3 week vacation - prep plan?

[ReefMadness]

Originally Posted by Myka

Good call on the pill box. I assume that's the FishMate F14 feeder? Good choice!

I like your plan except I would hire someone with reef experience - preferably a professional company - to check in at least once a week. That person is also a go-to if your buddy isn't sure about something.

i have to agree with this, there is no replacement for someone that can think on their feet and make the right decision should something come up.
otherwise if you do use your friend the only tweak to your plan i would make is to make short cell phone videos for your untrained friend if you can (feeding, emptying skimmate) to save them from issues.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by ReefMadness

i have to agree with this, there is no replacement for someone that can think on their feet and make the right decision should something come up.
otherwise if you do use your friend the only tweak to your plan i would make is to make short cell phone videos for your untrained friend if you can (feeding, emptying skimmate) to save them from issues.

I have had success with writing down a dummy proof list with detailed explanations. I like the thought of the short videos as it will clearly show what it should look like

[corpusse]

Your plan is good, but I'd test out the friend on scraping the glass and if you don't think they can handle it just have them clean enough in the middle to see in.

I don't think you should be concerned about the lack of water change for 23 days unless the primary reason for the water changes is nutrient removal.

I take it you don't dose and water changes are how you maintain your alk / calcium? How much consumption do you normally have? That would be my only concern but if its a lightly stocked tank you are probably fine.

[philg3]

+1 for making video's. I went away for 10 days and had a friend come over to feed the fish and check on the skimmer cup and top off water. Didn't have any issues but my friend said they watched the video I had made them every single day to make sure they didn't forget anything. Good Luck!

[Treebeard]

Any concerns with power outages? When I lose power my big tank is OK because it is on a controller, but the heater on my wife's biocube must be reset back down to 77 because it defaults to 79 when power is restored.

[604reefer]

Didn't have a chance to post a reply before I left.

Thank you all! I got back last night and everything survived except for one rhodactis mushroom, which will only cost $30 to replace - a huge success! My friend was able to follow the modified instructions based on all of your great feedback.

HUGE, HUGE shout out to canreefer Etaloche. Brian bailed me out big time when my friend said I was running out of RODI water for my ATO (miscalculation on my part).

Can't thank the reefers on this forum enough since starting reefing 10 months ago, it's an amazing community to be a part of.