Vacation advice! Leaving my tanks to my clueless room mate...

[burgerchow]

I do it all the time. Just have a 25 gal full of ro water beside the tank and instruct the person to just add water up to the line in the sump ( use black marker to draw line on sump glass). Turn skimmer down a notch ( less chance of overflow) and only feed every other day. Don't add any additives during this time. After 3 weeks, you might come home to a tank that's got a lot of film algae on the glass, but everything else should be ok.

[subman]

make everything simple. Auto feeder ect. unless your leaving soon and can't test anything for a week at least. contact a fellow reefer friend and ask them to check on it. You can return the favor when they go on holidays.

[Coralgurl]

Just got back from a week vacation and left my tanks to my daughter to look after. I had everything ready for her, left instructions etc. I had enough top off water ready, she just had to fill the top off section of the tank. Had enough food made for the fish, and showed her how to feed. I also showed her how to refill the jugs if she needed more water and explained how it all worked. We were accessible if she had any questions or problems, but before I left, I spoke with Kevin at Red Coral and he gave me a card with his number so if she had any problems, she could call him and he was willing to help out. I taped the card to the tank.

Fortunately, no issues and all fish and corals were happy when we returned. Of course, I bought her some gifts, so a case of beer or something nice from Mexico for the roomate may be in order.

Given you are going away longer, you may want another reefer checking on things for you just to help out.

[SandSifter]

If it is possible, get someone from your local LFS to check up on it, it will probably cost you a few bucks but at least you will have some peace of mind.

Just read coralgurls response... Another reefer would work too

[lpsreefer]

The main problem is that there is a lot more then one tank. Well six tanks and one in the making just waiting on the cycling process.
I have auto top offs, auto feeders, and all that.
It just every time I go on vacation I lose a fish. Last time it was due to the fact they didn't fed the tank after the first day.
I got label food in zip lock bags this time. Marked with day and time.

It won't be so bad if I had Internet access to check up on my tanks.
And problems always happen when the lfs are closed.

[burgerchow]

Matt, with 6-7 tanks, I think you need a professional to come in. It wouldn't be fair to your roommate to be responsible for that many tanks. Do you have companies in Calgary that do tank maintenance? Probably cost you a couple hundred bucks for that long a duration, but well worth it in my opinion.

Send nate a pm. He has an aquarium maintenance business in calgary.

[globaldesigns]

find a canreefer member that lives near you to look after things, arrange to also help him/her out also. Many of us do this. Or as others stated, pay for a professional service.

I think you should think about the what if scenario... If something happens, like a return pump failure, will a roommate or someone with no reef experience going to know what to do, who to call, without panicking?