Preping the tank for a 4 week vacation

[vic622]

Originally Posted by Albertan22

...
Another idea that I've tossing around is maybe putting a heater and several air stones into the DT and powering them from a separate breaker. That way, if the breaker or GFI trips on the regular plug for the tank, I'd at least have heat and oxygen in the tank until my tank sitter arrives and sets things right. These wouldn't be on a GFI though. Would this be a good idea? Am I being paranoid? I've never had problems with triped breakers or GFIs in the past, but better safe than sorry right?

I went to the hardware store and bought a regular GFCI socket, a wall plug box (a plastic one if you can find it) and cut off about 1ft off the end of a 3-prong extension cord (male end).
I ran the cord through one of the knock outs, wired the GFCI onto the extension cord and secured it to the box.
The GFCI even comes with the cover plate.

Voila, instant GFCI protection!
It works, too!
When my Mag 7 crattered 2 months ago, it kept tripping the GFCI and that's how I figured out there was a problem.
Vic
PS: a tip from Holmes on Holmes: Don't feed a GFCI from a circuit that already has a GFCI (like at the breaker). One trips the other and they won't work.
Here's some pic's:

[mark]

What ever you do, have it setup and working well in advance of your trip.

[banditpowdercoat]

Maybe auto feeding a little once a day? Heck, I only feed my fish once a day mainly. Sometimes they get snacks during th day, but mostly, a 6-7PM feeding. Also, I do monthly WC too, not weekly, so you should be fine.

[MrsBugmaster]

yeah, I think you would be fine without the auto feeder. In in wild, fish don't eat everyday.

[BMW Rider]

And don't make any last minute changes or adjustments. Get everthing running stable for at least a week before and let it be. That little tweak just before you leave is the one that ends up causing a problem.

DAMHIK

Most importantly though, enjoy your trip .

[vic622]

Been thinking about autofeeders ... I found out a couple of things when I went away at Christmas.

I use the Nutrafin autofeeders on three of my tanks, 2xFW & the other is on the reef tank.

I like these and have them running all the time - keeps me from forgetting to feed and gives the tanks a consistent feeding amount and feeding time every day. I can't recommend them enough, but I echo the comments about setting them up before hand and having them run for a week to make sure they dispense the amount you want.

They work perfectly on the FW tanks, but I have run into a couple of problems I've run into on the Reef tank.
This is a battery operated feeder. That's not a problem, just make sure you've put in fresh batteries before you head out - They seem to last for months.

The problem is that I have a hood on the reef tank and two things happened:
1. The dry food (flakes & pellets) picked up the humidity from the tank and gummed up inside the feeder in about 1-2 wks. The only way to solve this would be to try the Eheim autofeeder that has some way of drying the food in the container - I've got one on order to try it out.

2. Salt water evaporation + battery connections = corrosion. In order to fix this, I think I'll need to solder extensions to the wires and put the battery holder outside the cover.

[Albertan22]

Good point Vic, I hadn't considered the effect of long term humidity on the autofeeder...