Lonely reef

[TexasState]

What's the longest period had you gone without feeding your reef tank?

What's the longest time had you gone without monitoring your reef tank? (ex: out of town, on vacation, etc.)

[Tim Marvin]

Vinh, this can vary from tank to tank depending on pods, plant growth and so on, but I'd say you are generally pretty safe for 4-5 days if you have an auto top off and timers on everything. You can also pick up a feeder made by Eheim that can feed for a week. (don't quote me on the week though) It is at least 5 days.

[matt]

Tim; does that feeder just do dry food like flake? It would be pretty cool (no pun intended) if it could handle frozen food too.

[Charley]

Lifeguard’s model would only do flake or pellet food. It would be neat to have one that could do frozen. It could dispense the occasional Margarita to the tank viewer as well. :)

[AlienAnchovies]

i have gone like maybe 2 weeks but any longer and my corals look sorta limp and unhappy

[z28pwr]

I had my brother stop by the house to add calcium and feed the fish every other day while I was gone . But the longest I've gone without feeding the fish has been 4 days.

[ratboy]

I have someone check up on my fish and feed them every few days. The problem with the autofeeders is they get moisture in them then the food either goes bad or clumps up and doesnt dispense properly. Ive had experiences with several of the popular brands and all had that drawback.

[MikeP]

My tank is a delicate balance - the corals do ok but there are a few fish that if not fed regularly would likely cause trouble (Harlequin tusk). Next time I go out of town if someone from the club can't babysit I am going to pay someone local to do it. Too much time and effort involved not to for me.

[TexasState]

Well, I've been away from home since about August 10th. I was going to buy those automatic feeder, but I decided that there should be enough pods/shrimps from the sump/refugium(no time to go and buy the feeder.) B4 I left I overfeed the fishes to plumb them up. I didn't ask my roommate to take care of my reef, b/c he could screw up and make thing worse. I have heard of peoples getting their tank scratches up, overfed by inexperienced peoples. I was going to install a GFCI into some of the pump/light b4 I left, but didn't get around to it either. I was going to point a web camera at the tank too, but I never got around to do it either. Hope I still have a reef left when I go back.

[JimD]

IMO, leaving a reeftank un-attended for that long is insane. Id be uncomfortable after two days. Theres just too many things that can go wrong. I seriously hope your livestock didnt suffer much during your absence. Keep us updated.

[captexas]

I've had to go out of town for a week at a time, but have always gotten someone to stop by and top off the water and feed the fish. I have printed up some detailed instructions and always kept my cell phone on incase they need to contact me. I hate leaving though, mostly due to the fish going hungry. Unfortunately, work requires me to travel out of town sometimes so I have to deal with it.
I am going to try to set up an auto top-off on my next tank so I won't have to worry about that issue.

[Tim Marvin]

Eheim has different attachments for dry and liquid dispensing. I am sure you wouldn't want frozen food to sit in there for days......Yuk....
Charley could probably hook you guys up with the feeder or Aquatek has them along with a bunch of online vendors. They are a little expensive but worth it if you forget to feed or are gone often.

[robertpower3]

I left my nano for four weeks with out anything. It looked pretty bad when I got back but every thing lived. My water level dropped 4or 5 inches in a twelve gallon. My tank was all softies and a zebra mat anemone. Also a small red star fish and a few invertebrates. no fish. My skimmer was not working ither when I came back because the water level was so low.

[Tim Marvin]

Robert stop! We can't take anymore!