Neptune Aquatics

Your no. 1 (overlooked) thing to plan for when going on extended vacation

Alexander1312

Alexander1312

Supporting Member
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I have been planning my 17-day absence starting next Monday for quite some time now, but I am still not sure if I considered everything important. Wanted to reach out to see if you are willing to share any advice on what to consider when going on vacation.

One thing I am still not sure how to go about exactly is the skimmer settings - since I do not want the fish keeper to empty the Reef Octo cup. I bought a 5-gallon container for the skimmer which should cover any excessive skimming (but might impact salinity).

The most concerning thing to me though the alkalinity swings, which no one will test for during my absence.

New Update: Current overview of recommendations (as of May 30, 2025), provided below (does not include nano tank), as well as other considerations (to be further updated):

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Alexander1312 said:
I have been planning my 17-day absence starting next Monday for quite some time now, but I am still not sure if I considered everything important. Wanted to reach out to see if you are willing to share any advice on what to consider when going on vacation.

One thing I am still not sure how to go about exactly is the skimmer settings - since I do not want the fish keeper to empty the Reef Octo cup. I bought a 5-gallon container for the skimmer which should cover any excessive skimming (but might impact salinity).

The most concerning thing to me though the alkalinity swings, which no one will test for during my absence
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Add a float switch to turn off skimmer if the 5 gallon bucket fills up.
 
I will be traveling end of June also for about 3+ weeks. Top items on my list.
  • Measure days of ATO reservoir, mine is currently 20 days+, which will cover my vacation.
  • Home Thermostat - Away Mode, set away mode to a cooler temperature, anticipating possible heat. Adjust accordingly to your environment.
  • Refill/check dosing lines one week before leaving - allows time to test.
17 days shouldn't be a big deal if everything is normal, unfortunately, things tend to go wrong when you are not there.
 
I take seriously all the planning, automation, web cams, outage backup, etc. But the most important single item is having someone around to check on your tank looking for things/sounds out of place and willing to call or FaceTime to solve problems. We use a housesitter, mostly for the other (more important) animals. But I make sure they are comfortable with the above. I realize that’s not an option for a lot of people, but that’s my #1 tip and has saved me several times in quite frankly unpredictable ways.
 
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Well there are bar members near you. Good idea would be identify a trusted memeber leave them a key (or stash a key somewhere you can let them know where if a issue comes up), and maybe have them check on things for you once or twice.

Alternatively if you have family memebers who will be home leave them contact number or information of a bar member who would be willing to trouble shoot anything that may come up if your unable to over the phone etc (or in some extreme circumstance where they can't reach you they have someone to call).

In short just set up someone that knows a bit to be able to step in. If needed. It would definitely bring u peace of mind. Knowing there is a back up plan arranged in the event something goes wrong.


A wifi camera aimed at tanks is also helpful.
 
fishy408 said:
I will be traveling end of June also for about 3+ weeks. Top items on my list.
  • Measure days of ATO reservoir, mine is currently 20 days+, which will cover my vacation.
  • Home Thermostat - Away Mode, set away mode to a cooler temperature, anticipating possible heat. Adjust accordingly to your environment.
  • Refill/check dosing lines one week before leaving - allows time to test.
17 days shouldn't be a big deal if everything is normal, unfortunately, things tend to go wrong when you are not there.
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Yeah the thermostat away mode kinda got me over winter as everything turned really cold. I've been monitoring remotely to turn on AC as needed this summer now.

Highly recommend another BAR member to check in on your place like John mentioned or even hire someone who does service in the club. No reason to put it all up to an inexperienced non reefer when you have thousands of dollars and many animals on the line.
 
I will say from experience-find someone you inherently trust. Our house sitter for the dogs is not a reefer but she has done a good job of letting me know when things go astray. Before I had the pressure sensor for the skimmer she would take pics everyday and send. Anything suspicious in the tank she would report as best she could.


That being said- if you have someone refilling ato or saltwater reservoirs -use different color duct tape and match them between reservoir and container. She did incidentally pour fresh water into the sw reservoir once. Fortunately it was only a day out so not a big deal.

With trident either I make sure there is enough reagent to easily get by by at least 4-5 days.

Also estimate rolllermat usage.
 
L/B Block said:
I will say from experience-find someone you inherently trust. Our house sitter for the dogs is not a reefer but she has done a good job of letting me know when things go astray. Before I had the pressure sensor for the skimmer she would take pics everyday and send. Anything suspicious in the tank she would report as best she could.


That being said- if you have someone refilling ato or saltwater reservoirs -use different color duct tape and match them between reservoir and container. She did incidentally pour fresh water into the sw reservoir once. Fortunately it was only a day out so not a big deal.

With trident either I make sure there is enough reagent to easily get by by at least 4-5 days.

Also estimate rolllermat usage.
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I would tag on and say something obvious have extra rodi water in a buckets or jugs, as well as saltwater. Definitely don't trust a non reefer to mix any properly.
 
I wouldnt make any adjustments to equipment 4 days before my trip just to see how it would perform.

Simulate a power outage and cut all power for 30 minutes to observe if contingency plan comes on as expected. Upon power up, see if you can access your tank remotely again.

All other important things have been covered in earlier post. Emergency saltwater, top off, fleece changes.

I have a second heater I set up for if I go away for 3+ days that is set to 76.5 incase my current one fails. I plumbed a second osmolator nano for Emergency ATO incase and placed it slightly lower than my current one. Instead of running the ato to the reservoir, I'd stick it in a 32 gallon brute. It doesn't have to look pretty while I'm away. Optical sensors to shut it off incase those go bad and start pumping everything in.
 
Test out the larger ato container if you use a larger one. If the water is high enough, a siphon can be created and dump more water than needed. My setup acts this way if I fill my res over the 8g marker height. Not a full siphon but takes a minute for gravity to win/stop the siphon.
 
Patio said:
Test out the larger ato container if you use a larger one. If the water is high enough, a siphon can be created and dump more water than needed. My setup acts this way if I fill my res over the 8g marker height. Not a full siphon but takes a minute for gravity to win/stop the siphon.
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I put an inline check valve on it so it requires a pump for water to flow. First time testing it out I let it run for 2 days and found this out the hard way. Luckily there was no fish or coral in my system yet.

Good call out tho!
 
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