Vacation...tank sitter?

[Heather]

What do you all do for your tanks when you go on vacation?

We'll be gone for a couple weeks in June, probably with no phone or internet connections. We've got a house/dog sitter lined up, and he'll feed the fish & top off water for us. Hopefully he won't overfeed, our little clownfish beg worse than our dog! But I definitely want someone "on call" in case of an emergency and ideally I'd like someone to do a small water change & empty the skimmer cup, maybe scrape a little algae and just make sure things are running properly once or twice while we're gone. Any recommendations or suggestions? Anyone willing to trade...you take care of my tank, I'll take care of yours kind of thing?

[FarmerTy]

What do you all do for your tanks when you go on vacation?

We'll be gone for a couple weeks in June, probably with no phone or internet connections. We've got a house/dog sitter lined up, and he'll feed the fish & top off water for us. Hopefully he won't overfeed, our little clownfish beg worse than our dog! But I definitely want someone "on call" in case of an emergency and ideally I'd like someone to do a small water change & empty the skimmer cup, maybe scrape a little algae and just make sure things are running properly once or twice while we're gone. Any recommendations or suggestions? Anyone willing to trade...you take care of my tank, I'll take care of yours kind of thing?

Hi Heather,

I usually have one of my reef buddies drop by just to check on things and I return the favor when they are out of town. Going to the monthly meetings helps usually connect with some of the people on the club when you can meet them face-to-face. That or the occasional beer:30 we have at random locations just to sit around, have a drink, and nerd out on reefing.

What area of town are you in? I can't see on Tapatalk right now.

Perhaps post your area and there might be someone who lives in that same neighborhood willing to swing by for you and you can return the favor some day down the road.

[Heather]

I'm North Central, near Anderson/Burnet about 1 mile east of Aquatek

I'm planning on going to the May 21st meeting so hopefully I'll meet some people there.

I also work at UT and can probably get a student or two to help out, but June is tough since many of them leave town for the summer. For future reference, if anyone is looking for cheap generally not super skilled (with a few exceptions) help with tanks, I'm happy to post on the UT Marine Science Club page, most of these guys are eager to learn and happy to help.

[Timfish]

Just FYI but I would make up a list of what "NOT to do" as well as a to do list. And I certainly would put overfeeding on the "NOT to do" list. Over the years I've seen well intentioned people religiously follow a list of instruction but not realize doing something not on the list could kill animals, changing/turning off AC/heat and overfeeding being high on the list.

[Sascha D.]

I find it helpful to portion out the food ahead of time. I use one of those pill cases that has the individual compartments. It's easy for someone because they can open one compartment at a time and just dump it in. I bought mine at the dollar store, but it looks like this.