Preparing to Leave my Tank for a month!!

pray :lol2:

Don't forget to tell him to top off the water. As long as everything else is on timers such as the lights it should be fine. Do you have an extra pump in case your current one breaks? Other than that I think everything should be fine.

Can you be reached while you're gone if some question comes up?

Stress greatly - not to overfeed. Have him show you the amounts. I often leave a little pile of a serving so the feeder can check their serving sizes.

Maybe give him this link for an emergency.

Here is a perfect example of why you should belong to a local club!

kcress said:

Stress greatly - not to overfeed. Have him show you the amounts. I often leave a little pile of a serving so the feeder can check their serving sizes.

Click to expand...

This! .. #1 problem I have read so many times over the years. I have to add, also stress that it is ok to miss a day of feeding if it is unavoidable, but do not double up the food the next feeding because you missed a day. Also tell the person watching the fish that they "always look hungry so don't give in to the urge to keep feeding them". That is another story I read to many times.. "I fed the fish what you said but they still seemed hungry so I kept feeding them until they stopped eating.. 2 hours later".

Also stress the point that Top Off water is FRESH water.. most people can't figure that one out for some reason.. it is a salt water tank so they think they should put saltwater back in when the water level goes down.

Skimmer cleaning .. depending on your skimmer and how quickly it fills up. If someone where watching my tank I would show them how to remove the collection cup, dump it in the sink, rinse out quickly and put back on and tell them to do this 30 second job once a week.

I agree with all of the above, with one more point,
Never do your jobs on the last day, always have a couple of days to spare so you can set or reset any minor problems with plenty of time on your hands to buy and fit spares if the need arises.
Also make sure someone you trust with your fish, who knows what they are doing, is easily reached by your feeder and is in the know about your absence so they can assist if an emergency crops up.
A local lfs worker or owner maybe?

.

When I go out of town and have a friend feed my freshwater tanks I put the food in daily pill-minder boxes... they cost about a buck each at walgreens for the basic 7 day version... Then I put away the extra food...

This way my friend comes in and dumps a compartment, checks that filters are running and all fish are alive, and he is done, no fuss, no muss, no overfeeding