How to feed fish while on vacation?

[TheChad]

Hey all,

I wanted to ask you guys how you feed your fish when you go away for a weekend or a vacation?

I know there are Disolving feeders for freshwater, but I havent seen any for saltwater.

Right now I feed frozen brine shrimp to our copper banded butterfly 3x a day.

Thanks for the help.

-TheChad

 

[Brenden]

If I go away for 2 days they do not get feed. If longer I have someone dump the previously prepareed food into the tank.

Right now I feed frozen brine shrimp to our copper banded butterfly 3x a day.

At best I target fed my CB once a day. (only if I noticed him not eating well when I fed the tank). Buy it some frozed blood worms instead of brine. It will love you for it.

 

[cmor1701d]

I'll let the tank go 3-4 days without feeding. Any more than that I prepare packets with food for a friend who can stop by and throw it in the tank. As I mostly feed blender mush I ask that they thaw it in some tank water first but who knows for sure. Time to hookup the web cam!

 

[TheChad]

He Loves brine shrimp. He also eats mysis shrimp, but I think he likes the brine better.

He is not a problem eater.

-TheChad

 

[Brenden]

Mine never did not eat it just was not as aggressive as the others and got "short changed" sometimes. It will still love the blood worms.

 

[jaiden]

those dissolving things are crap. Best to not feed, or have a caretaker. A couple days won't kill your fish. Just add extra RO to bring the salinnity down a little when you leave, so the evap swing won't be too bad.

 

[Phyl]

We're going away next week. To prepare we've got automated feeders that will put food into the tanks on a daily basis (my tangs like to eat daily or they get nippy) and a friend will put frozen and nori in the tank a couple of times while I'm gone.

I've also prepared an auto topoff with the high/low sensors from autotopoff.com. I'll have a local reefer come by mid week and do a quick battery of tests to make sure that things haven't changed too dramatically while we're gone.

When I prepare food for the friend to put into the tank I always create the portions and have them labeled by tank and by day so that she knows what to put in when.

Then I cross my fingers and Pray for the best!

 

[revhtree]

i do pretty much what everyone else does. To make it easier on the person feeding, while i'm gone i just have them feed flake and nori. If you dont have a tang then you wont need nori of course. I bag it individually and mark it. I feed good the day i leave, then I have my little helper feed every other day after that. I also use a float switch to auto top the tank while I am gone. That is something you need to think about as well.

 

[TheChad]

I've seen those Automatic feeders for Flake food.

Too bad all fish don't just eat flake food!


-TheChad

 

[ellisz]

I will be going to Germany for 11 days in April. I use a top as well but my top water container does not hold 11 days worth! LOL, I need a bigger one.

I might consider getting an auto feeder and just doing flake for the week. I only feed about 3-4 days out of the week so I think it will be ok. I am looking into a web cam to monitor things.

Think ahead for sure!

 

[Phyl]

One of the guys in our club has come up with an auto topoff process where the topoff water is constantly filled by a Kent float valve from the RO/DI. Then there are failsafes in place to prevent over-topping of the water using a kent float valve, a solonoid valve, a float switch and a timer. Since we're only going to be gone 8 days and my water container (a 55g drum) holds 9-11 days worth of water we're not going to worry. We'll top off the top off and the sump well before we leave to make sure that there's enough water in the drum to support the system while we're away.

We got the 55g drums from someone locally who must get them from a manufacturing (food, I think) facility. They're food grade and great. They're somewhat transluscent so you can easily see where the fill line is and they also have roughly 10g marks on the outside to make it even easier!

 

[ellisz]

That is what I need! I am using a clear container that only holds about 15 gal. I try to not have too much in the container unless the float would happen to get stuck on. I do have a 2 float setup to combat this though. I use a 44 gal rubbermaid trash can for the RO/DI water but you can't see through the sides I might use it for the vacation though.

 

[Phyl]

http://www.njreefers.org/forums/index.php/topic,797.0.html

One of the guys in our club (vertically challenged) has a great picture in that thread of him sitting IN the container. You can buy them from US Plastics, but I can't imagine it would be cost effective to ship them!