water who doesn’t normally do it. Unless it’s a real emergency and you are with them in real time like with FaceTime.

Even without any automation or ability to check on stuff remotely I would not have them test anything or take any chemistry corrective actions. Feeding is fine if that’s how your feeding is set up, but you should consider having an automated way to feed that you use when you‘re away. Needs to be tested for a couple days before you leave.

In general, assuming you’ve been careful in how you set things up, you are much more likely to cause a problem than fix a problem when someone who isn’t used to reef tanks starts intervening to try to help.

My only automation is unfortunately my cheap ATO, borrowed dosing pump and inkbird thanks to reefing on a budget. I'm happy to not have them scrape the glass (it's just a mag float, no hands in the tank) but I worry they might not be able to see something important by the end of week 2.
I will put that they cant take any actions besides feeding/refilling without me being on FaceTime, good tip.
I plan to train them on all these steps in the coming weeks so that I can assist before I'm gone.

 

[JVU]

Unfortunately my ato setup is a bit finicky so they'll have to test salinity and I don't trust the Hanna pen. I only have 5 fish and my family named them all so they're happy to count. Thanks for the reference pic idea.



My only automation is unfortunately my cheap ATO, borrowed dosing pump and inkbird thanks to reefing on a budget. I'm happy to not have them scrape the glass (it's just a mag float, no hands in the tank) but I worry they might not be able to see something important by the end of week 2.
I will put that they cant take any actions besides feeding/refilling without me being on FaceTime, good tip.
I plan to train them on all these steps in the coming weeks so that I can assist before I'm gone.

You may want to bring your family with you on a trip at some point… would be good to plan ahead for how to keep stuff alive then

 

[rdriggett]

You may want to bring your family with you on a trip at some point… would be good to plan ahead for how to keep stuff alive then

I'm currently living with the 'rents to focus on career advancement after college. In addition we have a dog that cannot be sat by anyone but 1-2 non family members so usually one of us stays behind on trips. IE they all go and I stay back or I go with friends and they're home. By the time I can afford to move out, I can afford an Apex, full automation, and to hire Ed from Clearwater to take care of everything.
For this trip, I've recruited a BAR BOD member and a trusted BAR member to be my tanks emergency contacts while I'm gone. My family knows to call them if I cant walk them through it via facetime. I have a 2nd BAR BOD member on speed dial if SHTF. I'm fairly confident this will go ok but ominous things may happen to tanks while on vacations.

 

[richiev]

I'm currently living with the 'rents to focus on career advancement after college. In addition we have a dog that cannot be sat by anyone but 1-2 non family members so usually one of us stays behind on trips. IE they all go and I stay back or I go with friends and they're home. By the time I can afford to move out, I can afford an Apex, full automation, and to hire Ed from Clearwater to take care of everything.
For this trip, I've recruited a BAR BOD member and a trusted BAR member to be my tanks emergency contacts while I'm gone. My family knows to call them if I cant walk them through it via facetime. I have a 2nd BAR BOD member on speed dial if SHTF. I'm fairly confident this will go ok but ominous things may happen to tanks while on vacations.

My main simplifications would be don't expect them to do anything, nor even to think:

1. $0 - floss - remove filter floss before you go. One less thing that can go wrong.
2. $25 - camera (example) - buy an internet enabled camera. Put all the stuff you want to see next to each other and the camera by that (Voss bottles, ATO reservoir, tank water level, inkbird display). Bonus points if you can also see the tank.
3. $0 - food
   1. Pre-break the food into chunks and toss chunks into a tupperware in the freezer. People don't know how much to feed and are likely going to overfeed if it's not pre-measured.
   2. $0 - $10 - Ditch the pellets unless you have to for particular fish. Simpler is easier. If you have to feed pellets (fish won't eat otherwise), again pre-measure for them. Buy a pill box if needed. Option after that is buy an autofeeder (more money but long-term usable).
   3. have them toss it directly into the display after turning the pump off, don't bother watching if the fish eat (if they don't eat there's likely nothing they're going to do anyway).
4. pre-mix saltwater for them as a backup. Just in case. Keep it very very far away from the RO water they may need to top-off with, and clearly label RO and SALT
5. salinity test - $0 to $75 - I'd personally not trust someone to read a refractometer. If you can confirm the water level is right, I'm not sure what value testing the salinity daily would provide. I would either punt on that completely or buy a Hanna tester that they can just dip in once a week and you're done.

 

[rdriggett]

My main simplifications would be don't expect them to do anything, nor even to think:

1. $0 - floss - remove filter floss before you go. One less thing that can go wrong.
2. $25 - camera (example) - buy an internet enabled camera. Put all the stuff you want to see next to each other and the camera by that (Voss bottles, ATO reservoir, tank water level, inkbird display). Bonus points if you can also see the tank.
3. $0 - food
   1. Pre-break the food into chunks and toss chunks into a tupperware in the freezer. People don't know how much to feed and are likely going to overfeed if it's not pre-measured.
   2. $0 - $10 - Ditch the pellets unless you have to for particular fish. Simpler is easier. If you have to feed pellets (fish won't eat otherwise), again pre-measure for them. Buy a pill box if needed. Option after that is buy an autofeeder (more money but long-term usable).
   3. have them toss it directly into the display after turning the pump off, don't bother watching if the fish eat (if they don't eat there's likely nothing they're going to do anyway).
4. pre-mix saltwater for them as a backup. Just in case. Keep it very very far away from the RO water they may need to top-off with, and clearly label RO and SALT
5. salinity test - $0 to $75 - I'd personally not trust someone to read a refractometer. If you can confirm the water level is right, I'm not sure what value testing the salinity daily would provide. I would either punt on that completely or buy a Hanna tester that they can just dip in once a week and you're done.

Great points! I figured out that If i put my floss at a 45deg angle so that half of the overflow chamber is open, it doesnt mess with my return chamber height and thus ATO sensor nearly as much if at all. The clarity difference between floss and no floss is insane. But I may just have them not run floss at all.
I will grab a PTZ cam and set it up before I leave.
My hikari food is pre cubed and they're supposed to approximate that size for the bulk frozen food. I have a royal gramma that only eats pellets so unfortunately I have to feed at least some. I like the pill box idea! That's what I do for them for my FW tank. I dont personally trust autofeeders.
They adore watching the fish eat, I'm not supposed to feed them without letting my family know first.
Great idea on the premixed saltwater. I'll leave them one 5G jug of RO that they can refill from my barrel and at least 20G of ready to use SW.
The refractometer annoyance is beyond my ATO needs to be adjusted at least every few days. I think I might have to suck it up and buy/borrow a hanna.

 

[richiev]

Great points! I figured out that If i put my floss at a 45deg angle so that half of the overflow chamber is open, it doesnt mess with my return chamber height and thus ATO sensor nearly as much if at all. The clarity difference between floss and no floss is insane. But I may just have them not run floss at all.
I will grab a PTZ cam and set it up before I leave.
My hikari food is pre cubed and they're supposed to approximate that size for the bulk frozen food. I have a royal gramma that only eats pellets so unfortunately I have to feed at least some. I like the pill box idea! That's what I do for them for my FW tank. I dont personally trust autofeeders.
They adore watching the fish eat, I'm not supposed to feed them without letting my family know first.
Great idea on the premixed saltwater. I'll leave them one 5G jug of RO that they can refill from my barrel and at least 20G of ready to use SW.
The refractometer annoyance is beyond my ATO needs to be adjusted at least every few days. I think I might have to suck it up and buy/borrow a hanna.

Great points! I figured out that If i put my floss at a 45deg angle so that half of the overflow chamber is open, it doesnt mess with my return chamber height and thus ATO sensor nearly as much if at all. The clarity difference between floss and no floss is insane. But I may just have them not run floss at all.

Luckily you won't be there so you won't need to look at the water clarity!

The refractometer annoyance is beyond my ATO needs to be adjusted at least every few days. I think I might have to suck it up and buy/borrow a hanna.

Isn't that because of your floss? Two birds. One stone.

My hikari food is pre cubed and they're supposed to approximate that size for the bulk frozen food. I have a royal gramma that only eats pellets so unfortunately I have to feed at least some. I like the pill box idea! That's what I do for them for my FW tank. I dont personally trust autofeeders.

Fair enough. I'd pre-break it apart anyway if it was me, or better yet just stick to one food. Either way I imagine the exact rotation of food doesn't matter. "There's frozen food in the tupperware labeled Fish Food. Take one out, toss it in the tank."

Only eating pellets is interesting. That might solve itself if only frozen was fed for 2 weeks .

Great idea on the premixed saltwater. I'll leave them one 5G jug of RO that they can refill from my barrel and at least 20G of ready to use SW.

If draining from the barrel is more than turning a knob, and/or if there's multiple barrels (eg one salt, one RO), based on my experience I'd pre-fill that 5G jug and label it. I thought dumping from my RO reservoir was obvious, and it turned out not to be while I'm gone.

Even better, fill the 5G and put it next to your ATO reservoir, and when you see it empty (or they tell you it is) have them just move the suction line / pump from one to the other.

 

[H2OPlayar]

I keep it simple.

1: Evaporation. Check and refill ato's
2: Feed nori and frozen 2-3x a week. I have an auto feeder with RN pellets
3: is the pump on.
4: Maybe clean the skimmer cup, or just skim less that time.

That's about it.

 

[JVU]

I'm currently living with the 'rents to focus on career advancement after college. In addition we have a dog that cannot be sat by anyone but 1-2 non family members so usually one of us stays behind on trips. IE they all go and I stay back or I go with friends and they're home. By the time I can afford to move out, I can afford an Apex, full automation, and to hire Ed from Clearwater to take care of everything.
For this trip, I've recruited a BAR BOD member and a trusted BAR member to be my tanks emergency contacts while I'm gone. My family knows to call them if I cant walk them through it via facetime. I have a 2nd BAR BOD member on speed dial if SHTF. I'm fairly confident this will go ok but ominous things may happen to tanks while on vacations.

So in addition to having a dog that can only be watched by 1-2 family members you now also have a reef tank only watchable by 1-2 family members (hopefully the same)? Look I know nobody wants to hear they have to compromise what they want, but the hard truth in my opinion is that if you aren’t going to make the system automated/setup/safe enough that you can go away without it being a huge ask of family and others and substantial risk to your livestock, then you should only be keeping coral/fish that will be fine with the absolute basics of care like softies. Not acknowledging this significantly increases your chance of a serious crash. I know because I was very budget/time constrained for the first 10 years of my time in this hobby, and so I kept it simple with easy coral that didn’t particularly care what the exact Alk or salinity was. I sure as hell wasn’t buying expensive hard to keep coral like designer torches or acros.

So anyway back to trying to be practical/helpful- Like I was saying, drop everything off the list that is not absolutely necessary to keep your tank pets alive. Automate feeding if at all possible, if you can’t automate use 7-day pill boxes with the days of the week on them for the same reason people use them for meds. Forget about cleaning the glass, your snails will keep it clean enough to see a major problem and only humans care about clean glass. Make ATO refill absolutely impossible to mess up or temporarily switch to a large enough container to supply ATO water for the whole time you are gone. No testing. No floss/socks. Tune your skimmer down to run but not collect skimmate or at least low enough to not need to be emptied. If you don’t trust your ATO get one you trust, it’s worth it even on a budget. Make sure your helper checks with you by phone/video before they do anything off-script.

I have had good-intentioned and otherwise smart/capable people make every possible mistake you can think of and some you would never think of when trying to be helpful watching my tanks. There are just too many things that are obvious to us in the hobby that regular people don’t even know what they don’t know.

 

[rdriggett]

So in addition to having a dog that can only be watched by 1-2 family members you now also have a reef tank only watchable by 1-2 family members (hopefully the same)? Look I know nobody wants to hear they have to compromise what they want, but the hard truth in my opinion is that if you aren’t going to make the system automated/setup/safe enough that you can go away without it being a huge ask of family and others and substantial risk to your livestock, then you should only be keeping coral/fish that will be fine with the absolute basics of care like softies. Not acknowledging this significantly increases your chance of a serious crash. I know because I was very budget/time constrained for the first 10 years of my time in this hobby, and so I kept it simple with easy coral that didn’t particularly care what the exact Alk or salinity was. I sure as hell wasn’t buying expensive hard to keep coral like designer torches or acros.

So anyway back to trying to be practical/helpful- Like I was saying, drop everything off the list that is not absolutely necessary to keep your tank pets alive. Automate feeding if at all possible, if you can’t automate use 7-day pill boxes with the days of the week on them for the same reason people use them for meds. Forget about cleaning the glass, your snails will keep it clean enough to see a major problem and only humans care about clean glass. Make ATO refill absolutely impossible to mess up or temporarily switch to a large enough container to supply ATO water for the whole time you are gone. No testing. No floss/socks. Tune your skimmer down to run but not collect skimmate or at least low enough to not need to be emptied. If you don’t trust your ATO get one you trust, it’s worth it even on a budget. Make sure your helper checks with you by phone/video before they do anything off-script.

I have had good-intentioned and otherwise smart/capable people make every possible mistake you can think of and some you would never think of when trying to be helpful watching my tanks. There are just too many things that are obvious to us in the hobby that regular people don’t even know what they don’t know.

All great points. I'm attempting to soak up as much knowledge and feedback as you have to give. Thank you.

 

[MolaMola]

How long until you leave? Make any changes ASAP and resist the urge to tweak anything before you go like last minute cleaning or moving of equipment.
Also, if there is anywhere a snail can go such as on a water level sensor or into overflow/drain, fix that now.

 

[rygh]

Opinion: Your to-do should mainly be a list of things to check, and a phone number to call if something goes wrong.
+1 on all the advice to not let others mess with things.

Dumping skimmer cup is ok. You can have an external skimmmer overflow, but that might be a hassle.

Get a better ATO if it is problematic. Sounds like you really should anyway, and they are not that expensive.
One thing you can do is put a bucket on the floor for a temporary large reservoir when you are gone.

Get a simple ehiem feeder, with a decent mix of small pellets. Fish will be fine for 2 weeks.

You can pay professionals to check on your tank as well. Although probably hard to find someone for a one time thing.

 

[rdriggett]

All, your feedback is very helpful and I'm refining my ideology around tank sitting.

I have had good-intentioned and otherwise smart/capable people make every possible mistake you can think of and some you would never think of when trying to be helpful watching my tanks. There are just too many things that are obvious to us in the hobby that regular people don’t even know what they don’t know.

WOW!

Truthfully I dont take many vacations and this is the longest one in years. Thanks for the reality check on automation and tank sitting. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place as I can't swing an apex right now but I also have $100+ corals that I would be devastated to lose.
I will start reduce the chore list and their involvement. Without floss my ATO will behave itself for at least a week. I'll start shopping for a dual sensor ATO asap. I'll pre portion the frozen food AND pellets in a pill bottle. I'll skip glass cleaning. I can switch my ATO to a 5G jug vs a 1.75G jug and store it outside of my stand for obvious visual clues. I'll set the skimmer to not/barely collect.

How long until you leave? Make any changes ASAP and resist the urge to tweak anything before you go like last minute cleaning or moving of equipment.
Also, if there is anywhere a snail can go such as on a water level sensor or into overflow/drain, fix that now.

A few weeks. I'm resisting changing anything but I haven't dialed in AFR dosing yet. Is a steady drop safer than an unknown possible spike? A snail can take out my return pump so I will block off the gap between my lid and AIO with rubber.

Opinion: Your to-do should mainly be a list of things to check, and a phone number to call if something goes wrong.
+1 on all the advice to not let others mess with things.

Dumping skimmer cup is ok. You can have an external skimmmer overflow, but that might be a hassle.

Get a better ATO if it is problematic. Sounds like you really should anyway, and they are not that expensive.
One thing you can do is put a bucket on the floor for a temporary large reservoir when you are gone.

Get a simple ehiem feeder, with a decent mix of small pellets. Fish will be fine for 2 weeks.

You can pay professionals to check on your tank as well. Although probably hard to find someone for a one time thing.

10-4, reducing to do list. I'm looking into a better ATO! I have a geometric perchlet that only eats frozen so unfortunately I cant do pellets only. I have enough good will with Ed from Clear Water that I might be able to call him in an emergency if all other contacts fall through.

 

[MolaMola]

For someone who has tanks in remote location (school) I suggest ordering a Tunze Osmolator ATO today and set it up as soon as it arrives to get it set up just right. Hands down my best tank stability and protection investment. Other members use other brands with success. Expensive, but not compared to corals. Apex can totally wait.

 

[rygh]

As long as feeding is carefully measured beforehand, you should be fine.

+1 on Apex totally waiting for later. Not a priority.

(Ignore this if you have a nano)
There is an alternative "hack" I do not normally recommend, but it sounds like you have significant risks.
Buy 24 small plastic containers.
Step 1: Figure out how much Alk / Ca / RODI you add per day.
Step 2: Make a set of daily Alk containers.
Step 3: Make a set of daily Calcium containers.
Step 4: Divide ATO daily amount by 2, and put half in each Alk/Ca container.
You helper simply adds 2 containers to the tank per day. Dump 1, then feed, then Dump 2.
Then turn off ATO and dosers entirely while you are gone.
Sure salinity will drift, and dumping instead of dripping is sketchy.
But it sounds like your risks outweigh those problems.